Stockholm, Sweden - July 8th to 15th
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries, with about 2.4 million people in the metro area. The city stretches across fourteen islands into the Baltic Sea. Outside the city to the east, and along the coast, is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The city was founded in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl.
Ground Carving Near City Hall
Sea and wind motifs. They eyes are movable - they can be rolled around independently in their sockets.
Giant Hairy Door Knocker?
The Vasa
The Vasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship foundered after sailing about 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into its maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. It fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century until it was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961. Since her recovery, Vasa has become a widely recognized symbol of the Swedish "great power period".
The Vasa Museum is built around the ship. It has 6 floors from which to view the ship. During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the Vasa's hull by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden.
Vasa Scale Model
On 10 August 1628, Captain Söfring Hansson ordered Vasa to depart on her maiden voyage to the naval station at Älvsnabben. The day was calm, and the only wind was a light breeze from the southwest. The ship was warped (hauled by anchor) along the eastern waterfront of the city to the southern side of the harbor, where four sails were set, and the ship made way to the east. The gun ports were open, and the guns were out to fire a salute as the ship left Stockholm.
As Vasa passed under the lee of the bluffs to the south (what is now Södermalm), a gust of wind filled her sails, and it heeled suddenly to port. The sheets were cast off, and the ship slowly righted herself as the gust passed. At Tegelviken, where there is a gap in the bluffs, an even stronger gust again forced the ship onto its port side, this time pushing the open lower gunports under the surface, allowing water to rush in onto the lower gundeck. The water building up on the deck quickly exceeded the ship's minimal ability to right itself, and water continued to pour in until it ran down into the hold; the ship quickly sank to a depth of 32 m (105 ft) only 120 m (390 ft) from shore. Survivors clung to debris or the upper masts, which were still above the surface, to save themselves, and many nearby boats rushed to their aid, but despite these efforts and the short distance to land, 30 people perished with the ship, according to reports. Vasa sank in full view of a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, of mostly ordinary Stockholmers who had come to see the great ship set sail. The crowd included foreign ambassadors, in effect spies of Gustavus Adolphus' allies and enemies, who also witnessed the catastrophe.
Vasa Scale Model
The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). It was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannons cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion it was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable and top-heavy with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability it was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze.
Vasa - Ornamentation
As was the custom with warships at the time, Vasa was decorated with sculptures intended to glorify the authority, wisdom and martial prowess of the monarch and also to deride, taunt and intimidate the enemy. The sculptures made up a considerable part of the effort and cost of building the ship. The symbolism used in decorating the ship was mostly based on the Renaissance idealization of Roman and Greek antiquity, which had been imported from Italy through German and Dutch artists. Imagery borrowed from Mediterranean antiquity dominates the motifs, but also include figures from the Old Testament and even a few from ancient Egypt. Many of the figures are in Dutch grotesque style, depicting fantastic and frightening creatures, including mermaids, wild men, sea monsters and tritons.
Close to 500 sculptures, most of which are concentrated on the high stern and its galleries and on the beakhead, are found on the ship. The sculptures are carved out of oak, pine or linden, and many of the larger pieces, like the huge 3-metre (10 ft) long figurehead lion, consist of several parts carved individually and fitted together with bolts.
Vasa Scale Model - Ornamentation
Residues of paint have been found on many sculptures and on other parts of the ship. The entire ornamentation was once painted in vivid colors. The sides of the beakhead (the protruding structure below the bowsprit), the bulwarks (the protective railing around the weather deck), the roofs of the quarter galleries, and the background of the transom (the flat surface at the stern of the ship) were all painted red, while the sculptures were decorated in bright colors, and the dazzling effect of these was in some places emphasized with gold leaf.
In the 1980's and 90's research was done on the paint residues and the scale model is painted as the ship actually looked when it launched in 1628.
Vasa
In the early 1620s, work at the Stockholm navy yard was led by a pair of Dutch-born entrepreneurs, Antonius Monier and master shipwright Henrik Hybertsson. Master Henrik never saw Vasa completed; he fell ill in late 1625, and by the summer of 1626 he had handed over supervision of the work in the yard to another Dutch shipwright, Henrik "Hein" Jacobsson. He died in the spring of 1627. After the death of Henrik Hybertsson, the responsibility to manage the construction of the ship was inherited by his widow Margareta Hybertsson. The museum had an interesting exhibit that explained that it was relatively common for women to have important jobs in Sweden at this time.
Vasa was an early example of a warship with two full gun decks, and was built when the theoretical principles of shipbuilding were still poorly understood. There is no evidence that Henrik Hybertsson had ever built a ship like it before, and two gundecks is a much more complicated compromise in seaworthiness and firepower than a single gundeck. Safety margins at the time were also far below anything that would be acceptable today. Combined with the fact that 17th-century warships were built with intentionally high superstructures (to be used as firing platforms), this made Vasa a risky undertaking.
