Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Riksdagshuset
Parliament building • Riksgatan 1 • Mid-June to late Aug guided tours in English Mon-Fri noon, 1, 2 & 3pm; late-Aug to mid-June Sat &
Sun 1.30pm • Free • Gamla Stan T-bana
Perched on Helgeandsholmen, a small oval-shaped island wedged between Norrmalm
to the north and Gamla Stan to the south,
Riksdagshuset,
the Swedish Parliament
building, is where Sweden's famous welfare state was shaped and formed during the
postwar years of the 1940s and 1950s. The building was completely restored in the
1970s, just seventy years after it was built, and the original, columned facade (viewed
to best effect from Norrbron) is rarely used as an entrance today; the main entrance is
on Riksgatan, the short street between the bridges of Riksbron and Stallbron. It's the
glassy bulge at the back (which you see when coming into Stockholm from the south
by train) that is the hub of most activity, and where you're shown round on
guided
tours
. This being Sweden, the seating for the 349 members is in healthy,
non-adversarial rows, grouped by constituency and not by party, and it is has even been
known for politicians to breastfeed their children in the chamber.
1
Medeltidsmuseum
Museum of Medieval Stockholm • Strömparterren • Daily noon-5pm, Wed until 7pm • Free •
W
medeltidsmuseet.stockholm.se •
T-Centralen T-bana
In front of the Riksdag, accessed by a set of steps leading down from Norrbron, is the
Medeltidsmuseum
, where medieval ruins, tunnels and parts of Stockholm's city walls
dating from the 1530s, discovered during excavations under the parliament building,
have been incorporated into a walk-through underground exhibition. Reconstructed
houses of timber and brick, complete with wax models peering out of the windows,
help give a realistic idea of what life was like in sixteenth-century Stockholm. However,
it's the extensive remains of the
Riddarholm
ship, 20m in length and dating from the
early 1520s, which really draws the eye. Built in overlapping clinker-style, common
during Viking times, the ship had been equipped with canons and lead shot before
sinking in the Riddarholm canal in the 1520s.
Kungliga Slottet
Royal Palace • Slottsbacken • The Apartments, Treasury and Museum Tre Kronor offer a combined entry ticket costing 150kr
•
W
royalcourt.se • Gamla Stan T-bana
Cross Norrbron or Riksbron from the Riksdagshuset and up rears the most
distinctive monumental building in Stockholm,
Kungliga Slottet
- a low, square,
THE ESTONIA FERRY DISASTER
The sinking of the
Estonia
ferry in September 1994 was Sweden's worst ever maritime disaster;
852 people lost their lives when the vessel went down in the Baltic Sea en route to Stockholm.
Following the disaster, an o
cial three-nation investigation involving Sweden, Finland and
Estonia concluded, to great derision from the relatives of those who died on the ferry, that poor
design by the original German shipbuilders of the huge hinges which held the bow door in
place was to blame for the accident. The shipyard immediately refuted the claim and said that
fault lay squarely with the ferry operator, Estline, for shoddy maintenance of the vessel.
Following the publication of the of
cial accident report, a number of conspiracy theories have
surfaced, most alarmingly suggesting that the Russian mafia had weapons on board, exploding
a bomb on the car deck once it became clear that Swedish customs had been tipped off about
their illicit cargo and imminent arrival in Stockholm. The wreck of the
Estonia
now lies on the
sea bed southwest of the Finnish Åland islands, covered in a protective layer of concrete to
prevent plundering. There's a memorial to those who died in the disaster near the Vasamuséet
in Djurgården (see p.60).
