The Viking Town Birka

Info Telefon: (+46) 08 560 51 445
Besucher-Email: birka@raa.se
http:/www.raa.se...

Open daily: May–Sep.

Bus: For boat times call Strömma Kanalbolaget 08 587 140 00 or Mälarö Skärgårdstrafik 08 711 14 57

See Strömma Kanalbolaget`s web site for information about opening hours.
Getting to Birka and HovgårdenThe World Heritage sites of Birka and Hovgården are to be found on the islands of Björkö (Birka) and Adelsö (Hovgården) in Lake Mälar.
You can reach Hovgården by car or bus, see the link to Stockholm Transports (SL) bus service 312, below.
Birka is only accessible by boat, at your own arrangement or via one of our partner shipping companies.
Please note that the shipping companies do not run ferry services to Birka when the visitors centre and facilities are closed for the season and no public events have been planned.
HovgårdenThe National Heritage Board has a cooperative partnership with Kalle Runristare (Kalle the rune carver), who organises historic walks at Hovgården on Adelsö throughout the year. If you are interested in joining Kalle on one of these guided walks, please contact him for further information via the Internet link below.
Pets on Björkö You are welcome to bring a dog along if you keep it on a leash and leave it behind when you visit the museum. Don´t forget that sheep and bull calves run loose on the island.

See also:
Strömma Kanalbolaget - information about timetables and route. (Booking of guide for groups.)

The excavated remains from the Viking town of Birka are a world heritage site. While in Björkö, you can marvel at the ancient monument area or lose yourself among the museum`s models, archaeological finds and reconstructions.
Birka itself is no longer standing. But you can learn all about the Viking town and its inhabitants during a guided tour of the ancient monument area. And don`t forget about the Birka Museum, enveloped in the lush countryside of Ångholmen Island - it`s a must-see when you`re visiting this world heritage site.
The Birka Exhibition The museum`s permanent exhibition features miniature models, archaeological finds and reconstructions. Based on a series of excavations, the models depict the town at the time that it was home to some 700 people. One model gives you a little snapshot of what an early spring day in the 9th century might have been like. While builders hammer away at houses and boats, fishermen are out on the ice. Peek into the houses and find out what the local population is up to. Another model offers a glimpse of the harbour. Ships and boats of various sizes and shapes are dropping anchor or setting off. St. Ansgar, a Benedictine monk who is coming to spread the Word, stands expectantly in one of the boats.
The Museum Shop While you`re in Birka, take a look around our museum shop. All of the merchandise is connected in one way or another with the Viking town. Rummage through our book collection, postcards, glass beads, jewellery, and exquisitely crafted replicas of Viking objects from the excavation area. Take our word for it - you`re in for a real treat.
 

The Museum of Medieval Stockholm - Stockholms Medeltidsmuseum

Info Telefon: (+46) 08 508 317 90
Besucher-Email: info@medeltidsmuseet.stockholm.se
http://www.medeltidsmuseet.stockholm.se/...

ATTENTION: TEMPORARILY IN KULTURHUSET, Sergels torg

Opening hours
Tuesdag - friday 11am-7pm
Saturday - sunday 11am-5pm
Monday closed.



Due to the renovation of Norrbro (the North Bridge) the museum has moved from Helgeandsholmen to a location in Kulturhuset. In Kulturhuset we have a small exhibition and a shop. While the work on the bridge is taking place we are building the new Museum of Medieval Stockholm which is expected to open in the early 2010. After re-opening:

Sep–Jun Tue–Sun 11am–4pm, Wed 11am–6pm

Metro: Kungsträdgården, Gamla Stan
Bus: 43, 62

"The Museum of Medieval Stockholm gives you the possibility to experience life in Stockholm during the medieval period between 1250 and 1520.

The museum itself is built around a medieval city wall that was found during a rebuilding of the Swedish Parliament Building (Riksdagshuset). The plans were to construct a garage under the gardens east of the Parliament. Remains of the Town Wall came to light, and an important archeological investigation took off that lasted 1978-80.

Apart from the Stockholm Town Wall that was found, many other objects were found like 11 boats, 7 metric tons of skeletons and huge amounts of artifacts.

