Museum sights in Stockholm
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Vasamuseet
The mighty warship Vasa, 69m long, 160ft tall and pride of the Swedish crown, set off on her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. Within minutes, she and her 100-member crew capsized and sank tragicomically to the bottom of Saltsjön. Painstakingly raised in 1961, the ship and its incredible wooden sculptures were re- assembled like a giant 14,000-piece jigsaw and housed in an amazing purpose-built space. Salvaged objects from the ship, including shoes, cannonballs and pillboxes, provide a vivid glimpse into the lives of 17th-century sailors, but none more so than the forensically reconstructed faces of the ill-fated passengers. Guided tours in English run hourly from 9.30am…
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Nordiska Museet
With its flouncy turrets and neo-Swedish Renaissance looks, Isak Gustav Clason’s iconic building is hard to miss. Inside is a collection of all things Swedish, from Sami folklore to eclectic exhibitions of Swedish fashion, shoes, interiors and even table settings. The museum owns the largest collection of paintings by August Strindberg and the audio tours (Skr20) are nothing short of satisfying.
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ABBA: The Museum
Despite the indefinite postponement of its opening (expect a 2010 opening due to construction setbacks; check the website for updates on opening date, hours and prices), Stockholm’s eagerly anticipated, epically hyped ABBA: The Museum is set to become one of Sweden’s major crowd-pullers, with an estimated half-million visitors annually. Housed in a converted customs building on Södermalm, the museum’s three floors will trace the supergroup’s rise to pop immortality in what promises to be an interactive, multimedia extravaganza. A series of linear, interactive ‘scenes’ will have you hanging out in the recreated Polar recording studio, shaking your booty on stage and even…
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Riddarhuset
Admirers of architecture shouldn’t miss this 17th-century Dutch baroque masterpiece, designed by Simon de la Vallée, Heinrich Wilhelm, Joost Vingboons and Jean de la Vallée. Used by the Swedish parliament between 1641 and 1674, it still hosts the triennial Assembly of Nobles. While the chancellery houses some 300 pieces of heraldic porcelain, the real scene-stealer is the Great Hall, plastered with 2345 coats of arms belonging to Swedish nobility, as well as a precious ivory-carved land-marshall’s chair from 1625 and a beautiful ceiling painting by 17th-century artist David Klöcker Ehenstrahl.
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Hallwylska Museet
Looking as if it’s straight out of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, this kooky fin de siècle palace was once the home of cashed-up Count Walther von Hallwyl and his wife Wilhelmina, a notorious collector who took hoarding to new heights. The mansion’s lavish rooms are packed with the fruits of her labour, from 16th-century tapestries and Flemish paintings to rare silver teapots, oriental guns, vintage toiletries and even her children’s teeth. For in-depth voyeurism, join the one-hour guided tour (in English; Skr40; at 1pm Sunday, and at 1pm daily from late June to mid-August).
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Strindbergsmuseet
Set inside the Blå Tornet apartment where playwright and author August Strindberg spent his final four years, the Strindberg Museum lets you peep into his closet, scan his bookshelves and stumble across his desk, which still bears his pens, spectacles, theatrical program sheets and a copy of his Ockulta Dagboken (The Occult Diary, 1896–1908). The museum organises Strindberg-themed readings and seminars (occasionally in English; contact the museum for information). Those left longing for more should check out Strindberg’s disturbingly dark paintings at the Nordiska Museet.
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Stockholms Stadsmuseum
History gets a multisensory makeover at the brilliant Stockholm City Museum, housed in a building designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder and once used as a dungeon. Inside, a time-line exhibition traces Stockholm’s development from fortified port to modern metropolis via plague, fire and good old-fashioned scandal. You can smell medieval potions, peek into an 18th-century tavern and lust at the legendary Lohe Treasure, 20kg of 18th-century silver discovered in 1937. The temporary exhibitions are nothing short of refreshing, from Johan Hagelbäck’s ‘Raisin Art’ to the culture of death in Stockholm.
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Historiska Museet
From Iron Age ice-skates to Renaissance triptychs, Sweden’s prime historical collection spans nearly 14,000 years of Swedish history and culture. The undisputed highlight is the subterranean Gold Room, a brooding chamber gleaming with Viking bling and rare historical jewels. The most astonishing artefact is the 5th-century, seven-ringed gold collar with 458 carved figures, which weighs 823g. Found in Västergötland in the 19th century, it was probably used by pagan priests in ritualistic ceremonies. To use the museum’s fantastic free digital audio guides, bring some ID.
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Almgrens Sidenväveri Museum
Knut August Almgren founded this historic weaving factory in 1883 using parts of a Jacquard loom smuggled from France in barrels of cognac. (The art of Jacquard weave looming was a guarded French secret, forcing the crafty Almgren to pose as a Frenchman in order to learn, and steal, the craft.) It’s now an adorable working museum; you can watch the weavers work the original Jacquard looms between 10am and 3pm Monday to Thursday, learn about Sweden’s silk weaving history and swoon over shimmering fabrics. The museum shop is Stockholm’s best bet for hand-woven products.
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Vin & Sprithistoriska Museet
Looking at history through a snaps glass, this engrossing ode to grog explores the often turbulent relationship between Swedes and their beloved brännvin (akvavit) and punsch (a liqueur). Step inside a 19th-century wine merchant’s distillery and happily sniff your way through 57 akvavit spices at the smelling organ. The wine bar hosts regular wine-tasting evenings (Skr350, book two weeks ahead), though you’ll need a group of eight to knock back in English.
