St Nicholas Church, popularly known as the Great Church, is the oldest church in Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town. Its building is an important example of Gothic Swedish brick construction. The church is located next to the Royal Palace, and to the south of it is the Stock Exchange building, facing Stortorget Square, which in turn houses the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Library and the Nobel Museum.
St Nicholas Church is first mentioned in written records from 1279 and was originally built by Jarl Birger, the founder of the city itself. For nearly four centuries it was the only parish church in the city, and after the Reformation in 1527 the cathedral was made Lutheran.
Largely due to its convenient location and proximity to the former royal castle and the modern royal palace, St Nicholas Church has often been the scene of major events in Swedish history, such as coronations, royal weddings and royal funerals. The last coronation that took place here was the coronation of Oscar II in 1873. Crown Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, married Daniel Westling on 19 June 2010 in St. Nicholas Church. It took place in the same place and on the same day as her parents' marriage in 1976.
The most famous of the church's treasures is the wooden statue of St George and the dragon by Bernto Notke (1489). The statue, which commemorates the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471, also serves as a reliquary of the relics of St George and two other saints. The church houses a copy of one of the oldest and most famous images of Stockholm, the painting Vadersolstavlan (The False Sun); this copy dates from 1632 and the lost original from 1535. The painting was commissioned by the scientist and reformer Olaf Petrie. It depicts a halo, a false sun, which gave the painting its name, and in the 16th century was interpreted as a portent of dire future events.
