Royal Order of Vasa Kungliga Vasaorden
Knight 1st Class Cross of the Swedish Order of Vasa (1945)
Awarded bythe monarch of Sweden
Type	Five gradeorder of merit
Established	1772
Royal house	Bernadotte
Eligibility	Swedish and foreign citizens
Awarded for	Services to agriculture, mining, art, trade, industry, crafts and education.
Status	Active (since 1 February 2023)
Sovereign	King Carl XVI Gustaf
Chancellor	Svante Lindqvist[1]
Grades	Commander Grand Cross (KmstkVO) Commander 1st Class (KVO1kl) Commander (KVO) Knight/Member 1st Class (RVO1kl) Knight/Member (RVO)
Statistics
First induction	1772
Last induction	28 May 2025
Precedence
Next (higher)	Royal Order of the Polar Star
Next (lower)	Order of Charles XIII
Ribbon bar of the order

TheRoyal Order of Vasa (Swedish:Kungliga Vasaorden) is a Swedishorder of chivalry founded on 29 May 1772 byKing Gustav III. It is awarded to Swedish citizens for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce.

The order was founded on 29 May 1772 byKing Gustav III. Its name is derived from theHouse of Vasa. Membership was unrestricted by birth or education, as opposed to the other orders which were reserved for nobility, military personnel or the learned professions. During theunion between Sweden and Norway, the Order of Vasa was often awarded to Norwegians until theOrder of Saint Olav was founded in 1847.

Following significant reforms to the Swedish honours system in 1974, the Order of Vasa and theOrder of the Sword were considered dormant and membership in theOrder of the Seraphim and theOrder of the Polar Star were restricted to foreigners and, after 1995, the royal family.

In 2019, a parliamentary committee was instructed to establish guidelines on how to re-introduce the Swedish orders, including the Order of Vasa, into the Swedish honours system and how Swedish citizens again can be appointed to Swedish orders.^[2] The committee presented its findings in September 2021 and the Government presented abill on the subject to theRiksdag on 19 April 2022. Following the passage of the bill by a large majority on 19 June 2022, on 20 December 2022, the Swedish Government published a new regulation that repealed the 1974 regulation, and once again opened the Royal Orders to Swedish citizens again and reactivated the Order of the Sword and the Order of Vasa, which came in effect from 1 February 2023.^[3][4][5]

On 21 March 2024, the order was awarded for the first time since 1974 to, among others, the members ofABBA.^[6]

The Swedishroyal bargeVasaorden takes its name from the order.

The Order had five classes:

• Commander Grand Cross – wears the badge on a collar (chain) or on a sash on the right shoulder, plus the star on the left chest;
• Commander 1st Class – wears the badge on a necklet, plus the star on the left chest;
• Commander – wears the badge on a necklet;
• Knight 1st Class – wears the badge on a ribbon on the left chest; and
• Knight – wears the badge on a ribbon on the left chest.

Before 2023, clergymen and women were not made knights; instead, they were madeLedamot av andliga ståndet ("Member of the Cloth") andLedamot ("Member"), respectively. However, since 2023, the order makes no distinction among clergy, men and women.^[7]

Additionally, theBadge of Vasa and theVasa Medal were both worn on a ribbon on the left chest.

Before 1975 each royal order had its own investiture ceremony. When the royal orders were reinstated, however, this practice was not restored. Instead, a new state ceremony was created in which all recipients of all orders are awarded. The new ceremony is held in the White Sea Hall of the Stockholm Palace, decorated with the banners and insignia of the royal orders. After the King and Queen have been announced by the Herald of the Royal Orders, by tapping his staff on the floor twice, and have made their entrance to the Seraphim March, the Chancellor of the Royal Orders makes an introductory speech and the King himself delivers a speech. Each recipient of each order is, one by one, one order at a time from highest to lowest in rank, announced and called upon by the Deputy Chancellor of the Royal Orders to receive the insignia from the King and shake his hand. After all recipients of a certain order have received their awards, the fanfare of that order is performed before the investiture of members of the next order begins. This ceremony was first held on 31 May 2024.^{[8][9][10][11]}

