Forget Ikea. Stockholm's history and beauty lay themselves across the bridges that connect the city one island at a time.
About halfway round Kungliga Slottet, Stockholm's Royal Palace, it occurred to me that this was not what I'd expected. Was this really Sweden, the land of modern design and flat-pack furniture, renowned for its simple, functional style? It had not occurred to me that the city might be filled with cobbled streets, ornate palaces, and baroque interiors. A foolish thought, I know, as Sweden has as rich a history as any country and was a major power in the 17th century. But I was not prepared for this 608-room extravaganza. As Karl XI's Gallery — modeled on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles - stretched out before me, mirror upon mirror reflecting the chandeliers, moldings, and objets d'art, I realized that my opinion of Swedish style and my perception of Stockholm had just swiftly changed.
Treasures for the eye abound in Stockholm. From statues adorning the Royal Palace (right), to gilded gates indicating royalty (far right), every turn offers a unique view. Even a simple street scene in Old Town (below) offers surprises, in this case a miniature house turned- mailbox.
Upon arriving in town, I had gone straight to my hotel in the modern part of Stockholm known as City, and my first stroll was down very ordinary roads filled with office blocks and shopping malls, most of which were postwar if not younger. But occasionally in the gaps between buildings, I caught tantalizing glimpses of another era, older and grander: decorative church spires, gilded roofs, turrets, and towers. Clearly, something much more exotic was just round the corner. Intrigued, I kept walking until I reached the edge of City, and Riksbron, my first bridge.
Stockholm began to take shape about 1,000 years ago, when the waterways between the Baltic Sea to the east and Lake Mälaren to the west were filled with trading ships, warships, and pirates. Eleventh-century timber remains were discovered in the late 1970s in the aptly named Old Town, or Gamla Stan. The remains confirm that the settlement existed prior to Birger Jarl's arrival, but it's Jarl who is generally credited with officially founding the city around 1250.
According to local lore, Jarl created a simple log barrier in the Norrström shipping lane, which divides City from the north side of Gamla Stan. The structure initially protected Lake Mälaren from marauding pirates, and it was later used to exact tolls from ships passing between the sea and the lake. From these pragmatic beginnings, the city of Stockholm grew, expanding from island to island as the centuries passed.
Riksbron connects City to Old Town, which, itself, is made up of three islands: Riddarholmen, Helgeandsholmen, and Stadsholmen. In the mid-13th century, Jarl built a fortress on Stadsholmen on the site of the current palace, establishing the island as the center of the city. The entrance to Stadsholmen is marked by two tremendous stone arches that led me into the heart of Stockholm's past. Suddenly there were cobblestones instead of paving stones, low-rise buildings instead of tower blocks, wood and stone instead of metal and plastic, and streets half the width of those in City. At the heart of this historic island is Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace.
Sweden's nobility increased its power in the 16th century. That's when the nobles learned a lot about living in the grand style from their European neighbors, and Stockholm has a considerable number of grand palaces. But Kungliga Slottet is one of the largest, the king's palace, the jewel in the crown of Old Town. Although the king no longer lives here, it is still used for state occasions and is a repository for historic treasures, such as the silver throne used by Queen Kristina at her coronation in 1650, and King Erik XIV's 16thcentury crown, scepter, and orb.There are also intriguing smaller items, such as a gilded silver and ivory salt cellar made by the painter Rubens, and King Karl XIV Johan's gold egg cup.
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On the island of Keppsholmen, art lovers take in modern masterpieces from around the world, including sculptures by Alexander Calder (left), at the Moderna Museet. |
The setting for such treasures is suitably opulent; each room of the palace opens into another more stunning than the last.They offer a mixture of styles, from the Roman pillars and pedestals in the Hall of State to the Swedish late baroque style of Karl XI's Gallery, with its carved wood paneling, chandeliers, and gently curved ceiling displaying intricate moldings. I particularly liked the Museum of Antiquities, a long corridor lined with antique statues of classical figures, each set on a stone pedestal, which were brought back from Italy by King Gustav III in 1784.
