Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
place is still the ominous Fritt Fall, a hair-raising vertical drop of around 80m in a
matter of seconds, and the Fritt Fall Tilt, which involves being catapulted face-first
towards the ground from on high - do lunch later. At night the emphasis shifts as the
park becomes the stomping ground for hundreds of Stockholm's teenagers.
Vasamuséet
Vasa Museum • Galärvarvsvägen 14 • June-Aug daily 8.30am-6pm; Sept-May Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Wed until 8pm • 110kr •
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vasamuseet.se
Housed in an oddly shaped building close to Nordiska Muséet,
Vasamuséet
is without
question head and shoulders above Stockholm's other museums. It contains the
perfectly preserved seventeenth-century warship, the
Vasa
, which was built on the
orders of King Gustav II Adolf, but sank in Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage
in 1628. A victim of engineering miscalculation, the
Vasa'
s hull was too narrow to
withstand even the slightest swell which, when coupled with top-heavy rigging, made
her a maritime disaster waiting to happen. On August 10 she went down with all
hands barely a few hundred metres from her moorings. Preserved in mud for over three
hundred years, the ship was raised along with twelve thousand objects in 1961, and
now forms the centrepiece of the museum.
Adjacent to the Vasamuséet, three 2.5m-high granite walls now stand in the form of a
triangle as a
memorial
to those who died in the
Estonia
ferry distaster in 1994 (see box,
p.48); the inscription reads simply “their names and their fate, we shall never forget”.
The museum
The museum itself is built over part of the old naval dockyard. Impressive though the
building is, nothing prepares you for the sheer size of the
ship
: 62m long, the main
mast originally 50m above the keel, it sits virtually complete in a cradle of supporting
mechanical tackle. Surrounding walkways bring you nose-to-nose with cannon hatches
and restored decorative relief, the gilded wooden sculptures on the soaring prow
designed to intimidate the enemy and proclaim Swedish might. Carved into the ship's
stern, the resplendent figures of two naked cherubs complete with podgy stomachs and
rosy cheeks, proudly bearing the Swedish crown between them, are truly remarkable for
their fine detail and garish colours. Adjacent
exhibition halls
and presentations on
several levels take care of all the retrieved items, which give an invaluable insight into
life on board - everything from combs to wooden barrels for preserving food supplies.
There are reconstructions of life on board, detailed models of the
Vasa
, displays relating
to contemporary social and political life, and a fascinating film of the rescue operation;
between June and August there are also hourly English-language guided tours, which
run less frequently at other times of the year.
Thielska Galleriet
Thiel Gallery • Sjötullsbacken 6-8 • Daily noon-4pm • 80kr •
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thielska-galleriet.se • Bus #69 from Norrmalm
At the far eastern end of Djurgården, known as Blockhusudden, the
Thielska Galleriet
is
one of Stockholm's major treasures, a fine example of both Swedish architecture and
Nordic art. The house was built by Ferdinand Boberg at the turn of the twentieth
century for banker and art connoisseur Ernest Thiel, and turned into an art gallery after
he sold it to the state in 1924. Thiel knew many contemporary Nordic artists personally
and gathered an impressive collection of paintings over the years, many of which are on
show today. There are works by Carl Larsson, Anders Zorn - most notably his portraits
and female nudes - Edvard Munch, Bruno Liljefors and August Strindberg, whose
paintings of wild Swedish landscapes are displayed. The museum enjoys a dramatic
setting at the very tip of Djurgården; indeed the views out over Stockholm harbour and
across to the district of Nacka on the southern shore warrant a trip out here.
