The Tower That Arrived First

The first cathedral was built here in the 1200s. During the 1300s and 1400s, the church was expanded in all directions. The tower is over a hundred meters high and has had both a medieval spire and a Renaissance dome with a spire, which were destroyed in fires. The current Baroque spire from 1694 was funded by King Charles XI and designed by one of the most famous architects in Sweden, Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. The tower can sway up to a meter in strong winds, but because the wooden construction is flexible, the tower withstands these deviations. It is said that the people of Västerås did not trust the safety of the tower at first and avoided walking and staying near it. They braced it with shores and angled it against the wind, and complained to the king. Tessin managed to convince the king that the townspeople were wrong, and the king ordered that all supports be removed so as not to destroy the architect's creation.

Gustav Vasa's son Erik XIV is buried in the church. It is said that his brother poisoned him with pea soup. A myth? Probably not. In 1958, the sarcophagus was opened for an examination which showed a high content of arsenic in Erik's body. Erik was first buried under the floor in the ambulatory, and his grave was visible only as a small elevation of the floor. In 1797, however, it was decided that a sarcophagus that King Gustav III had originally ordered for himself should be moved to Erik XIV.

Other prominent personalities in Sweden buried in the cathedral are Gustav Vasa's chancellor Peder Swart, the professor Johannes Rudbeckius, the provincial governor Svante Nilsson (Sture), the financier Simon Depken, and the councillor and first president of the Svea Court of Appeal Magnus Brahe.

Bonus detail: On March 2, 1884, electricity was drawn for the lighting in Västerås Cathedral, and to see this miracle, one had to pay an entrance fee of 50 öre for people of status and 10 öre for laborers and children.

Website: https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/vasteras/vasteras-domkyrka

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