Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
have rallied round to create a Swedish royal pantheon. Amongst others, you'll find
the tombs of Gustav II Adolf (in the green marble sarcophagus), Karl XII, Gustav
III and Karl Johan XIV, plus other innumerable and unmemorable descendants.
Walk around the back of the church for stunning views of Stadshuset and Lake
Mälaren. In winter, the lake often freezes from here right up to the Västerbron
bridge, a couple of kilometres further west, and people skate and take their dogs for
walks along the ice.
1
Skeppsholmen
A 10min walk from Stortorget: cross Strömbron, turn right and cross Skeppsholmbron; you can also take a ferry from Nybroplan (see p.56) or
bus #65 from Central Station
Of Gamla Stan's eastern reaches lies the island of
Skeppsholmen
, home to two of
Stockholm's best youth hostels. However, it's the eclectic clutch of
museums
, the first
of which, the Nationalmuseum, is actually just before Skeppsholmsbron, that draw
most people here.
Nationalmuseum
National Art Museum • Södra Blasieholmshamnen 2 • June-Aug Tues 11am-8pm, Wed-Sun 11am-5pm; Sept-May Wed &
Fri-Sun 11am-5pm, Tues & Thurs until 8pm • 100kr •
W
nationalmuseum.se • Expected to close during 2012 for renovation work •
Kungsträdgården T-bana
As you approach Skeppsholmsbron on the way to Skeppsholmen, you'll pass the
striking waterfront
Nationalmuseum
, which
contains an impressive collection of
Swedish and European fine and applied arts from the late medieval period to the
present day, contained on three floors.
Changing exhibitions of prints and drawings take up the
ground floor.
as well as
several permanent frescoes by Swedish painter Carl Larsson which adorn the six wall
panels of the museum's lower staircase. There is also a museum shop and a decent café,
plus lockers to leave your bags in on the ground floor.
First floor
The Nationalmuseum's
first floor
is devoted to applied art, and those with a penchant
for royal curiosities will be pleased to find beds slept in by kings, cabinets leaned on by
queens and plates eaten off by nobles, mainly from the centuries when Sweden was a
great power. There's modern work alongside the ageing tapestries and furniture,
including Art Nouveau coffeepots and vases, and a collection of simply and elegantly
designed wooden chairs.
Second floor
It's the
second floor
that's most engaging - there's a plethora of European and
Mediterranean sculpture, along with some mesmerizing sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century Russian icons. The
paintings
on this floor include works by El Greco,
Canaletto, Gainsborough, Gauguin, Rembrandt and Renoir. Something of a coup
for the museum is Rembrandt's
Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis
, one of his largest
monumental paintings. Depicting a scene from Tacitus'
History
, this bold work
shows a gathering of well-armed chieftains. There are also some fine works by
Swedish artists from the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries - most notably
paintings by the nineteenth-century masters Anders Zorn and Carl Larsson.
Another, by Carl Gustav Pilo, a late eighteenth-century painter, depicts the
coronation of Gustav III in Gamla Stan's Storkyrkan; it's worth noting that the white
plaster depicted on the columns in the painting has today been removed to expose
the underlying red brick.
