Katarina Church Stockholm, Lutheran church in Södermalm, Sweden
Katarina Church is a Greek-cross church on Södermalm, built 1656–1695 to Jean de la Vallée's design, with a central tower. Its ochre walls with white pilasters date from 1784; the octagonal tower, 72 m high, carries a ribbed dome and a white lantern with a golden cross. Inside, white walls rise to a ribbed barrel vault above grey open pews.
A chapel called Sturekapellet stood on the site from 1590 and was demolished in the 1650s, its material reused. Jean de la Vallée designed the new church, built with interruptions from 1656 to 1695 as Sweden's first central-plan church. After the 1723 fire, Göran Josuæ Adelcrantz rebuilt it with a taller octagonal tower, consecrated on 18 October 1724. A second fire on 17 May 1990 left only the outer walls; Ove Hidemark led the reconstruction, and Bishop Henrik Svenungsson reconsecrated the church in 1995.
The name comes from Princess Catherine, mother of Charles X Gustav. The parish gave its name to the Katarina-Sofia borough. In the cemetery around the church are buried Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, singer Cornelis Vreeswijk, footballer Sven Bergqvist, rapper Einár and Sten Sture the Elder.
The church stands at Högbergsgatan 13 on eastern Södermalm, its 72-metre tower visible from afar. The main entrance is on the south side, reached by the double flight of Karl XII's Stair, built 1712–1715. The surrounding cemetery, where Anna Lindh and Cornelis Vreeswijk are buried, is open to walkers.
The tower clock is set by GPS from the atomic clock in Frankfurt, replacing the early 19th-century mechanical movement lost in the 1990 fire. The four bells, cast in 1991–1992 at M & E Ohlsson in Ystad, reuse metal from the originals, and the great bell keeps its 1724 clapper.
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