Stockholm history tour

The Stockholm history tour is a walk from Gamla stan ("the Old Town"), to Norrmalm in Stockholm. The tour is roughly chronological, from the Viking Age through the Middle Ages, the Swedish Empire and the Industrial Revolution to present day, with a few skips back and forward.

Understand
Lake Mälaren used to be part of the Baltic Sea, and the Stockholm archipelago was a waterway for the first Swedish towns; Birka, Uppsala, and Sigtuna. As Sigtuna was sacked by pirates in AD 1187, the Swedes had a stockade built at an island in the strait, which has been known as Stockholm since 1252. As the land rose due to post-glacial rebound (see below) Mälaren became a lake, cargo had to reload at Stockholm. In the 15th century, Stockholm replaced Uppsala as the centre of commerce and government, becoming the capital of the 17th-century Swedish Empire.

Since 1901, Stockholm has drawn the world's attention with the Nobel Prize. The city was spared by the World Wars, but around the 1960s, hundreds of old buildings in Norrmalm were torn down to build a new business district, and a metro, known for its art. 21st century Stockholm is one of Europe's fastest growing cities, known for pop music, startup tech companies, and sustainable development.

Prepare
May to September tend to have the most comfortable weather. In summer you can take advantage of the long daylight; a morning or evening tour can be preferred to avoid crowds. From 20 June to the end of July, most inhabitants leave the city, and some venues close for summer. From December to early March you can expect temperatures just below zero degrees Celsius, but cold weather can be managed with proper clothes. The main concern at winter is the darkness; sun sets at 15:00 in December; see Winter in the Nordic countries.

While Sweden is arguably the world's most cashless country, Swedish banknotes have portraits of some historical figures mentioned in this article, and are useful as props.

As Stockholm is an important stage for Nordic music and the home of world-leading streaming platform Spotify, the tour has a soundtrack.

Prologues
Södermalm heights tour is a prologue walking tour, with an astounding view of Stockholm from natural hilltops with hands-on Ice Age traces, and a showcase of 18th century buildings and craft shops.

The Uppland history tour along lake Mälaren takes you through the cradle of Sweden, with an opportunity to start at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. Birka, Sigtuna and Uppsala were the most important settlements of Viking Age and Medieval Sweden until Stockholm (nicknamed "Queen of Mälaren") became the undisputed capital in the 15th century.

You can arrive to Stockholm through the Stockholm archipelago; for instance on a Baltic Sea cruiseferry from Turku, Helsinki, Tallinn or Riga; cities which were once part of the Swedish Empire. The route recapitulates the literal (littoral) rise of Sweden from the sea, through post-glacial rebound (see Ice Age traces). The edge of the archipelago consists of barren rocks which barely break the surface, as Stockholm's islands did in prehistoric times. Among the skerries you see small islands with a few trees, cottages and docks, similar to settlements of the Middle Ages, and later whole towns with harbours, and sceneries similat ro the mainland. You enter Stockholm with the 19th century industrial zones of Nacka on port side, and the early 20th century mansions of Lidingö and Djurgården on starboard, minutes before docking at Stockholm harbour.

SL ferry line 80 is a commuter ferry included with the public transport ticket, which gives a view of the inner Stockholm archipelago, including Lidingö and Nacka.

Get around
The tour is around, and can be completed on quick feet within an hour: more for people who move slowly. Two hours would allow for a calm stroll with breaks at the waypoints, excluding visits to museums and other venues. For actually visiting all the museums and buildings rather than just taking a quick glance at them, you may want to budget a full day. Smaller text is used for landmarks which can be skipped by a visitor in a hurry, as they are not part of the big picture.

Stockholm centre is walking-friendly if snow is not present; following this itinerary by foot is safe and mostly hassle-free.

The streets of Gamla Stan are pedestrian stone streets, some of them with a steep grade. Wear comfortable shoes. They are less suitable for bicycles and electric scooters (see cycling in Sweden) and not open for cars. Wheelchairs and strollers can get through with a few detours.

Some organized walking tours follow similar waypoints.

Go
Blue for waypoints; green for landmarks visible from a distance, and orange for interesting places for eating and drinking.

For a shorter tour, any of the five parts (or the epilogue) can be skipped.

Introduction: The rise of Stockholm


The tour begins at the transportation hub Slussen on Södermalm, with a view of the Old Town, and the story about the Viking Age and the foundation of Stockholm in the 13th century.

Part I: The Old Town
Stockholm grew to become Sweden's capital through the Middle Ages and the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. As most structures from those times have been replaced by buildings from the 17th century or later (described in depth in the Stockholm quay palace tour) we need to look for cellars, streets, and other remnants.