Skånska Gruvan
The Skåne mine was erected as an exhibition pavilion for the Stockholm Exhibition in 1897. Exhibitors in the Skåne mine were the Skåne brick and sugar mills, lime-cement and coal industries that joined together in a joint Skåne pavilion to be seen more at the large exhibition. In addition to the connection to Skåne, the Skåne mine got its name from an artificial mine.
Statue on Djurgården
Djurgården, or more officially, Kungliga Djurgården (The Royal Game Park) is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small residential area Djurgårdsstaden, yacht harbours, and extensive stretches of forest and meadows. It is one of the Stockholmers' favorite recreation areas and tourist destinations alike, attracting over 10 million visitors per year, of which some 5 million come to visit the museums and amusement park.
Fotografiska - Museum of Photography
This was one of the best museums of our entire trip - maybe the best. Fotografiska has 5500 square meters of exhibition spaces, an academy, bistro, café, bar, conference rooms, museum shop, gallery, and event spaces. Fotografiska is housed at Stadsgården, in a former customs house in the Art Nouveau style dating from 1906.
Our visit here left us wishing that we had something like it closer to home. It was truly spectacular. Luckily, just the other day we discovered that they will be opening another Fotografiska in NYC this fall! Audrey - get ready for our visit!
Sunset Over Gamla Stan #1
Gamla Stan Alley
Mural in Gamla Stan
Making New Friends
Dogs Are Welcome on the Metro... But Only in Certain Cars
Uppsala Domkyrka
We spent a day in Uppsala, the 4th largest city in Sweden. It's about 44 miles from Stockholm - an easy 50 minute train ride.
Uppsala Cathedral is Scandinavia's largest. Construction began in 1272, but was not completed until the mid-15th century. It was at this site that Sweden's patron saint Eric Jedvardsson had attended mass (at an earlier church) before he was murdered in 1160. The relics of Saint Eric, the treasure of Uppsala, were moved from Gamla Uppsala to this site in 1273.
Uppsala Domkyrka - King John III
Johan III (1537 – 1592) was King of Sweden from 1568 until his death. He was the second son of King Gustav I of Sweden. He was also the ruler of Finland, as Duke John from 1556 to 1563. In 1581 he also assumed the title Grand Prince of Finland. He attained the Swedish throne after a rebellion against his half-brother Eric XIV. He is mainly remembered for his attempts to close the gap between the newly established Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Catholic church.
Gustavianum - Uppsala University Museum
In 1662 the professor of medicine and polymath Olaus Rudbeck constructed the 'theatrum anatomicum' within a large cupola on the roof. The anatomical theater was used until the 1750s when new more modern anatomical facilities were inaugurated in the neighboring building.
An "Anatomical Theatre" was an institution used in teaching anatomy at early modern universities. The theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, steeply tiered so that students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection almost from above and unencumbered by the spectators in the rows in front. It was common to display skeletons at some place in the theater.
Gamla Uppsala - Old Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. As early as the 3rd century AD, it was an important religious, economic and political centre. Early written sources claim that already during pre-history, Gamla Uppsala was well known in Northern Europe as the residence of Swedish kings of the legendary Yngling dynasty. In fact, the oldest Scandinavian sources, such as Ynglingatal, the Westrogothic law and the Gutasaga talk of the King of the Swedes (Suiones) as the "King at Uppsala".
During the Middle Ages, it was the largest village of Uppland, the eastern part of which probably originally formed the core of the complex of properties belonging to the Swedish Crown, the so-called Uppsala öd, of which the western part consisted of the royal estate itself, kungsgården.
It was also the location of the "Thing", a general assembly of all Swedes which was held from pre-historic times to the Middle Ages, at the end of February or early March. It was held in conjunction with a great fair called Disting, and a Norse religious celebration called Dísablót.
Gamla Uppsala
Note the interesting construction, with the support beam on the side, sitting on a boulder.
3 Masted Ship - af Chapman
af Chapman, formerly Dunboyne (1888–1915) and G.D. Kennedy (1915−1923), is a full-rigged steel ship moored on the western shore of the islet Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, Sweden, now serving as a youth hostel.
Stockholm Archipelago
The archipelago extends from Stockholm roughly 60 kilometres (37 miles) to the east. There are approximately 24,000 islands and islets in the archipelago. Some of the better-known islands are Dalarö, Finnhamn, Nässlingen, Grinda, Husarö, Ingarö, Ljusterö, Möja, Nämdö [sv], Rödlöga, Tynningö, Utö, Svartsö and Värmdö.
We spent part of a day riding bikes on Svartsö. Even if we hadn't been interested in some time on Svartsö, the trip would have been worth it just for the ferry ride!
Stockholm Archipelago
Many Stockholm residents have island homes, but there are also people who live on these small islands full time. We met one woman who lives on an island with 6 other people - her husband and children. She works on a different island and the kids go to school on another different island. All of their commuting is done via boat - either their own or the ferry system.
