Katarina Kyrka is a very visited and recommended culture attraction for tourists coming to Stockholm
Located of Södermalm is the majestic baroque Katarina Kyrka, built in 1656 – 1695. This church is one of the most important baroque Lutheran churches in the whole of Scandinavia, even despite the fact that the present building is not the original.
It was King Carl X. Gustav which hired Jean de la Vallee for the project, an architect of French descent. De la Vallee designed, upon the King's request, a centralized building on the ground plan of a Greek cross, i.e. a cross with four arms of equal length. The dome emphasizes the centralized shape.
Inside, the new table-shaped altar is placed in the middle underneath the dome, not exactly in the geometrical centre, though, but in front of the eastern arm or chancel, while the pulpit is attached to a corner of the crossing. The church has no galleries except for the organ. The 'arm' behind the altar serves as chancel and hosts the frame of the large baroque altarpiece, which now contains a modern cross.
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