Stockholm: In search of... Gustav III

Adrian Mourby recalls the rebel king who built opera houses and inspired Verdi

I thought all Swedish kings were called Gustav. Why's he so special?

Not many monarchs get to create their own style of furniture, design new costumes for the ladies of the court, build opera houses and perform six-hour French comedies in front of a captive audience. Gustav was the Kenneth Branagh of his day, only whereas Ken only irritates the critics Gustav upset the aristocracy, not just by his amateur dramatics but by curtailing their power, proclaiming religious tolerance and wasting a huge sum on a war with Russia which, while fought in pretty uniforms, achieved absolutely nothing. It is typical of Gustav though that when the nobility had had enough and assassinated him during a masked ball, Verdi turned the whole thing into an opera with the likes of Jussi Bjorling and Placido Domingo playing the amorous tragic king.

So, Gustav was one for the ladies?

If you believe Un ballo in maschera – but contemporary accounts suggest Gustav was much more one for the boys. Visit the Paviljong he built for himself in Haga Park, just north of Stockholm, and you'll see that the King has a ground-floor bedroom with lots of secret staircases to aid the ingress of pageboys while Queen Sofia Magdalena was given a little room under the eaves. Admittance to Gustav's weekend retreat was strictly by invitation and hers never arrived. Gustav's favourite architect, Louis Jean Desprez, built him numerous follies here – a stable block that looks like a giant Roman battle tent and an al fresco dining room, the Ekotemplet, which is cleverly constructed so Gustav could overhear all his guests' conversations. Nearby are the foundations of a new neo-classical royal palace – building was abandoned after the assassination.

What was wrong with the old palace?

Have you seen Stockholm's Kungliga Slottet? It suffers from the ambition of Sweden's leading court architect, Nicholas Tessin the Younger, who decided to create a truly monumental residence that wouldn't seem out of place in Paris or St Petersburg. Unfortunately it just looks like an enormous bank. The modern royal family won't live there any more and the most time Gustav actually spent in his state bedchamber was the two weeks it took him to die after he was shot in the nearby opera house. You can see his costume in the palace museum. Although everyone was supposed to be anonymous at the ball, Gustav gave himself away by making sure his outfit was nicer than everyone else's. There are also Gustav portraits and busts plus a gallery of his Italian statues which has been set up in the east wing's Museum of Antiquities. These were souvenirs of Gustav's extended trip to Rome where he gorged himself on culture and gastronomy. Leaving Sweden in 1783 as a lop-sided aesthete Gustav returned nearly two years later rather podgy and with an Apollo fixation. He immediately commissioned that Renaissance Paviljong and decorated it with images of himself as the Greek god. He also set about creating Swedish opera, writing the libretti himself.

And I suppose he built all the opera houses too?

Only some of them. Opera seems to have been a particular passion of 18th century Swedish queens. Lovisa Ulrica built two auditoriums at Drottningholm and Ulrica Eleanora one at Ulriksdal. Gustav followed the maternal tradition, building two more, one in Gripsholm and another in Stockholm where he was to be shot in 1792. Drottningholm is the most worth visiting as it was shut up by Gustav's son after the assassination and pretty much forgotten until the 1920s when the royal family discovered they had a fully working Baroque theatre in the garden shed. The whole island of Drottningholm is now a Unesco world heritage site. Gustav used to spend the long Swedish summers here and the bedroom he slept in is like a theatre set in its own right. Built originally for Hedvig Eleanora, the room is still referred to as the Queen's bedroom despite the fact that Gustav famously used it for his morning levees.

He does sound suspiciously like a gay Prince Regent...

And was just as vain. Portraits and statues abound in Stockholm but the sweetest is a Drottningholm pastel which shows Gustav as a baby with a padded cap to protect his skull – his face was lopsided because he'd been damaged at birth. If you are determined to cram in every last bit of Gustaviana don't miss the Wrangelska Palace on Riddarholmen, the place where he was born and where his assassin Captain Anckarstrom was kept manacled before being flogged for three solid days. On his death bed Gustav asked that no witch hunt follow his death and indeed Anckarstrom was the only conspirator executed. Verdi liked this touch and has the dying king admonishing all at the ball not to seek to avenge his death.

He sounds more fun than your average Scandinavian king. How do I get there?

Fly from Heathrow to Stockholm Arlanda with SAS Scandinavian Airlines (0845 6072 7727) from £127 return; also depart from Gatwick and Manchester. British Airways (0845 77 333 77, www.ba.com) flies from Heathrow and Birmingham; Finnair (0870 241 4411, www.finnair.com), from Manchester; and Ryanair (0871 246 0000, www.ryanair.com) from Stansted to Skavsta and Vasteras. We stayed in Gamla Stan (the old city centre) at First Hotel Reisen 00 46 8 22 32 60 (from £144 per night). The Swedish Tourist Board is on 00 800 3080 3080/www.visit-sweden.com.