Stockholm
There’s water everywhere in Stockholm – the city is built on some 14 main islands. Getting around by boat is an excellent way to see this splendid city with much of its distinctive skyline remaining unchanged in over 500 years. Small wonder Stockholm is recognised as one of Europe’s most beautiful capitals.
The medieval Nordic churches and charming pastel shades of renaissance townhouses winding around the cobbled streets of Gamla Stan, the old town, and the opulent Swedish baroque of the Drottingholms Slott are testament to the elegance of Swedish classicism, while the lightness and grace of modernist glass and steel structures and sculptures around the business quarter of Sergels Torg reflect the forward-thinking aspects of contemporary Stockholm.
Like many great European cities Stockholm has a vibrant café culture, helped by the plentiful supply of tartan rugs to keep the clientele warm, the cold Pilsner (not as expensive as you might think) and the pickled herrings. Stockholmers seem to love the outdoors and think nothing better than meeting, greeting and chatting.
On the island Djurgarden, the museum of Skansen, proudly boasts of being the first of its kind in the world – an open-air heritage museum. It claims to display the Sweden of more than a century ago and was built in the 1890’s. Its architect, Artur Hazelius (1833 – 1901), is lauded by Swedes and is credited by some for preserving a dying 19th Century cultural tradition.
Hazelius brought, piece-by-piece, houses, workshops and farmsteads from all corners Sweden to Djurgarden in an attempt to hold onto something of a life that was under threat from a rampant industrialisation and an ignorant population.
There is a living community on Skansen occupying some of the 150-plus buildings providing an insight into how life was lived in Sweden in the 19th Century. To what extent it has maintained traditions is debateable but the impulse from Sweden’s own National Romantic movement has preserved a style that has developed into examples of contemporary design and the elegant, understated decoration that now finds itself furnishing homes throughout Britain and the rest of Europe.
Swedes get excited about the annual Nobel awards, doled out by the king on December 10 every year. The Nobel banquet takes place in the opulent surroundings of the famous Blue Hall (actually brick-red) of Stockholm’s Stadshuset, which also boasts the stunning Golden Hall where the walls are decorated by over 18 million mosaic tiles in pure gold depicting significant events in Swedish history.
Any visitor to Stockholm should make every effort to go to the Nobelmuseet on the medieval island of Gamla Stan at the point where the Baltic Sea and the mighty Lake Malaren meet. Here is the forward looking, modern and internationalist Sweden. Opened in
2001 to commemorate the centenary of the Nobel Prizes the Nobelmuseet underlines the immensity of human endeavour - often against all conceivable odds.
The museum, displays the image of 734 past winners on a white card and they pass across the museum ceiling on a kind of monorail conveyor belt. The sheen of progress passes through its halls and whilst never going into great depth, with a thumbnail biography of Nobel, filmed interviews with past winners and an interactive suite, you can’t help feeling some awe.
Useful links
Stockholm Visitors Board
Added 2008/10/08 @ 23:20:14
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