So instead of a garage for the parliament, this area in the middle of Stockholm was converted into this remarkable museum.

The Stockholm Medieval Museum also arranges lectures and symposia and other activities espcecially for youth and schools." (Museums of Stockholm)
 

Jewish Museum of Stockholm

Fax.: 08-319404

Info Telefon: 08-310143
Besucher-Email: info@judiska-museet.se

All days except Saturdays
between 12 and 4 p.m.

The museum was founded in 1987 by its former director Aron Neuman, who together with his wife Viola provided the funds necessary to get the museum started.
The aims that were set up are to show

* the history of the Swedish Jews
* the adaption of the Jews to the Swedish society and their contribution to culture, art, literature, trade, industry etc
* the culture and religion of the Jews, their manners and customs, in the synagogue and in their homes

The museum, which is one of the few Jewish museums in the Nordic countries and is a member of the Swedish Association of Museums, is since 1992 accomodated in premises, consisting of entrance hall and three rooms. Two of the rooms are used for exhibition purposes, one for the permanent displays, the other one for special temporary exhibitions. The permanent displays include a number of show-cases, in which the artefacts are presented mainly in terms of categories such as Thora, sabbath, circumcision etc. Since its start the museum has set up a number of special exhibitions covering different aspects of Jewish life in Sweden.

The museum has met with lively response from the general public. The number of visitors amounts to about 12 000 a year which is very satisfactory for Swedish conditions.


In support of the museum there is a Friendship Association with about 1 100 members.

Along with the sheer exhibition activities the museum pursues informative activities. This is done mainly through lectures about the Swedish Jews, their history and their relations to society and about Jewish culture and religion. These lectures are given in connection with the demonstration of the exhibits.

It is also worth mentioning that the museum has started to organize a research library within its premises, intended to assist research work at different levels.

Regarding the economy of the museum it should be pointed out that the museum - apart from a manager, an information officer and a controller – only has voluntary employees. These helpers, amounting to about 35 people, carry out all occurring tasks, such as demonstration of the artefacts, surveillance, keeping of the cash and operation of the museum cafeteria. It is quite clear that the museum could hardly be managed without the efforts of these voluntary workers. As a matter of fact the museum has to a great extent to confide in grants from the community and from private institutions. The museum has received substantial allowances from the City of Stockholm.
 

Skanzen - Open-Air Museum

Info Telefon: (+46) 08 442 80 00
Besucher-Email: info@skansen.se
http://www.skansen.se...

May 10am– 8pm, Jun–Aug 10am–10pm
Sep 10am–5pm, Oct–Apr (except Christmas Eve) 10am–4pm
Historical buildings open May–Sep 11am–5pm, Oct–Apr (some buildings) 11am–3pm.

Metro: Ferry to Djurgården, Tram from Norrmalmstorg
Bus: 44, 47

Skansen is the world’s oldest open-air museum and offers views of different parts of Sweden as well as customs, traditions and the corresponding way of life.
Skansen offers a unique historic and cultural environment in which craftsmen in traditional dress such as tanners, shoemakers, silversmiths, bakers and glass-blowers demonstrate their skills in period surroundings.

The Skansen collection includes more than 150 historical buildings and houses (from 1680-) that was bought by the founder Artur Hazelius (1833-1901) from all over the country. The houses were sent piece by piece to Stockholm and rebuilt and scattered all over this 300,000 m2 area in Djurgården, an centric island of Stockholm.

This open-air museum opened in 1891 and has since then been a model for other historic installations of this kind all in several parts of the world.

There is also an open-air zoo with Scandinavian animals, like wolfs, elks and deers.
 

Swedish National Maritime Museum

Fax.: +46-8-519 549 49

Info Telefon: +46 (0) 8-51954900
Besucher-Email: registrator@maritima.se
http://www.sjohistoriska.se/InEnglish/ab...

