From Duce to decadence: the strange tale of the Tyresö Palace

“Tyresö Palace – Nordic Museum”, published in 2016, is a tourist guide to Tyresö Slott in Stockholm, Sweden, and its immediate surroundings. Since 1932, the palace belongs to the Nordic Museum, founded by 19^th century ethnographer Artur Hazelius (who also created Skansen). I recently visited and found it…strange. The last owner had a weird obsession with Marie Antoinette, the 18^th century French queen executed during the French Revolution. If you want to see 20+ portraits of said Marie Antoinette, Tyresö Palace is definitely the place for you! Yes, one little engraving even shows her execution at the hands of the evil revolutionaries. There are also many portraits of Catholic popes and cardinals, and one photo of Mussolini. Yes, *that* Mussolini.

Clearly, not what you expect to find at a Swedish “palace” (I suspect a British lord would refer to the premises as “manor”)!

I was glad that I picked up this little book at a bookstore in nearby Tyresö Centrum, since it explains a thing or two. The palace was originally built during the Swedish “Great Power period”, and belonged to the ultra-illustrious Oxenstierna and De La Gardie families. Often, it was inherited on the female line (strange, I´ve been told by my politically correct teacher that Swedish women didn´t have inheritance rights until the late 1800´s, Muslim women of course getting them already under Muhammad). The palace has been rebuilt so many times that it´s not *really* a 17^th century building anymore, rather it´s a bewildering and eclectic combination of many different Revival styles. I have no idea what they are called, but I suppose we could call them Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Gustavian. The Rococo interiors are real, though (including a Chinese tapestry). And yes, the present look of the palace is due to American wealth!

The last owner of Tyresö slott, Claes Lagergren, was a late 19^th century Swedish businessman of farmer stock (well-to-do farmers, presumably). He was something of a maverick, had a fascination with the old European aristocracy, and converted to Roman Catholicism during a visit to Rome in 1880. This was at a time when most Swedes still considered Catholicism politically and religiously suspect, Sweden being a Protestant nation (with growing pockets of secularism here and there). Lagergren become papal chamberlain (!) in 1884, and five years later Pope Leo XIII officially ennobled him, giving him the title of marquis. Serving as a kind of diplomat between the Vatican and Sweden (this was before the Vatican became a soverign state), he also supported the Bridgettine Order of Elisabeth Hasselblad. His money made it possible for the Bridgettines to acquire Saint Bridget´s old house at Piazza Farnese in Rome. This of course explains both the Catholic portraits at Tyresö Palace (including of Saint Bridget or Birgitta, the famous Swedish 14^th century mystic who moved to Rome) and the infatuation with the French aristocracy. The only known portrait painting of 16^th century pro-Catholic Swedish king Johan III actually painted during the king´s lifetime also hangs at the palace, Lagergren apparently acquiring it in Rome.

Did I say “his” money? Well, not entirely his money…

In 1891, Lagergren married a super-rich American, Caroline Russell (later Caroline Lagergren), a member of a prominent New York business family with interests in banking, shipping and railway transport. It was thanks to her money that the Lagergrens could acquire Tyresö Palace and the enormous estate surrounding it. The restoration and/or rebuilding of the palace were also made possible by Caroline´s substantial wealth. Claes Lagergren´s newly minted aristocratic title gave the couple access to the Swedish crème-de-la-crème, including Prince Eugen who periodically lived at their estate and even established an artists´ colony there. (Eugen was a “Symbolist” painter otherwise mostly known for his connection to Waldemarsudde.) After Caroline´s death, Claes married another rich American, which enabled him to continue the lavish lifestyle. The palace was bequeathed to the Nordic Museum at Lagergren´s death in 1930 (officially taken over two years later).

One thing that struck me when visiting Tyresö slott was the (fairly typical) combination of ultra-conservatism and decadence. Lagergren was on a friendly basis with the painters around Eugen, including Anders Zorn (something not mentioned in the info booklet). Zorn, notorious for his paintings of nude women, was apparently something of a pornographer in private as well, telling lewd stories in drunken condition at Lagergren´s dinner parties, after having first tasted roasted peacock (the favorite dish of the marquis). It sounds weird that a papal chamberlain and admirer of Duce would have a guy like this over for dinner, but there you go! It´s also interesting to note that a huge portrait of Madame Le Pompadour adorns one of the many walls of the palace…

“Tyresö Palace – Nordic Museum” also contains information about a very different world: that of the peasants and servants working at the estate. Many of the peasants were crofters, and all of them seem to have been dirt poor, or nearly so, living in run-down houses literally infested with bugs. Once Caroline came down to a peasant who had just given birth, giving her some blankets – something unprecedented at the time. It seems the marquis missed the social encyclical of Leo XIII.

With that, I end this little blog post.