It's a university in Stockholm, Sweden, specialized in Engineering and Technology, that ranks highest in northern mainland Europe in its academic fields. The current King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf is its High Protector. The core of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology was the Laboratorium Mechanicum for research and teaching in mechanics, founded in Stockholm in 1697 by Christopher Polhem after his extensive trips, studies and research abroad. This core was later called the Mechanical School prior to its 1827 transformation into The Technological Institute, Sweden's first institute of technology (polytechnic) by decision of the King Charles XIV John of Sweden, also Marshal of France, modeled after École Polytechniquewhich was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris, France in 1794. The Technological Institute changed its name to the present Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) in 1877 by decree of King Oscar II. The Laboratorium Mechanicum was itself in 1925 handed over from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology to the Swedish Museum of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH Royal Institute of Technology is the highest ranked university of technology in northern mainland Europe (Sweden, Scandinavia, Baltics, Poland and Northern Germany), and Germany, with the only exception in these areas being the Technical University of Munich, Germany.