Tue–Sun 10am–5pm
Tue 10am– 8.30pm in spring and autumn
Guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays

The Maritime Museum is the central institution within SMM (Swedish National Maritime Museums), which also oversees its two sister
museums, the Naval Museum and the Vasa Museum. It is charged with the collection, conservation and exhibition of material relating to
merchant shipping, shipbuilding and naval defence. The activities of the Museum comprise bringing to life our maritime heritage in manifold ways, disseminating knowledge about maritime and naval history through exhibition and education activities, and collecting maritime objects of historic value. Exhibits include ships’ interiors,
navigational instruments, weapons, figureheads, marlinspike seamanship, and art. It preserves the original cabin and sun-crowned stern of the schooner Amphion (though at present they are built into the structure). It was on board the Amphion that Gustav III planned his strikes against Russia during the 1788–1790 war.

The merchant shipping history and naval history collections can compare with the finest in the world. They comprise some 100,000 objects, including over 1500 models of ships and boats. There are also boat and ship drawings, paintings, weapons, uniforms and much else. Unique inventories, records, and extensive photographic
collections, both historical and contemporary in their focus, make the Museum’s archives essential sources for those with an interest in maritime culture. The nautical library is the largest in Scandinavia. Model building, marine archaeological and ethnological documentation and research are other fields of expertise at the Maritime Museum.
The Museum publishes the biennial Sjöhistorisk Arsbok, the programme newsletter Sjöhistoriska and a scientific report series.

History

When the Maritime Museum was opened in the presence of the King of Sweden on 28 May 1938, the establishment of a maritime museum in Stockholm had been under discussion for forty years, and during that time the growing maritime collections had been shuffled between various temporary exhibition spaces. The construction of a specialised museum was ultimately made possible through a donation by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Conditions of the donation
were that the Government provided a suitable site - and that the museum was not to be built in the functionalist style. (Functionalism represented one of the international “disintegrating” forces in society.)
The architect Ragnar Östberg designed a museum building in a classic style partly based on Gustavian models. Yet contemporary functionalist ideals made themselves felt in its simplicity and its clean, bright surfaces. The building’s curved forms are intended to suggest a ship: rounded forms resist a storm at sea better than straight ones. Another maritime touch is apparent to anybody viewing Stockholm from the air: the museum together with the Stockholm City Hall -
another building by Östberg - forms a giant anchor. The City Hall is the anchor ring, while the Maritime Museum with its long, curving wings
forms the crown.

Like many other museums, the Maritime Museum is rooted in the late 19th century National Romantic movement, whose agenda was to preserve and protect traditional Swedish culture in a time of
momentous social change, class struggle and internationalisation. This was depicted through the Museum’s civil navigation collection. Then there were the naval collections: these had been shown at e.g. the Stockholm World Exhibition in 1897, where the latest technological advances could be viewed alongside relics from mighty days of yore. Among the strongest promoters of the museum project was the Society for a Swedish Maritime Museum in Stockholm, founded in 1913, which as the Friends of the Museum continues to play an active part in our broad-based maritime history-related activities. “But sixty years, while it is a brief moment in maritime history, is a long time for a building,” says Anders Björklund, Director of the Maritime Museum. “This fine structure was erected for uses which have
changed a great deal since the 1930s. For natural reasons it is no longer able to meet the expectations that we have today on a diverse,
outward-looking museum. Our important task today is to build on the farsighted decisions that first led to the establishment of the Maritime
Museum, and to renovate these spaces to meet the demands and needs of our own time.”
 

The Museum of Ethnography

Fax.: 08-519 550 70

Info Telefon: (+46) 08 519 550 00/10
Besucher-Email: info@etnografiska.se
http://www.etnografiska.se...

Tue and Fri 10 am - 17 pm.
Wednesday 10 am - 20 pm
Sat and Sun 11 am - 17 pm

The Museum is situated on the northern part of Djurgården.

Take Bus 69 from the Central Station to Bus stop Museivägen or take a waterside walk along the Djurgårdsbrunn canal.

The Museum collections contains objects from China, Corea, South- and Southeast Asia, The Pacific, the Americas and Africa. A total of ca 220 000 objects.

 

The Swedish Tobacco & Match Museum - Tobaks- & Tändsticksmuseet

Fax.: +46 8 669 64 46

Info Telefon: (+46) 08 442 80 26
Besucher-Email: info@ttmuseum.nu
htpp://www.tobaccoandmatch.museum...

