Drottningholm Palace Theatre
Court theatre of 1766 with its original stage machinery, in the grounds of Drottningholm Palace.
Drottningholm Palace Theatre was built for Queen Lovisa Ulrika by the court architect Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz and opened in 1766, replacing an earlier wooden theatre that had burned down in 1762. Its heyday came under Gustav III, but after his assassination in 1792 the building fell out of use and was left largely untouched for more than a century. It was rediscovered in 1921 by the theatre historian Agne Beijer, who found the original scenery and machinery still in place beneath the dust.
The theatre is the best preserved eighteenth-century playhouse in the world, and forms part of the Drottningholm World Heritage Site inscribed by UNESCO in 1991. The auditorium seats about 400 and is finished in papier-mâché and painted wood imitating marble. Hand-operated wooden machinery below and above the stage still changes the painted wing flats in seconds and produces wave, thunder and cloud effects. Summer performances of baroque and classical opera are given by candle-style lighting with period instruments.
Highlights
- The best preserved 18th-century theatre in the world, opened in 1766
- Original hand-operated wooden stage machinery, still in use
- Around 30 sets of painted wing flats from the 18th century
- Part of the Drottningholm UNESCO World Heritage Site