After an hour of sumptuous interiors, it seemed that the rest of the island could only pale by comparison. But Stadsholmen is filled with history, and around every corner there was another palace, tower, or church with its own particular claim to fame.Tessin Palace, for instance, designed by Tessin the Younger, the architect who drew up the plans for the Royal Palace, is most notable for its elegant gardens. The gardens are styled in the baroque. Trees and hedges are trimmed into symmetrical swirls and curved patterns and all are laid out against a backdrop of Roman-style stone arches and pillars. A few paces farther up the cobbled hill of Slottsbacken, on which the Tessin Palace is found, the historic cathedral, Storkyrkan, comes into view. Storkyrkan was built in 1306 and altered over the centuries. Inside the cathedral, a 600-year-old brass candelabra stands before a silver altar, the latter donated by a Swedish diplomat in the 1650s. To the left of the altar is an oak statue, St. George and the Dragon, which was unveiled in 1489 to commemorate one of Sweden's victories over its perpetual enemy, the Danes.
The rest of the island is a warren of narrow cobbled streets and low-rise houses with wooden shutters and wrought-iron gates at their windows. Many of the houses are now shops, selling original goods, from wooden toys to paintings, ceramics to fabrics.
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Steeped in history, Stockholm blends old world architecture with modern function. Stroll the narrow, cobbled streets of Gamla Stan (above) for a glimpse of yesteryear, while stopping at shops filled with goods of local artisans. Patriotism rings true throughout the city with statues of monarchs, such as King Karl XII (below) in the Kungsträdgården section of City.
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A few recurring themes crop up on a variety of items, including reindeer, trolls and, of course, Vikings. You can find Viking memorabilia everywhere in Stockholm. At shops such as Handfaste on Västerlånggatan, you can pick up your own leather Viking helmet,Viking chess set, or replica sword.
Stadsholmen may seem cozy and nostalgic, but its central square, Stortorget, has seen its share of infamy. It was the scene of the Stockholm Bloodbath, one of the city's bloodiest episodes. In 1520, the Danish King Kristian II so besieged the Swedish regent that the latter gave in and Kristian was proclaimed king of Sweden. The new king promised an amnesty and three days of festivities were planned; but as the revelers gathered for the celebrations, they were taken captive, and more than 80 Swedish noblemen and citizens were beheaded the next day in the square.
The Riddarholmsbron connects Stadsholmen to the neighboring Old Town island of Riddarholmen. I crossed the bridge, heading for the city's "royal" church, the Riddarholmskyrkan. The main church has an unusual latticework spire made of cast iron, which was added after a serious fire in 1835. The church has expanded over the centuries thanks to the addition of external royal burial chambers. The first of these dates to the 16th century; the most recent was added in 1858.The church holds the remains of almost every Swedish monarch from the 17th century to the present day, including, sadly, the tiny coffins of many royal children.
I crossed back over the Riddarholmsbron and Riksbron bridges to the mainland to explore a few more islands, starting from Blasieholmen, a protruding area of the mainland, next to City. At its tip is Nationalmuseum, a Renaissance-style building that holds the country's largest art collection. From there, the wrought iron Skeppsholmsbron led me to Skeppsholmen, a small island that measures just over 600 yards from end to end and on which is found the Moderna Museet, a new building filled with modern art from all over the world. At the far end of Skeppsholmen, another bridge leads to the miniature outpost of Kastellholmen which, though barely 250 yards long, has its own 19th-century castle. The little island with its steep cliffs seems a long way from the heart of the city and makes for a peaceful rest stop.