Oct–Apr Tue–Sun 11am–3pm
May–Sep daily 11am–5pm
Sundays 11am–4pm

Metro: Ferry to Djurgården, Tram from Norrmalmstorg; Bus: 44, 47

The Tobacco & Match Museum is a museum of industrial and cultural history with extensive collections detailing the history of Swedish tobacco and matches.

The Tobacco Museum was founded in 1938. The objects collected came from some of the hundreds of tobacco factories operating in Sweden prior to 1915, when the tobacco monopoly was instituted.

In 1965, the Tobacco Museum moved to Skansen, and in 2000, it was complemented with a match-related section and changed its name to the Tobacco & Match Museum. The museum is run with the financial support of Swedish Match AB, which also owns the collections.
 

The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern antiquities - Medelhavsmuseet

Fax.: 08-519 553 70

Info Telefon: 08-519 550 50
Besucher-Email: info@medelhavsmuseet.se
http://www.medelhavsmuseet.se/smvk/jsp/p...

Tuesday - Friday 12 - 20 pm

Saturday - Sunday 12 - 17 pm

Monday Closed

The Museum is closed May 1, Midsummers Eve, Midsummers Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day.

The museum houses Sweden's most important archaeological collections of ancient and historical relics from the Mediterranean countries. With its well-balanced selection of artefacts and exceptionally fine collections, the museum is one of the few in the world to give visitors a summary in reasonable time of the Mediterranean countries' rich and exciting history, from the earliest traces of humans in Mesopotamia and Egypt to the early Christian and Islamic cultures. The museum is in central Stockholm, in a former bank built in 1905 with a neo-classical interior unique in Scandinavian architectural history and therefore well worth seeing itself. The museum's Oriental café gives visitors a magnificent view of the Royal palace and centre.

The Egyptian exhibition illuminates various aspects of life in the Egypt of the Pharaohs. Mummies, mummy cases and other burial finds reflect the ancient Egyptians' beliefs about the afterlife.
The Museum's exceptional Cyprus collection is without parallel elsewhere in the world. A unique collection of offerings from a sacred site was excavated by the Swedish Cyprus expedition of 1927-31. The museum's collections of antiquities, including sculptures, marbles and unique cork models of buildings, are displayed in the museum's central hall.
The Near East and Islamic collections come from places such as Iran and Turkey. And the museum uses the development of Islamic art between the 7th and 19th centuries to show the importance of Islamic culture as the heir to the cultures of antiquity and Christianity.
The museum also houses a Gold Room with a fine collection of ancient silver and gold jewellery.

The Egyptian exhibition shows various aspects of life in Pharaonic Egypt from 3000 BC to the Christian era. There are also many objects from the prehistoric period, starting around 5000 BC. Most of the objects came to Sweden in the late 19:century, and have been donated to the museum from private collections.

The Egyptian Exhibition contains, in addition to mummified humans, also mummies of cats, birds, fishes and snakes. The Goddess Isis with the child Horus in her lap meets the visitors as they enter the exhibition. The pose she holds occurs commonly in western art where the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus often is portrayed in the same position.

A portrait of the well-known pharaoh Sesostris was donated to Sweden by the Egyptian government in recognition both of Swedish participation when the Assuan-dam was built and of professor Torgny Säve-Söderbergh as an internationally well-known Egyptologist.

Photo: Ove Kaneberg, Medelhavsmuseet.
 

National museum - Nationalmuseum

Fax.: +46 (0)8-5195 4450

Info Telefon: +46 (0)8-5195 4300
Besucher-Email: info@nationalmuseum.se
http://www.nationalmuseum.se/...

Tuesday and Thursday 11 am–8 pm. Wednesday, Friday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm. Monday closed.

Paintings and sculptures
The Nationalmuseum collections of paintings and sculptures comprise some 16,000 works. Artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Renoir, Degas and Gauguin are represented, as are the Swedish artists Carl Larsson, Ernst Josephson, C F Hill and Anders Zorn. The collection includes art from the late Middle Ages up to the beginning of the 20th century, with the emphasis on Swedish 18th and 19th century painting. Duth painting from the 17th century is also well represented, and the French 18th century collection is regarded as one of the best in the world.

