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| Grottoes
Vatican City Colonnade Saints Floorplan #2 |
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Monuments The History |
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Positioned next to the tomb of John Paul II is a simple, white marble sarcophagus with decorative corners, made in the first quarter of the 20th century. This is the tomb of Queen Christina of Sweden who died on April 19, 1689.
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On the front of the tomb is a bronze plaque with gilded profiles with an inscription inside a frame, surmounted by a scepter and a crown. The inscription testifies to the presence of the remains of Queen Christina Alexandra of Sweden. Daughter of King Gustav Adolph, Christina succeeded him to the throne in 1632. She abdicated in favor of her cousin Carl Gustav. On November 3, 1655, in Innsbruck, she solemnly abjured Lutheranism and converted to Catholicism. She was received by the pope and spent most of the rest of her life in Rome, where she died and, after the funeral in the basilica, was buried in the grottoes at the back of the central nave. In the basilica, at the beginning of the right nave, Carlo Fontana built an honorary monument of the Queen of Sweden. She is one of three women buried in the grottoes, and one of only four in the entire present basilica. The other women include Queen Charlotte of Cyprus and Agnesina Colonna Caetani, both buried in the grottoes, and Maria Clementina Sobieski, entombed above her monument. |
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| Source: Roma Sacra The Vatican Grottoes, © Fabbrica of St. Peter's, June 2003 |
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