The part of the building where you are now is the porch, or the weaponhouse as it’s called in Swedish. It sounds more serious than it is; for a long time this room was actually used to store weapons, but today we Swedes are a famously peaceful people, and we only use the word in a figurative sense.
Right above your head rises the cathedral’s 75-metre-high great tower. However, when the church was consecrated in 1291, it had no tower. And if you were here at that that time, you’d still be standing outdoors. You would find the exterior wall of the old church, below the steps you see in front of you.
Now look at the iron grid that separates the porch from the rest of the church. There you see two figures, one with a key in his hand, the other with a sword. These are the patron saints of our cathedral – the apostles Peter (with the key) and Paul (with the sword). The fact that our cathedral was dedicated to two of the most significant saints of all time is evidence of how important it was, right from when the building-process started about 800 years ago.