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STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN: The old town as guide to history up to the 19th Century

In geographic terms, what we now see on the map as Sweden was a relatively late arrival in Europe. For more than a hundred thousand years it was buried beneath ice that in some places was well over a mile thick, and it only began to emerge as habitable land once the most recent ice age ended.


Unlike in southern Europe, where it was possible during the ice age for Neanderthals and early modern humans to manage to survive, there is no evidence of human occupation of Sweden until the ice was receding. But humans are intrepid and resourceful, and one of our most obvious characteristics throughout our entire known prehistory and history is that we explore and migrate. Not surprisingly, the earliest archeological finds from Sweden date to just when the ice was melting off, around 10,000 years ago. These were gatherer-hunters to whom reindeer was a critically important source of food.


The Neolithic era was slow to arrive in Sweden, but once it did, many more people began to move in from both what are now Finland and Russia to the east, and from what is now Denmark to the west. In the Bronze Age, extensive seaborne trading routes more fully integrated Sweden into the nascent wider European economy and culture. Celt tribes first brought iron to Sweden, and while there may not have been much direct contact with the then extensive Roman Empire, trade nevertheless brought Roman crafts to Iron Age Sweden. The development of the Swedish runic language and script also seems to have been influenced by Latin.


Of course, during this era there was not yet a single nation of Sweden, rather there were regional cultures, of which three eventually became predominant: the Lapps in the far north, the Goths in the south, and the Svea in much of the large area between them.


Trade made the Svea wealthy and powerful, while the Goths suffered economically, some eventually migrating onto and around mainland Europe. It isn't certain, but they may have been the precursors of the peoples who became the Ostrogoths (eastern Goths) and Visigoths (western Goths), and came to ravage, conquer and/or rule much of southern Europe. In the era of the western Roman Empire's decline, the Ostrogoths moved from the Black Sea into Greece and eastern Italy, while the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome itself on their long migration that ended with them establishing what would be hundreds of years of rule over much of Spain and southwestern France.


The Viking era began in the early 9th Century CE, and those from what became Denmark and Norway mostly explored, pillaged, and conquered toward the west and southwest, establishing themselves in eastern England, ravaging coastal Ireland, being granted by the French crown the region that became known as Normandy (North Men— Norse Men— Normans), and even coming to rule parts of Italy,


The Swedish Vikings, meanwhile, mostly turned east, establishing what became Novgorod and Kiev, their settled peoples likely those who became know as the Rus', who eventually became known as Russians. Swedish Vikings followed the rivers south all the way to Constantinople, at times trading and at times warring with the Byzantine Empire, as the powerful eastern remnant of the Roman Empire became known. The western remnant had collapsed amidst waves of Germanic migrations, including that of the Franks, from whom France got its name.


And now for a walk from Nörrmalm, the center of modern Stockholm, toward Gamla Stan, the small island that was the old city center. That's the Kungliga Slottet, or royal palace, viewed from across the very short river Nörrstrom, which is really part of the sound surrounding the island.


Crossing the Strömbron bridge to Gamla Stan, the Kungliga Operan (Opera House) is on the right. with St. Jacobs Kyrka (St. Jacobs Kyrka) behind it, and the Medeltidsmuseet (Medieval Museum) on the left.


Now on Gamla Stan, straight ahead is the Sveriges Riksdag (Swedish Parliament building), with the Riksdagshuset government office complex on the immediate left.


Another small bridge, the Riddarholmsbron, leads to the even smaller island Riddarholmen, which appropriately enough has the Riddarholmskyrkan.


The Riddarholmskyrkan was founded in the late 13th century, and its construction was completed around 1300. The tall tower and rounded windows are typical of the first stone churches built in southern Sweden, not long after Christianity became widely established in the 11th century. Catholic missionaries from Germany and England were mostly responsible for converting the Swedes from paganism, which eventually would be outlawed although not successfully eradicated, and early Swedish church architecture is largely derived from that of those two countries. These southern churches are in the Romanesque style of the German Rhineland, whereas church architecture in the north was more influenced by Anglo Norman designs.


King Magnus Ladulås founded the church, and it contains the tombs of many Swedish kings and queens and their families.


The 12th and 13th centuries saw the widespread adoption of Christianity in Sweden, and it also was an era of dynastic rivalries, with the descendants of Sverker the Elder and Erik the Holy competing for the throne, which bounced back and forth between the two families. Swedish kings of this era were actually elected by the heads of aristocratic families, but war and assassination often were a favored campaign tactic.


During his rule, Erik the Holy oversaw the construction of stone churches and the raising of the see of Uppsala to the status of Archbishop. He also supported missionaries who, among other things, converted Finland, which was then a part of Sweden.


To give a brief flavor of the time, and the Erik/Sverker dynastic rivalry, Erik was assassinated in 1160 by Magnus Henriksson, a Danish lord who claimed the throne as a great-grandson of the previous Swedish king, Inge I. Magnus I's rule lasted a year, before he was killed in battle against Karl Sverkersson who then became king Karl VII. He was assassinated in 1167, and Knut Eriksson became king Canute I. He managed to live long enough to die of natural causes, but the powerful families then chose Karl VII's son to succeed him as Sverker II. He was killed in battle against Canute's son, who then became king Erik X. He died of natural causes in 1216, and as he had no heir (his queen Richeza was pregnant), Sverker II's son was chosen to succeed him as Johan I. He also died without heir, ending the entire Sverkersson line, so of course Erik X's posthumous son was crowned as Erik XI. He also died without heir, ending the Eriksson line.


During this entire era, the aristocratic Ulvs (Earls) were so politically powerful that it was they who often chose the kings, but despite that their relationships with the kings often were tenuous. With the direct Sverkersson and Eriksson family lines having died, the powerful Ulv Birger Jarl's young son Valdemar was elected king in 1250; but as he was a child, it was his father who truly held power, even instituting significant reforms such as partially liberating the serfs and ending the charming tradition of trial by fire, by which accused were burned or made to walk through flames, their being able to survive apparently their only means of proving their innocence. When Birger Jarl died, the nobles rebelled against Valdemar, the Danish got involved again, and in 1275 Valdemar was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother, who was more amenable to the Ulvs' demands. This was Magnus Ladulås, founder of this church.


For centuries it was believed that Magnus was buried in the crypt beneath the monument on the left, in the chancel at the end of the nave; but in 2011 the crypt was opened, and while eight skeletons were found, radiocarbon analysis concluded that whomever they were had lived hundreds of years after Magnus died. Further research raised the possibility of another crypt in the walls of the church, but permission to open it and analyze what is within was denied.


The tomb to the right of the Magnus Ladulås monument is thought to be the burial site of the king Karl VIII Knutsson Bonde, who ruled Sweden a few hundred years after Magnus.


Among the important historical events between their rules was the 1319 consolidation of Sweden and Norway, when the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson also inherited the Norwegian crown from his maternal grandfather. After another series of wars, the 1379 Kalmar Union consolidated the crowns of Sweden and Norway under Denmark, which of course meant even more rebellions and wars, as the Swedes often didn't appreciate their Danish rulers.


The combined thrones didn't end dynastic rivalries, and by the mid-15th century, powerful German families also were trying to take or control the throne of Sweden, through military might or marriage alliances. The Catholic Archbishops, who also often came from aristocratic families, also played an increasingly important political role. At the same time, the lucrative Baltic trade routes with Russia, the Hanseatic League, Denmark, and beyond made Sweden's central Baltic geographic location economically and strategically important, and therefore a highly desirable political prize.


Karl Knutsson Bonde was another wealthy magnate, and one of the two leaders of the Council of State during a rebellion against the united rule of Erik of Pomerania. When the other leader of the Council was conveniently assassinated, Karl controlled it. When the Danish then Swedish Councils deposed Erik and crowned Christopher of Bavaria, Karl was prevented from claiming the throne for himself by being given lands and castles in Finland, and being made to live there. But when Christopher died in 1448, the Danish Council gave the crown of Denmark and Norway to Christian of Oldenburg, while Karl was allowed to return from his exile and become king of a once again independent Sweden. Violence ensued.


Christian attacked from without while Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson became the center of a rebellion from within. Bengtsson was from the aristocratic Oxenstierna family, which was closely related to another powerful dynastic family, the Vasas, In 1457, Karl was deposed and Christian was crowned king of Sweden, again uniting the three crowns. But his rule of Sweden was turbulent, Bengtsson switched sides, and in 1464 the Council gave the crown back to Karl. A year later, he was again deposed in favor of Christian, although Bengtsson, now head of the Council, had become the real power. But more machinations by other powerful families led to more turmoil and Bengtsson's downfall. In 1467, Karl was given the crown for the third time. He died in 1470, and... more turbulence and violence ensued. For decades.


On October 8 and 9, 1520, about a hundred opponents of the combined king, the Dane Christian II, were massacred in what became known as the Bloodbath of Stockholm. Whether his Archbishop ally was directly involved is still a subject of historical debate, but opposition toward Danish rule and the Catholic Church was getting critical.


Within three years, Gustav I Vasa would be crowned king, with Swedish independence soon recognized by Denmark, and the official Swedish Protestant Reformation about to begin. Gustav would bring in German administrators from the Holy Roman Empire, who modernized the bureaucracy and government administration, further helping to consolidate his rule. In 1527, the Council met in Västerås and among other things created a Rikstag (Parliament) and separated the Swedish church from Rome. In 1531, Gustav officially made a Lutheran the head of the Swedish church.


Gustav proved a master of negotiation and manipulation in consolidating his rule, which in that era concurrently strengthened Sweden as a cohesive independent nation. Confiscation of the vast wealth and properties of the Catholic Church further enriched both him and the aristocratic families with whom he shared it, thus solidifying his support among the wealthy and powerful, while distributing important church posts to those outside the aristocracy also bolstered his popular support. Of course, not everyone was pleased with these changes and reforms, but periodic uprisings or rebellions never gained traction, and sometimes were ruthlessly suppressed. In 1540, Gustav was able to have his rule and that of his descendants declared ordained by Divine Right. The magnates no longer would elect Swedish kings.


Gustav I was buried in the Uppsala Cathedral, although most of his descendants are buried here. His influence on Sweden's history continues. The Vasa dynasty would last over a hundred years, but Sweden continues to have a hereditary monarchy. Subsequent decades would see efforts to spread or impose Catholicism, Russian Orthodoxy, or Calvinism, but Lutheranism remained Sweden's state religion until state religion was abolished in 2000. The great 19th/20th century Swedish playwright August Strindberg would write a historical play called Gustav Vasa.


This view is to the right of the chancel. Starting in 1922, members of the royal family have been buried at the Kungliga begravningsplatsen on the small island of Karlsborg in Haga Park, which is in the small municipality of Solna, a suburb adjacent to the north of Stockholm. Since 1950, it has been the only official cemetery for the royal family. On both sides of the chancel are Haga Walls with seraphim shields commemorating those buried at Haga Park.


The Gustavian Chapel and its royal tombs are to the left of this Haga Wall. The Bernadotte Chapel and its royal tombs are to the right. Below some of the royal chapels are crypts with more burials. Most of the crypts are not open to the public.


Gustav Vasa's son, Erik XIV was unpopular and brutal against aristocratic families that opposed him. In 1568 he was deposed, and his younger brother became king Johan III. This created more problems, because Johan was married to Katarina Jagellonica, daughter of Sigismund I, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. She was Catholic. They were raising their son Sigismund as a Catholic.


Johan temporarily resolved tensions with Denmark's king Frederik II by giving up his claim on Norway in exchange for Frederik giving his on Sweden, but he also made subtle efforts to promote Catholicism in Sweden. Lutheranism had only recently prevailed against encroachments by Calvinism, so more religious disputes were deeply unpopular. In 1587, Sigismund succeeded his grandfather as king of Poland. The heir to the Swedish throne was now the Catholic king of Poland. Johan died in 1592, and the inevitable happened.


Sigismund returned from Poland to claim his new throne, but his attempts to promote Catholicism alienated the clergy and his powerful uncle, Duke Karl. He returned to Poland, leaving Karl as regent, but appointing regional governors, some of whom were so unpopular that revolts broke out. Karl also had enemies among other aristocratic families. In 1598, Karl defeated an army sent by Sigismund, and in July 1599 the Riksdag voted Sigismund dethroned. In 1600, Karl had several aristocratic rivals executed. In 1603, Karl was finally declared king Karl IX. There would be wars with Russia over Swedish territories in Finland and Estonia, and with Denmark over their perpetual rival territorial claims.


In 1611, Karl died, and was succeeded by his son, Gustavus Adolphus, who would be the final Vasa king. Gustavus Adolphus is entombed here in the Gustavian Chapel, along with that of his queen, Maria Eleonora and other members of their family.


Gustavus Adolphus is credited with making Sweden one of the most powerful military (and therefore political) powers of 17th Century Europe. It was he who commissioned the construction of the Vasa warship, which sank on its maiden voyage, but was salvaged and placed in a magnificent museum. I've posted on my visit to it here.


Gustavus Adolphus is considered to have been a brilliant and innovative military leader, and he led Sweden through conflicts with Denmark and the first phase of the brutal Thirty Years War, which engulfed much of Europe. Like many of Europe's wider wars, the Thirty Years War so complex that historians still discuss and debate its causes and consequences. It has been aptly described as either a battle for supremacy between Catholics and Protestants, or between the "Holy" "Roman" "Empire"'s imperial house of Habsburg and the French royal house of Bourbon, both of which were Catholic. Both descriptions are true. The war served different purposes for different leaders and peoples. It also killed a lot of people, including a lot of civilians. At least several million.


Gustavus Adolphus was killed at the Battle of Lützen, which nevertheless was considered a great victory for his Protestant side. He was succeeded by his daughter Kristina, whose adherence to Catholicism resulted in her having to abdicate in favor of a cousin, who became Karl X, thus ending the Vasa rule of Sweden. I'll have to do another post on her, at some point, because this was just the beginning of her adventures, and I've been to several sites associated with her fascinating history. She lived much of her latter years in Rome, was a patron of the Christians fighting the Ottomans in the Balkans and of the persecuted Jews in her new home city, and despite a freewheeling lifestyle was entombed at St. Peter's, in Vatican City.


To maintain the historical chronology, we're now going to step outside the church, and to the left we see the Wrangel Palace.


The palace was built on the site of earlier buildings, as one of several private homes and castles of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, who was a leading general, admiral, and then commander-in-chief of all Swedish forces in Germany during the Thirty Years' War.


Even while the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that ended the war was being negotiated, Wrangel captured Prague, where the war first began, further strengthening Sweden's position. In the settlement, Sweden received a good chunk of the territory on the European mainland that fronts the Baltic Sea. Adding these regions of the southern Baltic coasts to the northern coasts of its own lands, which still included Finland, meant Sweden had effective control over the enormously lucrative Baltic trade routes. Wrangel was made governor-general of much of German and Polish Pomerania, which included some of these strategically important southern Baltic coasts. For the moment, Sweden was one of the preeminent military and thus political powers in Europe.


Wrangel hired some of the era's greatest architects to build castles and palaces both on his extensive lands on the continent and in Sweden itself, although not all were completed. Construction on Wrangel Palace began in 1652, just four years after Westphalia. Wrangel died in one of his German Pomeranian castles in 1676.


In 1697, the royal family's Tre Kronor Castle was destroyed in a fire, and Wrangel Palace became the official royal residence until the Kungliga Slottet was completed in 1754. Since 1756, Wrangel Palace has housed the Svea Court of Appeal.


Back inside, and back down the chancel to the Haga Wall on its left, we see the Karolinska Chapel on the right.


The Karolinska Chapel houses the tomb of Karl XII. His father, Karl XI, and his grandfather, Karl X, are buried in the Karolinska crypt. It's interesting that Karl XII's tomb gets the prominent position, because his reign saw the collapse of Sweden's brief phase as a European power.


What can be won by war can be lost by war, and from the start Sweden was an unlikely political and military power. It was still largely rural and agricultural, and its population was a fraction of the size of the other great European powers. It had an important mining industry and was a leader of copper and iron production, but could not come close to matching the manufacturing and developing industrial outputs of the other great powers. And the same central Baltic geographic location that made it so strategically important also made it an inviting target from all sides. It was surrounded by much wealthier and more populous nations, and although this era saw a Swedish cultural and intellectual blossoming, it would never be able to keep up militarily. Within decades of Westphalia, Russia, Poland, Prussia, German Holy Roman states, and Denmark all would begin chipping away at Swedish held territories.


By 1656, just eight years after Westphalia, Russia was attacking Sweden's Baltic territories, A year later, Denmark was attacking, and king Karl X, who had succeeded his abdicated cousin Kristina in 1654, personally led an only initially successful response. By 1660, Sweden had again made peace with Denmark, Russia, and Poland, but in doing so it had lost some of the territories won in the Thirty Years' War. Its fledgling attempts at joining the other European powers in overseas imperialism had also failed, as the Dutch had captured its colonies in Ghana and in what is now Delaware, including Fort Kristina, which became the site of Wilmington.


Under Karl XI, Sweden suffered more military defeats and territorial losses to Denmark and Prussia, ending its brief control of the Baltic, but also making its domestic borders more secure. Karl XI then accelerated his father's reduction of lands given to the nobility and further consolidated the crown's control of the government. He also supported the project of his queen mother, Hedvig Eleonora, to construct the vast Drottningholm summer palace just outside Stockholm. I'll post on it here. In 1693, the Rikstag declared Karl XI absolute ruler, the illusory indulgence lasting a whole four years, as Karl XI died in 1697. His body was lying in state when the Tre Kronor palace burned down.


Karl XII was fourteen years old when his father's death gave him the crown, and the regency set up to rule during his minority was dissolved in less than a year. He continued his father's assumption of grandeur by commissioning the construction of the far more lavish Kungliga Slottet to replace Tre Kronor. But starting in 1700, he was mostly away, fighting overlapping wars that started with invasions of Swedish territories by the now allied Russia. Poland-Saxony, and Denmark.


Over the next decade, Karl led his armies to both victories and defeats, but he was spread too thin, and focusing on one front inevitably gave breathing room to his enemies on another. He repulsed the army of Russia's Peter the Great, then swept through Poland, but by 1703 Peter had captured the mouth of the Neva River and founded his new capital, St. Petersburg. Karl machinated in Poland, where his ally Stanislav and his enemy Augustus II took turns seizing the throne from each other.


Turning back to Russia, Karl invaded in 1708, and Peter initiated what would become Russia's tradition of scorching its own earth to leave invaders nothing to win and no supplies on which to survive, with the brutal Russian winter serving as the most devastating weapon. It worked. Napoleon and Hitler would be defeated the same way.


By the summer of 1709, Karl was forced to flee to the Ottoman Empire, where he lived in exile for over five years, as Poland and Russia continued to advance on Swedish territories, including Russia's capture of Finland. Karl tried to gain Ottoman military support, but it never amounted to much, and his attempted power plays within the Ottoman court eventually made him enough enemies that he had to flee from there, too. He was back in Swedish territory by late 1714, and Sweden itself a year later, but never returned to Stockholm. In 1718, he was attacking and failing to capture Danish Norway's capital Christiana (Oslo), then at Fredrikshald was shot and killed by one of his own soldiers. It might have been an accident. Might have been. Sweden's great territorial gains from the Thirty Years' War were now all but gone.


The tomb of Karl XII.


In 1719, Karl XII's sister Ulrika Eleonora became regent, after making a deal that included ending royal absolutism, which hadn't proved very absolute, anyway. A year later, she abdicated in favor of her husband, Count Fredrik of Hesse, who became king Fredrik I, the crown of Sweden now being held by a German. The Riksdag now held unprecedented power, but this was not a step toward democracy: the aristocracy, church officials, and wealthy merchants controlled the Riksdag.


A schism developed between a faction of older aristocrats, known as the Caps, and a faction of younger officials, military officers, and businessmen, known as the Horns. Their relative political fortunes within the Rikstag rose and fell, and they disagreed over policies large and small, including whether to join France in war against Prussia, whether to have closer ties to France or Russia and Britain, whether and how to try to regain lost German territories, and how to manage relations with a king who was unhappy being sidelined. A great patron of the arts, particularly the lavishly florid Rococo style that was the rage in France, Fredrik's reign also saw a flourishing of literature, music, and science, but he yearned for real political power. It would be his son who obtained it.


Fredrik I died in early 1771, while his son, now Gustaf III, was traveling on the continent. Returning to Sweden, Gustaf III took advantage of the political turmoil caused by the Rikstag factionalism and an economic downturn, and on August 19, 1772 seized control and reestablished royal absolutism. He imagined himself an enlightened populist autocrat, trying to win over a peasantry that had been largely shut out of influence during the Caps/Horns rivalry. Even so, the Rikstag still held some power.


Gustaf III's saw art and architecture as well as military conquest as vehicles towards his glorification, but in both areas his narcissistic pretensions proved greater than his ability to realize them. Russia's Catherine the Great talked him out of waging war on Denmark, which now also included Norway, so he traveled to Italy to absorb grand artistic and architectural ideas he would never afford to translate into projects back home, and to try in vain to convince Italian states to join him in an alliance against not only Denmark, but now Russia, too.


Gustaf III did attempt to modernize some cultural norms, repealing laws about witchcraft, abolishing the use of torture, and as much as was possible against powerful opposition, attempting to extend religious tolerance. In 1782, he even allowed Jews to live in Sweden, although with limited rights. He granted France portage rights in Gothenburg, in exchange for the possession of the Caribbean colony islands of St Barthélemy and St Martin, the former's capital being named Gustavia to this day. But he was going broke, his solo war with Russia draining both his financial resources and the support of Sweden's military. He successfully suppressed a coup attempt in 1788, but four years later was assassinated by an aristocrat during a lavish celebration at the Royal Opera House he had helped design. His assassin was part of a conspiracy, as he had alienated so many factions.


