The King and Queen of Sweden are pictured in a new set of gala portraits, released on January 7, 2026 (Elisabeth Toll/Royal Court of Sweden)
New portraits of the King and Queen of Sweden in full gala splendor were released last week, along with details of a pair of special royal celebrations coming to Stockholm in 2026.
The King and Queen of Sweden are pictured in a new set of gala portraits, released on January 7, 2026 (Elisabeth Toll/Royal Court of Sweden)
King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden are celebrating two important anniversaries this year, and the new formal photographs, taken by Elisabeth Toll, were taken ahead of the coming festivities. On April 30, the royal family will celebrate the King’s 80th birthday. The day will begin with a Te Deum service in the Royal Chapel at the palace in Stockholm.
Afterward, the King will receive birthday greetings from members of the armed forces in the palace courtyard. In the evening, a gala dinner for invited guests will take place. (There will almost certainly be tiaras, and we’ll likely see photographs of the arrivals.)
The King and Queen of Sweden are pictured in a new set of gala portraits, released on January 7, 2026 (Elisabeth Toll/Royal Court of Sweden)
And in June, the King and Queen mark a special joint milestone: their golden wedding anniversary. The royal court notes that the celebrations have been scheduled to avoid conflict with another holiday celebration: “As the Anniversary day falls on Midsummer’s Eve, the Golden Wedding Jubilee will be celebrated on 13th June.” (It’s going to be a busy royal day, because that’s also the Saturday when Trooping the Colour will be held in London.)
King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden are pictured after their royal wedding in Stockholm on June 19, 1976 (Classic Picture Library/Alamy)
King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath were married in Stockholm on June 19, 1976. (Almost) fifty years later, on June 13, 2026, their golden anniversary will be celebrated with another Te Deum service in the chapel at the Royal Palace, followed by a procession through Stockholm on the royal barge and in a horse-drawn carriage, charting the same route they took together after their royal wedding ceremony.
There will be more celebrations announced in the coming months, per the royal court’s press release. Visitors to Stockholm will also be able to enjoy a special exhibition at the Royal Palace dedicated to the last five decades of the royal couple’s life in Sweden.
The King and Queen of Sweden are pictured in a new set of gala portraits, released on January 7, 2026 (Elisabeth Toll/Royal Court of Sweden)
The new portraits, taken by Elisabeth Toll, show the couple in full gala attire. The King wears full military dress uniform with decorations, while the Queen poses in a favorite emerald green evening gown with the insignia of the Order of the Seraphim and the King’s Royal Family Order.
The King and Queen of Sweden are pictured in a new set of gala portraits, released on January 7, 2026 (Elisabeth Toll/Royal Court of Sweden)
Queen Silvia also wears several important pieces of historic family jewelry in the pictures. The most prominent is the Braganza Tiara, a special diadem made of diamonds from the former imperial family of Brazil. The tiara, which dates to the early decades of the nineteenth century, made its way to Stockholm when it was bequeathed to Queen Josefina of Sweden and Norway by her sister, Empress Amélie of Brazil.
Official portrait of Queen Silvia of Sweden, 1976 (Lennart Nilsson/TT News Agency/Alamy)
The decision to wear the Braganza Tiara in these new portraits echoes the very first set of gala portraits that Queen Silvia posed for shortly after the royal wedding in 1976. The pictures, taken by the famed Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson, show Silvia wearing the same tiara with a seafoam-green gown. She also wears pieces from the family’s spectacular suite of Romanov pink topazes and the Karl Johan Earrings, which date to the reign of the first Bernadotte monarch.
The King and Queen of Sweden are pictured in a new set of gala portraits, released on January 7, 2026 (Elisabeth Toll/Royal Court of Sweden)
Silvia reached for the same pair of diamond earrings for the new gala portraits as well. She also added a diamond riviere necklace from the family vaults, and she secured her sash with a large emerald and diamond brooch. The brooch, which was originally a bejeweled belt buckle, is part of a suite of emerald jewels that also belonged to King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden.