Stora Skuggan

This guide to Stora Skuggan in Stockholm centers on Abraham Niclas Edelcrantz, King Gustav the Third's secretary and keeper of the royal treasury, and the joke he built into the park's name for how he handled bills he preferred not to pay. It follows him from an inventive career, including a shutter-based long-distance signaling system, to the English-style villa and palm house he built here as a retreat after the king's assassination in 1792. Look for the marble memorial by the old orangery that still credits him by name for these fields and buildings.