Applied art and modern design
The museum's collection of applied art, design and industrial design spans over a long period, from the 14th century to today. It consists of ca. 30,000 objects of which a third are ceramics and thereafter, in order of numbers, textiles, glass, precious and non-precious metals, furniture, books etc.The collection of applied art from the Renaissance to the early 20th century is currently not on display but will be shown in a new permanent exhibition in renovated halls. Form and artistic value are the basic criteria for museum acquisitions. Pieces from Sweden and the other Nordic countries are given priority, but even other countries are represented, especially those that have been significant for design development.

Prints and drawings
The collection of Prints and Drawings comprises about 500 000 items from late mediaeval times up to the year 1900. Central to the collections are in excess of 2000 master drawings that Carl Gustaf Tessin acquired during his tour of duty as Sweden's ambassador to France. Of particular importance are collections of works by Rembrandt, Watteau, Edouard Manet, Johan Tobias Sergel, Carl Larsson, Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson. Since drawings are highly sensitive to light, the collection is not on permanent display but is shown in special temporary exhibitions. The department has its own public galleries on the ground floor. The premises also contain a study room where scholars and interested parties can inspect individual items on request.

Royal Castles Collections
From the beginning the Royal Castles Collections consisted, as appears from the name, of the parts of the art collections of the royal pleasure-palaces which were owned by the State. Today the Royal Castles Collections at the Nationalmuseum administer the majority of the paintings, drawings, engravings, and sculptures existing in five of the royal pleasure-palaces, i.e. Gripsholm, Drottningholm, Strömsholm, Rosersberg and Ulriksdal.The largest collection is the National Portrait Gallery founded in 1822 at the Gripsholm Castle which today includes 4000 works of art. Gradually, the area of responsibility of the Royal Castles Collections has been extended and now comprises 18 palaces, manors and other units.

The Gustavsberg Porcelain Collection
Since January 1 2001, the collections in The Gustavsberg Porcelain Museum is part of the Nationalmuseum collections.

 

Prins Eugens Art Gallery - Waldemarsudde

Info Telefon: (+46) +46 - (0)8 54583700
http://www.waldemarsudde.se...

Tue–Sun: 11am–5pm
Thu: 11am–8pm
Mondays closed.
The Park is open daily, year round.

Catch bus nr. 47 or tram nr. 7, sign-posted to Waldemarsudde from the city centre to the final stop or ferry boat from Nybroviken or Slussen to Gröna Lund, Djurgården.

Waldemarsudde, originally the home of Prince Eugen, son of Oscar II (1865-1947), became state-owned after the Prince`s death and in accordance with his will, and is now among the most-visited art museums in Sweden. The complex consists of a castle-like main building - the Mansion - finished in 1905 and designed by the Swedish architect Ferdinand Boberg, and a Gallery Building, added in 1913. The estate also includes the original manor-house building, known as the Old House and an old linseed mill, both dating back to the 1780s.
Prince Eugen was one of his generation`s foremost landscape painters and many of his best-known works, including Molnet (the Cloud) and Det gamla slottet (The Old Castle), are part of the collections at Waldemarsudde.


He was also an art collector and his collection of Swedish turn-of-the-19th-century art is one of the foremost in the country.

In the Mansion the Prince`s Private Apartments remain mostly unchanged, while the two upper floors - with the Prince`s Studio at the top - are used for temporary exhibitions or for exhibiting works by the Prince or from his collections. The Gallery Building is mainly used for temporary exhibitions.

The estate is set in beautiful parkland, featuring centuries-old oak trees. Its situation by the inlet to Stockholm harbour presents the visitor with stunning views of the water.

The Prince was fond of gardens and the garden at Waldemarsudde, planned by the owner himself, is well worth a visit.

The park contains a number of sculptures by French and Swedish artists, such as Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle and Carl Milles, as well as copies of Roman and Greek sculptures, including one of Nike of Samothrace, cast after the original in the Louvre.