In the side chapel of the Protestant Uppsala Cathedral is the magnificent 16th-century tomb of Catherine Jagiellon. She was the daughter of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and the wife of John III Vasa, King of Sweden.

Uppsala

In the picturesque and verdant Swedish city of Uppsala, there is an important Polish track among the wealth of historical threads. It is no exaggeration to say that there is a hidden key to understanding an important phase of Polish history here - the presence and fate of the Vasa dynasty on the Polish throne.

Uppsala is distinguished by its historic character and rich cultural traditions. Its origins can be traced back to prehistoric times, and the oldest settlement (3rd-12th century) is associated with today's suburban settlement of Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala). It was also here that Sweden's first archbishopric was situated in 1164. In its present location, the city developed in the Middle Ages, and a measure of the importance of the centre of power and religious worship is the magnificent Gothic cathedral (sw. Uppsala Domkyrka), which since 1536 has been the temple of the Swedish Protestant Church, established by King Gustav I Vasa in the spirit of the Reformation and Martin Luther's ideas. Associated with the tradition of royal coronations and burials, the cathedral is one of Sweden's most valuable pieces of cultural heritage.

Royal tombstones in Uppsala Cathedral

Uppsala's landscape is dominated by the medieval cathedral - Scandinavia's tallest (118.7 m) religious building. The church's present-day appearance is the result of restoration work carried out between 1885 and 1893 by the architect Helgo Zettervall (1831-1907). At that time, a stylistic revision of the building was carried out in the spirit of the 19th century conservation doctrine known as purism. This trend was pioneered by the French architect and restorer Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, whose work sought to show the ideal stylistic form of medieval buildings cleansed (hence purism) of later compositional layers.

Despite this conception of the monument, the cathedral retains valuable furnishings from various periods, including the magnificent modern royal tomb of the Vasa dynasty. These include the tombs of St Erik IX (c. 1120- c. 1160), king of Sweden from 1156 to 1160, and Gustav I Vasa (1496-1560), the progenitor of the dynasty, who reigned from 1523 to 1560. John III Vasa (1537-1592), son of Gustav I, king of Sweden from 1568 to 1592 and husband of Catherine Jagiellon, is also laid to rest in the former chapel of St Mary's, in the royal mausoleum. Queen Katherine of the Jagiellonian family, as a Catholic, was buried separately, away from members of the royal family. The medieval sacristy and chapterhouse were converted into her burial chapel at the end of the 16th century.

Catherine Jagiellon - Duchess of Finland (1562-1583) and Queen of Sweden (1568-1583)

Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583) was the daughter of the Polish King Sigismund I the Old and Bona Sforza, sister of King Sigismund II Augustus. She was first unsuccessfully courted by Tsar Ivan the Terrible and then in 1562 by John Vasa, Duke of Finland. The royal wedding took place in Vilnius, from where the newlyweds set off for Finland, where they settled in a castle in Turku.

Soon Jan's brother, King Erik XIV of Sweden (1533-1577, reigned 1560-1568) imprisoned the couple at Gripsholm Castle on Lake Melar.

Biographers report that Catherine did not take up the offer to return to Poland, knowingly sharing the fate of her imprisoned husband. In Gripsholm their only son Sigismund, later Sigismund III king of Poland, was born (1566). After the overthrow in 1568 of the insane Eric XIV, the throne of Sweden and the sovereignty of Finland fell to Catherine and John III Vasa.

In Swedish history, Catherine Jagiellon went down in history as an advocate of Catholicism and patron of the Jesuits, which did not bring her sympathy in Protestant society. Under her influence, John III Vasa tried to bring Catholics and Protestants together, but without lasting results. At the same time, the Queen is portrayed in accounts as a balanced diplomat, devoted partner of the royal spouse and patron of the poor. She is credited with transplanting Renaissance Italian artistic tastes to the Swedish soil and with strengthening the European seriousness of the Vasa dynasty. The fact that her son Sigismund was the grandson of Sigismund I the Old prevailed in the electoral competition with the Habsburgs in 1587 and opened the way for the Vasa dynasty to the Polish throne.

