Riddarholmen

This guide to Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm follows the spire above you through generations of repair, starting with the night in 1835 when lightning burned its original wooden spire to the ground. You'll hear why sculptor Erik Gustaf Göthe chose to rebuild it in cast iron rather than wood, and what a well-meaning restoration crew left behind decades later. It traces the relay of craftsmen who have kept this exact spot in brick and iron since Franciscan friars built here eight centuries ago.