Sjømannskirken i Stockholm

Rate this place

Alexander C.

Level 30 Local Expert

The Church of the sailors. Another name is the church of Crown Princess Merta (Marta). Protestant church, belongs to the Church of Norway. It performs not only religious functions, but also serves as a club for Scandinavian sailors and provides assistance to them if necessary. It was consecrated in 1976. In front of the church is a monument to Merthe, Crown Princess of Norway. Merta belonged to the Swedish royal family and was the niece of King Gustav V. In 1929, she married Crown Prince Olof, heir to the Norwegian throne. In 1940, during the German occupation of Norway, she called on Norwegian women to mobilize and resist. King Haakon of Norway and his son (Merta's husband) stayed in Norway to fight the enemy, and later they moved to London. Murtha and her young children managed to cross to Sweden. However, her Swedish relatives met her with hostility - they were afraid of a conflict between Sweden and Germany. There was even a plan to give them to the Germans for the coronation of three-year-old Prince Harald as the new king of Norway. Then President Roosevelt, who was personally acquainted with the Crown Prince's family, sent a warship that took Merta and the children to the United States through the Finnish port of Petsamo. In Washington, she represented the Norwegian government in exile, providing great assistance to her country. Upon her return to Norway, Merta was proclaimed the "mother of the nation." She died in 1952, at the age of 53, without waiting for her husband to ascend the throne. In addition to Stockholm, monuments to Merthe have been erected in Oslo and Washington.

See original · Русский

Sjømannskirken i Stockholm

1 review