Tombstone of Queen Katarzyna Jagiellonka

Catherine Jagiellon died in 1583. On the initiative of King John III Vasa, her tombstone was placed in a separate chapel in Uppsala Cathedral. It is a two-bay Gothic structure, covered with a cross-ribbed vault, adjacent to the cathedral chancel to the north. To the east of it begins a series of chapels of the ambit (circumambulation of the chancel).

The sarcophagus of Catherine Jagiellon is located at the western wall of the chapel, so that the statue of the lying queen faces the altar. The wall behind the tombstone is decorated with an ornamental stucco decoration with a rollwork motif, i.e. an ornament resembling a spatial composition of forms cut from a metal strip with bent or spirally curled ends.

Immediately behind the burial tomb (chest), one can see an arch supported by two columns reminiscent of the triumphal arch motif, in the light of which gilded plaques with sepulchral inscription and shields with heraldic motifs were placed. The composition is dominated by a centrally placed Swedish coat of arms under a royal crown held by a pair of crowned lions.

The royal tombstone is set perpendicular to the west wall. The full-plastic white marble sculpture depicts the queen reclining in rich court dress, with a crown on her head and her hands folded in a gesture of prayer. The quadrilateral tomb box is decorated with gilded columns placed in the corners. The sides of the sepulcher bear the Swedish coat of arms - the Three Crowns - on one side, and a four-part shield with the coat of arms of the Republic of Poland - the Polish Eagle and the Lithuanian Pahonia - on the other.

The sarcophagus was funded by Catherine's husband, King John III Vasa, and executed in 1584 by Willem Boy (1520-1590), a Flemish artist active in Sweden between 1558 and 1592. He was also the author of the sarcophagus of Gustav I Vasa and his wives in the Vasa Chapel in Uppsala Cathedral.

In the floor of the chapel, in front of the tombstone, there is a marble slab with the coat of arms. The five-divided shield surmounted by the royal crown contains the coats of arms of Sweden - the Three Crowns and the Lion of Folkung - and of the Republic - the Polish Eagle and the Lithuanian Pogo - with the Sforza heraldic serpent in the central field. The panel closes the descent to the burial crypt where Queen Catherine Jagiellon is laid to rest.

On the opposite, eastern side of the chapel rises the magnificent tombstone of King John III Vasa. It is the work of the Gdansk master Willem van den Blocke (c. 1550-1628). Its founder was Sigismund III Vasa, son of the royal couple and Polish king. Interestingly, the tombstone was made between 1593 and 1596 in Gdansk and, due to royal debts and changes in the political situation, could not reach Sweden for a long time. It was not until 1817-1818 that the monument was assembled in its present location, placing it opposite Queen Catherine's tombstone. This emphasised the intimacy of the monarchs. The King's tombstone does not rise above his burial place, as John III Vasa was laid to rest next to his father, in the Vasa Chapel.

Above the royal tombstones there are painted views of two cities - above Catherine's resting place there is a panorama of Krakow, and above Jan III's tombstone there is a panorama of Stockholm. Krakow is depicted on the basis of a woodcut by the Nuremberg historian and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440-1492) published in the 1493 World Chronicle. Stockholm, on the other hand, described by the Latin name Holmia, was depicted on the basis of an image of the city according to a painting called Vädersolstavlan showing the optical phenomenon of a halo, observed over Stockholm on 20 April 1535.

In the cathedral treasury (museum) in Uppsala are the crown and sceptre of Queen Catherine Jagiellon, excavated from her tomb during restoration work.

Significance

Catherine Jagiellon's tombstone in Uppsala Cathedral is a testament to Polish-Swedish political contacts in the 16th century and to the dynastic royal relationship of the Jagiellonian and Vasa families. These relationships formed the basis for Sigismund III Vasa's successful bid for the Polish throne, and were a stumbling block in his later conflicts with Sweden over his rights to the throne after his father.

It can be said that the marriage of Sigismund I the Old's daughter Catherine Jagiellon to John III Vasa was an event that indirectly influenced the fate of both states in the long run of the 17th century. At the same time, the royal tombstones are valuable works of art of the late 16th century, and the sepulchral chapel connects the history of the cathedral with the conservation concepts of the successive interior arrangements.