Riddarholmen Church began as a Franciscan project in the 1280s, built after King Magnus Ladulås offered the grey-robed monks generous donations and a plot on Stockholm's smallest island. For two and a half centuries it served the brothers faithfully, until Gustav Vasa abolished Catholicism in 1527 and left the place more or less redundant. It took another king, Gustav II Adolph, to find the building a second career: final resting place for Swedish monarchs. The royals have been accumulating there ever since.

The church's cast-iron steeple, an openwork design that looks almost lace-like against the sky, is one of Stockholm's most recognisable silhouettes. Nobody lives on Riddarholmen now. The island belongs to government offices, courts and the dead kings below the nave.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the founding legends of Stockholm through this island, from a runaway boy and a stolen salmon to a gold-filled log that drifted here across Lake Mälaren.