• Thecollar of the Order is of gold, consisted of foursheaves (the emblem ofKing Gustav Vasa), four white-enamellednettle leaves each bearing a shield in white above red (the emblem ofHolstein, where King Adolf Frederik, the father of King Gustaf III, was born and from which his family, the House ofHolstein-Gottorp, took its name) and eight crowned blue shields bearing theThree Crowns, the emblem of Sweden, each flanked by a pair ofcaduceus and a pair ofcornucopia.
• Thebadge of the Order is a white-enameledMaltese Cross, in silver for the Knight class, ingilt for Knight 1st Class and above; crowns appeared between the arms of the cross. The central oval disc, which was identical on both sides, featured a golden sheaf on a black enamel background, surrounded by a red enamel ring bearing the legendGustaf 3. Instiktare 1772 ("Instituted by Gustaf III, 1772"). The badge hangs from a royal crown. During the early days of the Order, the badge consisted of the oval disc only.
• TheBadge of Vasa is similar to the knight's silver badge of the Order, but the cross had no white enamel.
• Thestar of the Order is a silver Maltese Cross with a silver sheaf in the centre. That of Grand Cross also had the abovementioned nettle leaf emblem in silver between the arms of the cross.
• Theribbon of the Order is green.
• Formerly the Order also had a distinctive green and white habit worn on formal occasions such as at chapters of the Order. The habit included greenbreeches and a greendoublet with padded shoulders, both with whitepiping, a white sash with a goldfringe around the waist and a greenmantle with a white lining. The star of the Order was embroidered over the left breast of both the doublet and the mantle. A blacktop hat with gold hat band and aplume of whiteostrich and blackegret feathers and a pair of greenboots with gilded spurs completed the habit. The collar of the Order was worn over the shoulders of the doublet.

Ribbon bars
Commander Grand Cross	Commander 1st Class	Commander	Knight 1st Class	Knight

Year	Name	Citizenship	Main occupation	Grade
21 March 2024[12]	Antonia Ax:son Johnson	Sweden	Director	Commander Grand Cross (KmstkVO)
	Benny Andersson		Artist	Commander First Class (KVO1kl)
	Agnetha Fältskog
	Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Reuss)
	Björn Ulvaeus
	Eva Rydberg		Actress	Commander (KVO)
	Bettan Byvald		Socionom	Knight First Class (RVO1kl)
	Thomas Sjöström		Business Area Manager	Knight (RVO)
30 April 2025[13]	Marie Ehrling	Sweden	Director	Commander First Class (KVO1kl)
	Nina Stemme		Hovsångare
	Gunilla Arhén		Director	Commander (KVO)
	Ole Wiggo Bang		Formeropera director ofWermland Opera
	Marie Göranzon Malmsjö		Actress
	Håkan Lans		Doctor of Technology,honoris causa
	Crister Stark		Director
	Karin Bodin		Director	Knight First Class (RVO1kl)
	Ulf Elfving		Journalist
	Ingrid Le Roux		Physician	Knight (RVO)
	Staffan Braw		Business Developer	Vasa Medal
	Kim Norman		Photographer

• 
  The royal barge built for Gustav III, namedVasaorden, is still used on rare ceremonial occasions
• 
  Star andcollar of the order.

• Orders, decorations, and medals of Sweden

• Orders and Decorations of Europe in Color by Paul Hieronymussen and photographed byAage Struwing [da]; English translation by Christine Crowley. The MacMillan Company. New York, 1967. Originally published asEuropaeiske Ordner I Faever @ Politikens Forlag, 1966. Color plates # 33–37; terxt p. 127.
• The Orders of Chivalry from the Original Statutes of the Various Orders of Knighthood and other Sources of Information by J. H. Lawrence-Archer. London: W. H. Allen and Company, 13 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, S. W. Publishers to the India Office. 1887.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toOrder of Vasa.

• The Order of VasaArchived 2021-05-18 at theWayback Machine at the website of the Swedish Royal Court

• Order of Vasa
• 1772 establishments in Sweden
• Awards established in 1772
• Orders of chivalry of Sweden

• Webarchive template wayback links
• CS1 Swedish-language sources (sv)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Swedish-language text
• Commons category link is on Wikidata