Count Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (23 May 1654 – 10 April 1728) was a Swedish Baroque architect, city planner, and administrator.
The son of Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and the father of Carl Gustaf Tessin, Tessin the Younger was the middle generation of the brief Tessin dynasty, which has had a lasting influence on Swedish architecture and history. Several of his works, including the gardens of Drottningholm Palace, are among the most architecturally significant in Sweden.
Biography
Early life
Tessin was born on 23 May 1654 as the only child of Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, son of the mayor of Stralsund, and Maria Svan, daughter of the mayor of Västerås. He showed artistic talents at an early age and was given an education in Mathematics and language at Uppsala, where he must have been influenced by Olaus Rudbeck who was at the time highly engaged in the scientific basis of architecture and botany. Together with his stepbrother Abraham Winands, Tessin actively took part in his father's work, and when Tessin inherited his father's position, he asked to share it with Winands and the two would keep working side by side until the death of Winands in 1709.
thumb|left|Tessin Palace.
thumb|left|Steninge Palace.
In 1690, Tessin married his mistress Hedvig Eleonora Stenbock (1658–1714), maid of honour of Queen Hedvig Elenora. However, at this time Tessin still belonged to the lesser nobility and his marriage to a woman from the high nobility was regarded as inappropriate. The marriage therefore had to take place secretly in Pomerania and, to repair the situation, Tessin had to produce a residence in accordance to his wife's status. Works on the Tessin Palace begun in 1694 and initially progressed slowly, but in 1697 Tessin and his family could move in and in 1701, two years after Tessin had been promoted to high nobility, the interior was completed to the extent Tessin could invite the widowed queen and the royal family to a supper. Besides his own palace, the gardens of the Drottningholm Palace and Steninge Palace, both located not far from Stockholm, are often pointed out as his greatest achievements.