About us
Prins Bertil’s pétanque hall is a hidden gem on Djurgården in Stockholm. Balls have been rolling here since 1989, when the hall was gifted to Prince Bertil. The venue has now opened up for a new life and for a lot more people, and here you can gather clients, colleagues, and friends for your own event.
The background
Prince Bertil (1912–1997) was a devoted pétanque player. During his many stays in Sainte-Maxime on the French Riviera, Princess Lilian and him were introduced to France’s “national sport”, pétanque. He brought his knowledge back home, and through him the game of boules gained greater popularity in Sweden.
During the winter months of the 1980s, he spent much of his time in one of the greenhouses at Rosendal Garden in Djurgården in Stockholm, where he could throw his boules sheltered from the icy cold outside. It was also here that plans for a permanent pétanque hall began to take shape, intended as a gift for the prince’s 75th birthday. The initiative received support from the business community, with figures such as Peter Wallenberg, Curt Nicolin, and Hans Werthén taking part in a fundraising effort. This raised 900,000 SEK, which became the starting capital for the construction of the hall.
The hall
Today, the pétanque hall still exists in beautiful Djurgården in Stockholm, next to Rosendal Palace and its gardens. Many celebrities and a vibrant club life have met on the well-maintained gravel courts.
Here you will find the Ideella Föreningen Prins Bertilhallen, a non-profit pétanque club with several hundred members, as well as a restaurant serving the prince’s own favourite dishes.
Since September 2023, Prins Bertil’s Boulehall has been operated by Bruwie Petanque AB. The business continues in the spirit of Prince Bertil and still follows his original conditions: to give more people the opportunity to discover pétanque.
Today, Prince Carl Philip is the patron of the pétanque hall.