The next island, Djurgården, is also reached from the mainland, over a 19th-century stone bridge. I found more grandeur in the shape of the Nordiska Museet, the National Museum of Cultural History, which opened in 1907. It is an enormous building, and it is hard to believe that it was designed to be four times the size. Inside the immense front door is a dark, cavernous rectangular hall four stories high, dominated by the larger-than-life statue of Gustav Vasa, the king who drove out the Danes after the Stockholm Bloodbath. Some people claim that the head of the statue was carved from an oak tree planted by Gustav himself — a piece of recycling of which he might well have approved. On the floors above are galleries filled with exhibits of life in Sweden since the 16th century. There are dollhouses and clothing, a sumptuous 17th-century state bedchamber, and some accomplished, if rather dark, paintings by August Strindberg.
Part of Djurgården is taken up by Skansen, an open-air museum that is filled with buildings collected from all over Sweden: 14th-century log cabins, 19th-century artisans' workshops, a farm, a shingle-roofed church, a small zoo, a scattering of cafés, and more than 100 other buildings.The idea is to show today's industrialized society how simply people used to live. As I stood there reflecting on how complicated life has become, a woman trudged past me, dressed in peasant skirt, shawl, and boots, carrying a basket of wood.
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A coastal city lends itself to diverse distractions. Above, aboard the Malardrottningen, a restaurant boat, diners can escape land for a meal.
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She passed without a word, stomped into the log cabin, and shut the door behind her, and I found myself looking around to check that everyone else had seen her too. When you're dipping in and out of history in this way, it can play tricks on the mind.
Awash in the medieval and Renaissance grandeur of Stockholm, I now sought something a little more modern: the art deco Sturebadet in City, a public bathhouse that was built in 1902 and rebuilt after a fire in 1985. Its mosaic-tiled pool, curved ceiling, and painstakingly restored decor are reason enough to pay a visit. Adding to the allure is the fact that you can swim here.
Within a few minutes' walk is another example of a more recent building that is still in everyday use: the Kungliga Biblioteket, or Royal Library. The 19th-century reading room is lined with ranks of reading tables, interspersed with slender cast-iron pillars, covered in trompe l'oeil decoration, that support the ceiling.
The room is bathed in natural light that floods in from the tall windows with their arched wrought-iron frames. They were commissioned specially for the building and were the first of their kind to be made in Sweden. The Special Reading Room is almost as beautiful, with its parquet floor and white vaulted ceiling. The facade and the entrance hall are so impressive that they are official national monuments, and when the basement was excavated in the 1990s to provide more storage, the staircase was enclosed by a glass corridor in a stunning display of modern architecture.
And that, I thought, was one of the defining features of Stockholm — the care with which its history has been preserved and restored, so that it remains both attractive and useful to its residents. On Strandvägen, at the water's edge, I saw two modern obelisks inset with snakelike shapes on each of the four sides. They were lit up in flickering colors. The changing colors measured wind speed, air pollution, nitrogen dioxide in the air, and other environmental influences upon the city. The obelisks were erected in 1994 by King Carl XVI Gustav as "a reminder staof our common responsibility for the present and future environment." As far as I could see, from my long walk around the city, one thing the Stockholmers would always be good at is keeping their city of islands beautiful.
- Jo Swinnerton
Getting There: Continental begins nonstop service to Stockholm from its hub in New York/Newark on June 2.
Let There Be Light
The Nordic Light Hotel, like much of Stockholm itself, mixes cutting-edge style with a sense of fun. The plain exterior hides a stylish hotel, which includes the Nordic Light Hotel Bar & Lounge, an excellent ground floor bar and restaurant. Upstairs, the bedrooms are spacious and comfortable. But the hotel's unique selling point is its light effects. Taking the Northern Lights as their inspiration, architect Kai Piippo and designer Lars Pihl have designed a "light bed," which allows guests to create their own mood lighting. Controls in the headboard offer either a static color or rainbow colors, which fade from pink into blue and green in a constant flow of soft, soothing light. The hotel won the European Light Trophy in 2002 for its innovation, and at night it is a beautiful sight from the outside, as every window glows a different color.
The Nordic Light Hotel is conveniently located, outside the Arlanda Express terminal, from which a 20-minute train journey connects City to Arlanda Airport. - J.S.
