On the north side of the cathedral square, Kungshuset (the King's House) is the oldest surviving secular building in Lund. Built in Renaissance style for the Danish crown in the 1580s, it predates the university and reflects the period when Lund was the ecclesiastical centre of Danish Scandinavia. The stepped gable and sandstone facade are characteristic of Scandinavian Renaissance architecture.
The building is in active university use and not generally open to visitors, but the exterior on Kyrkogatan is worth pausing at — particularly in the context of the cathedral behind it. Together they make Lund's medieval and early modern history physically tangible in a way that few Swedish cities can match.