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Tekniska Museet
The biggest drawcard at the vast and vibrant Museum of Science and Technology is CINO4, Sweden’s first 4-D cinema. Once you’ve been shaken, stirred and possibly squirted, check out the rest of this dazzling multimedia complex, which includes chatty Japanese robots, Sweden’s first motor car (from 1897), an artificial mine, a retro telephone collection and the Teknorama Science Centre, with its interactive displays on topics such as the basic principles of physics.
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Etnografiska Museet
The National Museum of Ethnography focuses on non-European cultures. Highly original temporary exhibitions (ranging from Amazon photography to the macabre etchings of Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada) complement permanent collection highlights like Mali crocodile masks, Mongolian temple tents and a Japanese teahouse. The formerly in-house restaurant Babajan, serving a stellar Afro-Asian-Middle Eastern menu, has moved to Katarina Banggata 75.
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Judiska Museet
Expanding Swedish history beyond Vasa and Vikings, this kosher little museum explores Swedish Jewry since 1774. Nifty pull-out display cabinets cover everything from the Holocaust and Raoul Wallenberg (a Swedish Oscar Schindler of sorts) to Torah silverware, ceremonial Passover items, wince-inducing circumcision knives, and a seven-branched candlestick looted from Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. The temporary exhibitions are often brilliant.
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Medeltidsmuseet
While preparing to build a Riksdag car park here in the late 1970s, construction workers unearthed foundations dating from the 1530s. The ancient walls were preserved as found and a museum was built around them. Faithful reconstructions of typical abodes, sheds and workshops transport visitors to medieval Stockholm (albeit with a better lighting and sound system). Also in the museum is the well-preserved, 1520s-era ship, Riddarsholm.
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Arkitekturmuseet
Attached to the Moderna Museet and housed in an ex-military drill hall, the Museum of Architecture’s permanent exhibition covers 1000 years of Swedish architecture (from cabins to the contemporary) and boasts an archive of 2.5 million documents, photographs, plans, drawings and models. There’s a seasonal program of temporary exhibitions, and the museum hosts occasional seminars on everything from urban planning to future design.
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Gustav Vasa Kyrkan
This saintly show-off flaunts a white Italian neo-baroque exterior and 60m-high cupola adorned with dreamy New Testament frescoes by Vicke Andrén. Opened in 1906, its star attraction is Burchardt Precht’s 18th-century marble altarpiece, considered Sweden’s largest baroque sculpture.The creepy columbarium crypt has places for around 35,000 burial urns; enter from the Västmannagatan side of the church.
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Nobelmuseet
More about ideas and inspiration than artefacts, the minimalist Nobelmuseet features some fascinating short films on the theme of ‘creativity’, an audio archive of acceptance speeches, interviews with and readings from laureates like Martin Luther King and Ernest Hemingway, and cafe chairs signed by the visiting prize winners (turn them over to see!). To get the most out of the museum, join a free guided tour.
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Postmuseum
While a museum dedicated to almost four centuries of Swedish postal history sounds positively mind-numbing, Stockholm’s Post Museum is surprisingly engrossing, crammed with old mail carriages, a climb-aboard train carriage, offbeat postcards and a cute children’s post office downstairs for budding postal workers. Previous temporary exhibitions have covered everything from the life of the Great Garbo to the kiss in art.
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Skansen
This open-air museum (the world’s oldest) is a one-stop tour of Sweden, featuring over 150 traditional buildings from across the country, including a Sami camp with reindeer. Artisans blow glass in historic workshops, bakers sell Scandi treats in vintage bakeries and Nordic animals roam the in-house zoo. For a glimpse of pygmy marmosets, the world’s smallest monkeys, pop into the quirky aquarium.
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Kungliga Myntkabinettet
Anything but a dreary accountant’s fantasy, the fabulous Royal Coin Cabinet sparkles with a priceless collection of world-turning currency, including Viking silver and the world’s oldest coin (created in Greece in 625 BC), as well as its heaviest (a copper plate weighing 19.7kg). The exhibitions are innovative, the kids’ playroom is fun and the kitsch collection of piggy-banks alone is worth the trip.
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Livrustkammaren
Quite frankly, the Royal Armoury Museum is brilliant. A regal storage attic of sorts, its engrossing collection of booty spans over 500 years of royal childhoods, coronations, weddings and murders. Sneak a peek at lavish royal wardrobes, King Gustav III’s masquerade costume (worn when he was shot in 1792) and the preserved stomach contents of Baron Bielke, one of the conspirators to the king’s assassination.
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Östasiatiska Museet
Know your Buddha from your bodhisattvas at Stockholm’s Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, famed for its world-class booty of ancient Eastern art, stoneware and porcelain. Particularly noteworthy is the collection of wares from the Chinese dynasties of Song, Ming and Qing, as well as the museum’s fresh temporary shows, which cover anything from comic-book manga to the art of Japanese tattoos.
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Tullmuseet
Despite the patchy availability of English-language information, the Customs Museum is worth a snoop for its rather revealing exhibition on the ’art’ of smuggling, which includes a pair of spacious knickers used to smuggle alcohol in the 1920s. Crack-stuffed sneakers aside, there’s also a reconstruction of a 1920s customs warehouse and lab with eerily realistic mannequins.
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Birka Museum
The Viking trading centre of Birka, on Björkö in Mälaren lake, is now a Unesco World Heritage site. It was founded around AD 760 with the intention of expanding and controlling trade in the region. Exhibits at the brilliant Birka Museum include finds from the excavations, copies of the most magnificent objects, and an interesting model of the village in Viking times.
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Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet
Sweden’s largest museum, Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet was founded by Carl von Linné in 1739. There are hands-on displays about nature and the human body, as well as whole forests’ worth of taxidermied wildlife, dinosaurs, marine life and the hardy fauna of the polar regions. The museum is located 300m north of T-Universitetet metro stop.
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