Diplomatstaden
The diplomatic city in Stockholm ( Diplomatstaden i Stockholm ) is an exclusive residential district in the Östermalm district in the capital of Sweden . The remarkable thing about this unofficial part of the city is the dozen palatial villas that were built during the 1910s and 1920s and which house various diplomatic missions , hence the name "Diplomatstaden".
Geographical location
The diplomatic town has no officially defined borders and initially only included the original residential area. Today one also counts the neighboring area with some foreign embassies . The area is located north of Djurgårdsbrunnsviken in the Östermalm district.
The city plan
In 1911 the architect Ferdinand Boberg drew drafts for a monumental Nobel palace in honor of Alfred Nobel , but this plan was never realized and only the names "Nobelpark" and "Nobelstrasse" ( Nobelgatan ) in the area remind of it.
In the years 1911–1914, the town planner Per Olof Hallman drew a development plan for exclusive single-family houses east of Nobel Park. On his plan from 1911 you can see the property (red) for the Nobel Palace and (brown) the first part of the villa settlement. This city plan is still valid today (2008).
Hallman arranged eleven lots around the English Church ( Engelska kyrkan ) in a fan shape in a semicircle . In the development plan, criteria such as the permitted size of the living space, the construction distance to the neighboring property, the external shape of the villas and the like were specified. The facades were to consist mainly of red brick , which gave the settlement a uniform character.
The villa settlement
The stately villas were all built between 1913 and 1927 and were designed by the most prominent architects in the country at the time, including Ragnar Östberg (architect of Stockholm stadshus ), Carl Westman (architect of Stockholm rådhus ) and Ivar Tengbom (architect of Stockholm Konserthus ) .
In the beginning, it was wealthy private individuals who ordered representative private villas with plenty of space for themselves and space for numerous servants and who placed great value on discretion. The first villa was built in 1913 for the banker Philip Geber and was designed by Ragnar Östberg. Architectural style elements for the Stockholm stadshus, which is being created at the same time, are unmistakable. Inside the building there are arcades and a fountain decorated with sculptures by Carl Milles .
The first "diplomatic villa" was built in 1915 for the British embassy and was designed by Sir Richard Allison. In 1921 Ivar Tenbom drew the Villa Tillberg, which is now the South Korean embassy . The embassies of the USA , Turkey and Hungary are planning further buildings . One of the last villas was ready to move in in 1927, Ragnar Östberg had it for the publisher Åke Bonnier the Elder. designed. The villa was handed over to the Swedish state in a will in 1981 and is now used for representative purposes.
The messages
After the Second World War, six embassies for the USA, Norway , Great Britain , Germany , Japan and Finland settled north of the villa settlement . These are not villas, but modern office complexes. One of the first was the embassy for Norway (1952) and the newest embassy building is that for Finland (2001).
In 1975 the German Embassy (then for West Germany ) caused a stir in the media when the Stockholm hostage-taking took place here on April 24 , in which two members of the embassy and two hostage-takers were killed. The building underwent a major renovation from 2007 to 2010. The embassy moved into a building on Artillerigatan for that time.
Historical pictures
Villa giver
Tryggerska villan
View of Diplomatstaden
Bünsowska villan
Web links
Coordinates: 59 ° 19 ′ 57.1 ″ N , 18 ° 6 ′ 11.6 ″ E