Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
isn't as difficult as it looks, and there's usually a group of hopefuls on one of the bridges
beside the square.
1
Kungliga Operan
Royal Opera House • Gustav Adolfs torg 2 •
W
operan.se • T-Centralen T-bana
The nineteenth-century
Kungliga Operan
is the proudest, most notable - and ugliest
- building on Gustav Adolfs torg. It was here, in an earlier opera house on the same
site, that King Gustav III was shot at a masked ball in 1792 by one Captain
Ankarström. The story is recorded in Verdi's opera
Un ballo in maschera
, and you'll
find Gustav's ball costume, as well as the assassin's pistols and mask, displayed in the
Palace Armoury in Gamla Stan (see p.49). The opera's famous restaurant,
Operakällaren
which faces the water, is ruinously expensive, its trendy café,
Bakfickan
(see p.70), less so.
Medelhavsmuséet
Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities • Fredsgatan 2 • Tues-Thurs noon-8pm, Fri-Sun noon-5pm • 80kr •
wmedelhavsmuseet.se • T-Centralen T-bana
Just off Gustav Adolfs torg, and surrounded by several government ministries, the
Medelhavsmuséet
contains an enormous display on Egypt, including several whopping
great mummies; the most attractive pieces, though, are the bronze weapons, tools and
domestic objects from the time before the pharaohs. The Cyprus collections are also
huge, the largest such assemblage outside the island itself, depicting the island
civilization over a period of six thousand years. A couple of rooms examine Islamic
culture through pottery, glass and metalwork, as well as decorative elements from
architecture, Arabic calligraphy and Persian miniature painting.
St Jakobs kyrka
Västra Trädgårdsgatan 2 • Tues-Thurs noon-4pm, Fri noon-6pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm • Kungsträdgården T-bana
Though located in a prime position opposite the Royal Opera House,
St Jakobs kyrka
is
often overlooked by visitors to the city. It stands on the site of an earlier chapel of St
James (Jakob in Swedish) and was completed some 52 years after the death of its
founder, Johan III. Although the church's doors are impressive - check out the south
door with its statues of Moses and St James on either side - it's the great, golden pulpit
that draws most attention. The date of the building's completion (1642) is stamped
high up on the ceiling in gold relief. Organ recitals are occasionally held here, usually
on Fridays at 5pm (free).
Kungsträdgården
Isbanan: Nov to early March Mon, Wed & Fri 8.30am-6pm, Tues & Thurs 8.30am-8pm, Sat & Sun 10am-6pm • Skate rental 50kr/hr
One block east of St Jakobs kyrka and the Royal Opera House, Norrmalm's eastern
boundary is marked by
Kungsträdgården
, the most fashionable and central of the city's
numerous parks, reaching northwards from the water as far as Hamngatan. The
mouthful of a name literally means “the king's gardens”, though if you're expecting
perfectly designed flowerbeds and rose gardens you'll be disappointed - it's a
pedestrianized paved square, albeit in the form of an elongated rectangle, with a couple
of lines of elm and cherry trees, and its days as a royal kitchen garden are long gone.
Today the area is Stockholm's main meeting place, especially in summer, when there's
almost always something going on - free music, live theatre and other performances
take place on the central open-air stage. There are also several popular
cafés
: the
outdoors one off Strömgatan at Kungsträdgården's southern edge is popular in spring as
a place for winter-weary Stockholmers to lap up the sunshine. In winter, the park is as
busy as in summer: the
Isbanan
, an open-air ice rink at the Hamngatan end of the
park, rents out skates.
