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Tips on Museums in Sweden

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There's plenty of fun stuff to do in Sweden, and even though the summer is starting to slowly fade, many happenings are taking place during the coming months. One activity you can always enjoy, whether summer or winter, is visiting some of Sweden's museums to get cultural and/or historical information. Here are some of the country's most famous and appreciated museums worth visiting. 

Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet)

The Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet) is a maritime museum in Stockholm located on the island of Djurgården that houses the only fully intact seventeenth-century ship, the Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. The main hall of the Vasa Museum contains the ship itself, exhibits related to the archaeological findings of the ships and early 17th-century Sweden, and models portraying the ship's construction, sinking, location, and recovery. Furthermore, the museum features four other museum ships moored in the harbor outside: an ice breaker (1915), a lightvessel (1903), a torpedo boat (1966), and a rescue boat (1944).

Skansen Open-Air Museum (Skansen)

Skansen in Stockholm is the world's first ethnographic open-air museum and one of the most extensive. It was founded in 1891, and its primary aim was to show how people in different parts of rural Sweden lived before the emergence of an industrialized society. Visitors to the Skansen Open-Air Museum are strolling through Sweden's history. The exhibit includes a replica of a 19th-century town where you can observe the traditional skills of many artisans. The museum complex also houses a zoo mainly home to Scandinavian animals. You can see more than 70 species, including wolverines, lynxes, and elks.

Fotografiska

Fotografiska is the Swedish Museum of Photography in the district of Södermalm in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. This center for contemporary photography is located directly on the water in the former large customs house (Stora Tullhuset) building, built in 1906-1910 according to plans by Ferdinand Boberg in Art Nouveau style. The exhibition area of Fotografiska is 2500 m², where it organizes exhibitions with works on loan. The museum does not have its own collection.

ABBA The Museum

ABBA The Museum is a Swedish museum dedicated to the pop group ABBA in the Djurgården district of Stockholm. The museum displays its exhibit collection, including the artists' clothing, golden records, and other original memorabilia. Furthermore, ABBA The Museum, which opened in May 2013, exhibits Benny's Piano - A self-playing piano that plays when he does; Waterloo - a collection related to the time of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest; The Polar Studio - A recreation of the studio in which ABBA recorded some of their music; and The Folkpark - The recreation of the site where ABBA first met.

The Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet)

The Royal Palace in Stockholm, completed in 1760, is the official residence of the Swedish royal family. Built in the Baroque style, this building contains more than 600 rooms. The complex holds royal apartments and several museums. With its marvelous Italian-Baroque facade, Stockholm Palace is one of Europe's most unique royal palaces. Visitors can tour the royal palace and learn about the history of this place and the essential parts of the enormous complex, such as the royal apartments.

The Swedish History Museum (Historiska museet)

The Swedish History Museum (Statens Historiska Museum) is the State Historical Museum in Stockholm. The site dates back to 1866, and the construction of the current location took place between 1934 and 1939. It's the national Swedish Museum of Archaeology and History with more than 20 million pieces from Swedish prehistoric times up to and including the Middle Ages. The museum holds an underground treasure room with gold and silver pieces, a tale of eight life stories from prehistory, a Viking collection that deals with their life and propaganda on it in the 19th and 20th centuries, church art from Northern Europe, and a textile room.

Nordic Museum (Nordiska museet)

The Nordic Museum in Stockholm looks like a cathedral. Still, it's a museum with a vast collection of furniture, art, and other artifacts connected with the cultural history of Sweden from the early modern period (which began in 1520) to the contemporary period. The museum is located in Djurgården, and the building it is housed in was completed in 1907 after a 19-year construction process. The Nordic Museum holds over 1.5 million objects in its collections.

The Modern Museum (Moderna Museet)

Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art in Stockholm. The museum is located on the island of Skeppsholmen. The Modern Museum exhibits art from 1900 to the present, including Swedish and Scandinavian art (with around 3,700 works), international art, including works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Salvador Dalí, drawings, graphics, photography, film, and video. The museum also features a sculpture park with works by Alexander Calder, Per Kirkeby, Ulrich Rückriem, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Dan Graham.

Universeum

Universeum is a science center and museum in Gothenburg where animals and nature mix with technology and experiments. The Universeum is divided into six sections, each containing experiment workshops and a collection of various animals. The sections include 'Kalejdo,' with crime-investigation, laser, and space; 'Explora,' on humans and technology; 'Water's Way,' on Swedish fresh and brackish water fishes, reptiles, and voles; 'The Ocean Zone' with native marine animals as well as sharks and other tropical fish; 'The Rainforest,' a hall with tropical animals; and 'Deadly Beauties' with venomous reptiles.