S:t Eriks kapell, Ingegerdsleden

St. Erik's Chapel, A staircase that leads to St. Erik.

On the northern part of Kungsholmen's promenade, at the height of Bonniers konstmuseum on the other side of Klara sjö, we pass a sky-high staircase. At its foot is an oval pond with a fountain. The one-hundred-step staircase is flanked in the middle by two towers. A stone statue in the shape of a map and an arena theater, with twelve one-and-a-half-meter-high half-turned facial profiles, greets us when we reach almost the top. The profiles have several names carved into the rusty thick iron plate. After a few more steps, a pair of equally tall iron balls lie at the side of the stairs. Where the stairs end, we are met by a transverse road called Grubben's Ring, which runs through a residential area in a post-modernist architecture. It's all a bit mysterious and reminiscent of Tolkien's world. But to see what's on the other side, we still have to venture across the ring. We are greeted not by a grand temple, as we might have expected, but by a lush park with an old lime avenue and a small chapel hidden under tall maples and chestnuts. Further into the park is an information board where the riddle is finally solved. Grubben was not an evil troll, but the name of a merchant who owned the land from the mid-18th to the early 19th century. In his day, the area was home to tobacco farms, gardens and rope factories. In the mid-19th century, an institution was built here for the poor, unemployed and weak, known as the 'breadwinners'. It was popularly named Grubbens after the former landowner. The text on the information board tells of a time of poverty, disease and madness. Healthy people, including children, were mixed with convalescent centers and the sick. To accommodate more and more people, three-storey beds were built in halls with 100-160 residents. But even the madness has an end and from 1926 the institution is called St. Erik's Hospital with medical care in a more modern sense. Today, a medical center and an eye clinic remain of the hospital. In 1985, the city decided to build housing on the site. Two arched buildings form a ring, Grubben's ring, in the middle of which is the old hospital park. The old hospital chapel built in 1912 was moved here. In connection with the move, St. Erik's chapel was donated by the county council to Kungsholm parish. The two towers are residential. The stone map shows how the complex looked in 1897. The mysterious facial profiles with the many names are a work of art made by Sivert Lindblom. He has called his work "Skådespel" and with the names he has tried to restore and honor the thousands of poor people who once populated Grubbens. Suddenly, everything has been explained.

From "Ingegerdsleden: Pilgrimage route for spirituality, culture and peace" published by the Church of Sweden. Available as PDF: https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/filer/Ingegerdsleden_bok.pdf