Arvfurstens palats

The palace as it stands is an accretion of a mid-17th-century brick Renaissance house and a late-18th-century extension. The earlier brick building, done in the German–Dutch Renaissance manner, was retained as a side wing when the later expansion added a quay-facing wing and reoriented the principal façade toward Gustav Adolfs torg. The principal elevation rises from a unified block with smooth surfaces and large simple motifs that reflect the period taste of the late 1700s.

A prominent Renaissance sandstone portico on the northern side survives as a restored element. The portico dates to the 1640s and was returned in the 20th century to the appearance it had in the mid-17th century; an identical portico stands at the courtyard elevation. Both porches were executed in carved sandstone and have been conserved as architectural statements linking the later palace to its Renaissance ancestor.

One interior space preserves a direct physical link to the Torstensson house. The former kitchen from the 17th-century building remains and is in use as the office of the Chief of Protocol. The room retains its original sequence within the older wing, and its continuity demonstrates how an operational service space was adapted for modern administrative use.

The dining suite known today as Matsalen was formed by uniting three rooms that once belonged to the Torstensson layout. This joining took place in the mid-18th century to create a single large chamber intended for formal dinners and conferences. The space has therefore shifted function from domestic rooms to a representative assembly hall and continues to read as a ceremonial dining or meeting room.

Several principal reception rooms on the piano nobile preserve period fittings and decorative schemes. The Great, or Blue, Salon occupies the central position and contains cut-glass chandeliers, two stoves carved from sandstone, and textiles in a blue-and-white scheme that date to the palace’s late-18th-century furnishing phase. Sculptural portrait busts of the royal patrons and four donated sculptures are installed in the room; during the Second World War the chamber was used for archival storage and was later restored for formal receptions.

The Audience or Red Salon retains carved wood ornament executed by known 18th-century craftsmen and carries a historic ceremonial arrangement: the princess once received visitors while seated on a gilt throne beneath a draped canopy, and a royal coat of arms surmounted by a princess’s crown is placed above the four doorways. Today this salon serves as an office for the ministry’s press function, its carvings and spatial hierarchy preserved within an administrative setting.

The drawing room preserves wall frameworks originally produced to surround the princess’s needlework and now fitted with wallpaper, and it contains two desks from the 17th century, one of which includes an elaborate inkstand that was once intended as a courtly gift. Since the ministry moved in, this room has been used by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, combining historic furniture with contemporary office use.

The former private chamber that served as the princess’s bedroom and later as a waiting room is now the office of the Under‑secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It retains period furnishings from the princess’s time, a painting titled Belshazzar’s Banquet, and a Rococo cabinet bearing the Swedish coat of arms in bronze, all of which attest to continuity of interior decoration from the palace’s aristocratic phase into its present governmental role.