Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
THE ASSASSINATIONS OF OLOF PALME AND ANNA LINDH
Adolf Fredriks kyrka is of immense significance to modern Swedes, as it is the final resting
place of
Olof Palme
; a simple headstone and flowers mark his grave. The then prime minister
of Sweden was gunned down in front of his wife on February 28 1986, while they were on the
way home from the Riviera
cinema on Sveavägen. As with most Nordic leaders, Palme's fame
was his security, and he had no bodyguards with him when he died. A simple
plaque
on the
pavement, often respectfully bedecked with flowers, now marks the spot, near the junction
with Olof Palmes Gatan, where the prime minister was shot; the assassin escaped up a nearby
flight of steps.
Sweden's biggest-ever murder enquiry was launched, and as the years went by, so the
allegations of police cover-ups and bungling grew. When
Christer Pettersson
, a smalltime
criminal, was convicted for the murder in July 1989, most Swedes thought that was the end of the
story, but his release just five months later for lack of evidence only served to reopen the bitter
debate, with consequent recriminations and resignations within a much-derided police force.
Palme's death sent shockwaves through a society unused to political extremism of any kind,
and has sadly led to a radical rethink of the open-government policy Sweden had pursued for
decades. Although government ministers now rarely go unescorted, Sweden was rocked by
the news in September 2003 that a second leading politician had been murdered on home
soil; Foreign Minister
Anna Lindh
was fatally stabbed in a Stockholm department store by a
man with mental illness who was later arrested and imprisoned (see p.366).
home to Stockholm's biggest cinema complex, Filmstaden Sergel; to the east,
Kungsgatan
, running across to Stureplan and Birger Jarlsgatan, has most of the rest of
the city's cinemas (see p.74), interspersed with agreeable little cafés and bars.
North of Hötorget
From Hötorget, the city's two main streets,
Drottninggatan
and
Sveavägen
- the latter
with some excellent restaurants and bars - run parallel to the north as far as Odengatan
and the Stadsbiblioteket (City Library), set in a little park.
Adolf Fredriks kyrka
Holländargatan 14 • Mon 1-7pm, Tues-Sun 10am-4pm • Hötorget T-bana.
In secluded gardens on Sveavägen, not far north of Hötorget, sits eighteenth-century
Adolf Fredriks kyrka
, its churchyard popular with lunching office workers. Although the
church has a noteworthy past - the French philosopher Descartes was buried in the
church's cemetery for eleven years before his body was taken back to France in 1661
- it would have remained unremarkable were it not for one of the most tragic, and still
unexplained, events in modern Swedish history: the murder of the former prime
minister
Olof Palme
in 1986 (see box above).
Strindbergsmuséet
Strindberg Museum • Drottninggatan 85 • Tues-Sun noon-4pm, July & Aug from 10am • 50kr •
W
strindbergsmuseet.se •
Rådmansgatan T-bana
At the northern end of Drottninggatan, you'll come to the intriguing
Strindbergsmuséet
in the “Blue Tower”, the last building in which the writer August Strindberg lived in
Stockholm between 1908 and 1912. The house is so carefully preserved that you must
put plastic bags over your shoes on entering to protect the floors and furnishings. The
study is a dark and gloomy place just as Strindberg left it on his death; he always wrote
with the Venetian blinds and heavy curtains closed against the sunlight. Upstairs, his
library is a musty room with all the topics irmly behind glass, which is a great shame as
Strindberg was far from a passive reader. He underlined heavily and criticized in the
margins as he read, though rather less eruditely than you'd expect - “Lies!”, “Crap!”,
“Idiot!” and “Bloody hell!” tended to be his favourite comments.
