Museums & Galleries

The Historiska Museet — the Swedish History Museum — is the national museum of Swedish archaeology and history, holding artefacts from the Stone Age through the Viking Age and into the Middle Ages. The Gold Room, or Guldrummet, is its underground vault, a purpose-built strongroom that displays the museum’s collection of prehistoric and medieval gold … Read more

Djurgården’s museums are concentrated there because the island has been royal crown land for centuries, protected from private development and later designated a national city park. That legal status kept the land open, which made it the obvious site for the large open-air and exhibition institutions Stockholm built from the 1890s onward — and the … Read more

Sweden’s free-entry policy applies to a specific group of state-run “central museums” (centralmuseer), funded through the national culture budget rather than ticket sales. Since 2016 the government has periodically waived admission to their permanent collections, though the rule has been narrowed and widened more than once. Private and foundation-run museums are never part of it, … Read more

What is the Hallwyl Museum? The Hallwyl Museum (Hallwylska museet) is a private palace built in central Stockholm in the 1890s, kept almost exactly as its last owners left it and opened to the public as a museum. It holds the full contents of one wealthy household — furniture, paintings, weapons, porcelain, textiles and even … Read more

What is Tekniska Museet? Tekniska Museet is Sweden’s national museum of technology and industry, standing on Norra Djurgården in Stockholm since 1936. It holds tens of thousands of objects covering engineering, transport, communication and invention, alongside a hands-on science centre for children and a domed cinema-planetarium called Cosmonova. It is run as an independent foundation, … Read more

Junibacken is a children’s cultural centre on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm, built around the world of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren — creator of Pippi Longstocking, Emil of Lönneberga and Karlsson-on-the-Roof. It combines a narrated train ride through scenes from her books, a full-size reconstruction of Pippi’s house, a stage for children’s theatre, and … Read more

What is the Spritmuseum? Spritmuseum — the “Museum of Spirits” — is Stockholm’s museum of alcohol and drinking culture, on the island of Djurgården. It covers how Sweden has made, sold, taxed, rationed and drunk alcohol over the past few centuries, and it houses the Absolut Art Collection, works commissioned by the vodka brand Absolut … Read more

Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde is a former private residence on the Djurgården peninsula in Stockholm, built for Prince Eugen (1865–1947), a member of the Swedish royal family and a working landscape painter. On his death he left the entire estate — house, gallery, park and collection — to the Swedish state, with the condition that it … Read more

What is Thielska Galleriet? Thielska Galleriet is an art museum on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm, housed in a private villa built between 1905 and 1907 for the banker Ernest Thiel. It holds his collection of late-19th and early-20th-century Nordic art, including works by Edvard Munch, Anders Zorn, Carl Larsson, Eugène Jansson and Bruno … Read more

Medeltidsmuseet — the Museum of Medieval Stockholm — is a museum built directly around archaeological remains uncovered beneath the city centre in the late 1970s. It sits underground, beneath the bridge Norrbro, between Gustav Adolfs Torg and the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament building). Rather than removing what was found, the city built the museum in … Read more