Part II: Palace and Parliament
Around the Royal Palace and Riksdag (Parliament), we see the rise and fall of the Swedish Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the road to democracy, with universal suffrage achieved in 1918, and see Sweden's political institutions today.

Part III: Building a nation
From the 1860s to the 1960s, Sweden rose from a poor agrarian country to a post-industrial welfare state. As Stockholm sprawled outwards with railroads and motorways and evaded the World Wars, Norrmalm became the new business district, with expressions of Sweden's new national identity with historical monuments, museums and buildings to commemorate and romanticize its past. The Swedish Grace tour delves deeper in the 1920s, with the Swedish interpretation of Art Deco architecture.



Part IV: Port to the world
Nybroplan is a waterfront square, where we can sit down and see locations of events from the 1860s to the 1970s, which transformed Stockholm to a world city.

Part V: The world's most modern city
Stockholm's central business district was redeveloped for motorized commuting during the 1960s, in a time marked by the Cold War with a nuclear threat, and the consolidation of Sweden's welfare state. The rise of environmentalism, counterculture and street crime shattered the utopia. By year 2000, Stockholm had become a world leader in computing, sustainable technology and pop music. This is the scene for some of Sweden's most dramatic events during the last decades: a hostage crisis, two assassinations, and a terrorist attack.

Epilogue: Modern landmarks
We conclude the tour in a rooftop bar, with a view of Stockholm's tallest buildings, representing different periods of Stockholm's modern development. Opening hours of Urban Deli's rooftop bar are limited. Some alternative rooftop viewpoints are at Brunkebergstorg, and  at Vasagatan.

Timeline

 * 8,000 BCE: Icecap above Stockholm melts, leaving open sea behind.
 * 4,000 BCE: Hills south of today's Stockholm emerge from sea. Stone Age settlements.
 * 2,500 BCE: Södermalm's hills emerge from the sea.
 * AD 900: Height of Viking Age. Stockholm's islands are settled. First Christian missionaries arrive to Sweden.
 * 1007: Viking Chief Olaf (later Olaf II of Norway) sacks settlements at Mälaren.
 * 1187: Karelian pirates sack Sigtuna. Some years later, Tre Kronor Castle is built.
 * 1252: Birger jarl mentions Stockholm in a letter.
 * October 10, 1471: Swedish separatists defeat unionists at the battle of Brunkeberg.
 * November 7-9, 1520: Stockholm bloodbath: Kristian II of Denmark has at least 80 Swedish nobles beheaded.
 * June 24, 1523: Gustav Vasa liberates Stockholm, making Sweden independent since then.
 * August 10, 1628: Vasa sinks.
 * May 7, 1697: Tre Kronor Castle burns down, to be replaced by the Stockholm Palace.
 * March 16, 1792: Gustav III is assassinated in the Opera house.
 * June 20, 1810: Lynching of Axel von Fersen.
 * 19 March, 1848: Soldiers kill at least 18 suffrage protesters at Storkyrkobrinken.
 * 3 September, 1864: Alfred Nobel's nitroglycerin factory in Heleneborg explodes, killing six people. Two years later he invents dynamite.
 * December 10, 1901: First Nobel Prize ceremony
 * July 6, 1912: Opening of the Fifth Summer Olympics
 * 27 August, 1922: First national poll: 51% of Swedes reject prohibition of alcohol
 * October 1, 1950: First Stockholm Metro line opens, from Slussen to Hökarängen
 * June 11, 1956: Equestrian events of the XVI Summer Olympics held in Stockholm (main event held in Melbourne)
 * August 25, 1956: Vasa is re-discovered, and salvaged five years later.
 * June 29, 1958: Sweden hosts the FIFA World Cup, and the Swedish national team plays the final in Solna north of Stockholm. Brazil wins 5-2.
 * September 3, 1967: Switch to right-hand traffic
 * May 12, 1971: Elm protest in Kungsträdgården
 * August 23-28, 1973: Norrmalmstorg hostage crisis
 * February 28, 1986: Olof Palme is assassinated.
 * 1995: Sweden joins the European Union.
 * September 10, 2003: Anna Lindh is assassinated.
 * 2008: Spotify is founded. The hackers behind The Pirate Bay are prosecuted. The global financial crisis rocks Sweden.
 * April 7, 2017: A terrorist attack on Drottninggatan kills five people.

Go next

 * Jewish Stockholm
 * LGBT Stockholm
 * Stockholm in fiction