The Bronze Warrior Carved from Stone: A Monument to Sten Sturemonumentet

For twenty years, a bronze warrior was crafted in an Uppsala workshop by Carl Milles. The statue was originally designed to be a competition piece for a monument to Sten Sture the Elder, a medieval warlord who fought for the independence of Sweden. Although Milles' statue came fourth in the competition, he did not forget his dream. In 1919, he was commissioned to create a monument to Sten Sture the Elder by the University and students in Uppsala.

However, this statue would not be of Sten Sture the Warrior, but of Sten Sture the Martyr. Louis Wieskovesky, the winner of the competition to design it, commissioned Milles to create the statue. The statue won the prize for the best structure of the twenty statues. Work began on the statue in 1919, but there were protests. Students claimed that the statue for Sten Sture the Martyr belonged at the centre of town, not where it was positioned, far from the city centre on a hill called Kronåsen.

Eventually, the statue was transported to its site, with Milles reworking it to match his vision: a bronze warrior carved from stone, with Sten Sture's head at the top. The pedestal was carved with faces of stone and faces of students, with the inscription 'Sten Sturemonumentet, created by the students of Sweden' etched on it. However, the statue was not a monument to the warlord Sten Sture the Elder, although he would be forever linked to it. The statue was a monument to the students who had started the movement for his memorial.

Sten Sture the Elder died in 1497, and his body was laid to rest in Kronåsen, near to the new statue. The statue was unveiled in 1925, with Milles being invited by the students to attend the event. The statue serves as a tribute to the students who expressed their artistic desires and their desire to remember Sten Sture the Elder.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons