Djurgården

Vasa

Djurgården is another of the islands in central Stockholm and is very popular with both locals and tourists.  It's the home of several museums including the Nordic Museum, Vasa Museum, Viking Museum, and Skansen -- the world's oldest open-air museum featuring Swedish history from all regions of the country through buildings, farmsteads, and other artifacts disassembled, moved, and reassembled on a hillside.  ABBA The Museum is also on the island.

Besides ABBA, our two favorites were the Vasa Museum and Skansen.  The Vasa Museum was purpose built to preserve, protect, and commemorate the 17th Century Swedish warship Vasa.

Original Wooden Carving

The Vasa set sail on August 10, 1628 on her maiden voyage and sank in Stockholm harbor.  She was too top-heavy and capsized.  Rediscovered nearly 330 years later, the ship was raised with its hull nearly intact.  The raising of the Vasa was filmed and the footage is shown in the museum's theater.  It was quite the engineering feat to raise such a large wooden warship without damaging it.

How same carving would have
appeared in color.

One of the unique things about the Vasa is the ornate wooden carvings that adorn the ship from stem to stern.  Most of these carvings along with masts and catwalks were recovered during the excavation.  In fact, 98% of the ship is original.  In 1628, these carvings would have been richly painted in vibrant colors.   Theses colors were lost while the ship remained at the bottom of the harbor, but replicas are shown in the museum as to how they would have originally appeared.  For me, probably the most impressive part was the vision and commitment to raise the ship and create a specific building to restore and preserve it for future generations.

1400's Storehouse

In much the same vein, Skansen also seeks to preserve and document Swedish history.  Again, the vision of its founder, Artur Hazelius, is impressive.  It opened in October 1891 to showcase Swedish life before the industrial revolution.  There is a storehouse that dates back to the 1400s, and the Seglora Church from 1730.  The church is one of the most popular for weddings in Sweden, and one was taking place the day we visited.

Seglora Church -- waiting for the bride and groom

We spent an entire day on Djurgården and while we received a total immersion in all things Sweden, we really only scratched the surface and could have easily spent another entire day seeing all new things.  We'll have to add that to our list for repeat visits.