Rosendal Palace, on the south side of Djurgården, was built for King Karl XIV Johan in 1823-27. The task of designing and constructing the building went to one of the most important architects of the period, Fredrik Blom. The building was prefabricated. Rosendal was a summertime pleasure retreat. It has never been a residence in the modern sense. It was merely intended as a place for rest and recovery, an escape from the formalities of court life at the Royal Palace.

Karl XIV Johan and his family spent a lot of time at Rosendal during their summers in Stockholm. On fine summer days they would travel by horse and carriage to Djurgården to go walking in the park, and they liked organising receptions of different kinds at Rosendal. Late in the evening they would return, happy and contented, to the city.

Rosendal today looks very much as it did in the time of Karl Johan and Oskar, which makes it a unique document of the European Empire style. One of Sweden's first classical reportage photographs was taken at Rosendal in the early summer of 1905. Norway had severed its personal union with Sweden, and the people of Stockholm flocked out to Rosendal to pay tribute to Oskar II, who was staying there at the time. When the crowds had gathered on the forecourt, the aged monarch came out onto the steps. That is the moment immortalised in the reportage photograph.

When King Oskar died in 1907, his heirs decided to make Rosendal a museum of the Karl Johan period and of the life of Karl XIV Johan. This is why, for example, the furnishings from Karl Johan's famous Bed Chamber at the Royal Palace were transferred to Rosendal.