The Opera House was seen in the second image, above, at the beginning of this walk.


Gustaf IV Adolph was still a child when his father was assassinated, so his duke uncle Karl became regent, but absolutism was over, and power really resided with the baron Gustaf Adolph Reuterholm. The French Revolution was challenging the very idea of royalty, and despite its long friendly relationship with France, and desire to remain neutral, Britain's threat to use its naval power forced Sweden's hand.


Gustaf IV came of age and into power in 1796, and his pretensions toward autocracy created a conflict with the Riksdag that neither could completely win. By 1805, Napoleon was on the march, and although he never occupied Sweden itself, when Russia took his side Sweden couldn't defend Pomerania, which it lost for good in 1808. A year later, Russian Tsar Alexander I successfully took control of Finland, which Sweden also never recovered. A military coup deposed Gustaf IV, and his uncle and former regent Karl was made king Karl XIII. Gustaf went into exile in Switzerland.


And this leads us to the Bernadotte Chapel, which was built from 1858 to 1860.


Karl XIII was aged and infirm beyond his years, and his marriage to his cousin and now queen Hedwig had produced no surviving children. The Danish prince he chose as heir predeceased him, so in 1810 a country that had had Danish and German kings now once again looked elsewhere. France. Because why not?


Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was a successful French military leader who had risen to the rank of general during the Revolution, and then briefly Minister of War. Despite their having had a sometimes acrimonious relationship, when Napoleon made himself Emperor he also named Bernadotte Marshall of the Empire. The Riksdag hoped Bernadotte would provide strong leadership and even win back Finland from Russia. He gave them the former but wasn't interested in the latter.


With Karl XIII in decline, Bernadotte became effective ruler immediately upon his arrival in Sweden. When Karl died in 1818, Bernadotte officially became king Karl XIV Johan.


Karl made an alliance with Alexander I, including forfeiting any claim to Finland, so he could turn his attention elsewhere. He helped Russia defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig, then battled the Danish in their German territories, forcing them to cede back Norway. The Congress of Vienna, which in 1815 settled the vast upheaval caused by the finally defeated Napoleon's wars, codified Swedish rule of Norway but also codified the loss of Sweden's German territories to Prussia. Karl XIV now began to use architectural projects and his patronage of the arts to fuse traditional continental Classical and Gothic elements with those of traditional Norse elements as a means of establishing and reinforcing a modern Scandinavian identity. He also established Sweden's political neutrality, a stance it has mostly retained to this day. His reign also ended the centuries of violent upheaval over the royal lineage, as his descendants remain Sweden's royal family to this day.


The tomb at the rear is of king Karl XIV Johan. His queen, Desideria, who previously had been engaged to Napoleon, was interred in the smaller tomb, in front. Other Bernadotte kings and queens are buried in tombs along the walls.


Leaving the church again, and this time turning left rather than walking across to the Wrangel Palace, it's just a short walk to the west end of the little island. This is Evert Taubes Terrass.


Taubes was a Swedish folksinger. His face adorns the Swedish 50 krona banknote. Other bank notes feature writer Astrid Lindgren, actress Greta Garbo, perhaps the world's greatest ever movie director, Ingmar Bergman, opera singer Birgit Nilsson, and Dag Hammarskjöld, who was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. Maybe some day U.S. banknotes will feature William Faulkner, Jerry Garcia, Meryl Streep, Martin Scorsese, Ella Fitzgerald, and Martin Luther King.


Stockholm's Stadshus, the city hall.


And then walking back east, past the Riddarholmskyrkan...


Back across Gamla Stan, and a view down a small side street, Västerlånggatan...


Past the Riksdag again...


And the Kungliga Slottet...


To the waterfront on the east side of Gamla Stan, where a statue of Gustaf III overlooks the Stockholms ström, to the east, the waterway on the inner Saltsjön Bay. From that perch, the statue might have a view to the northwest of the Opera House, where Gustaf was assassinated.


Looking back west, that's the Kungliga Slottet on the right.


Walking south on Skeppsbron, the road on the bay front.


To catch a ferry across the inner bay, to catch another ferry that lands a short walk from the Vasa Ship Museum, which I visited next, and posted on here.


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