Culture in Stockholm

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Apart from being a large city with an active cultural life, Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, houses many national cultural institutions. There are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Stockholm County area: the Royal Palace Drottningholm (within Ekerö Municipality) and the Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery).

Stockholm was the 1998 European City of Culture.

Literature

Authors connected to Stockholm include the poet and songwriter Carl Michael Bellman (1740–1795), novelist and dramatist August Strindberg (1849–1912), and novelist Hjalmar Söderberg (1869–1941), all of whom made Stockholm part of their works. Other authors with notable heritage in Stockholm were the Nobel Prize laureate Eyvind Johnson (1900–1976) and the popular poet and composer Evert Taube (1890–1976). The novelist Per Anders Fogelström (1917–1998) wrote a popular series of historical novels depicting life in Stockholm from the 19th to the mid-20th century.

Architecture

The city's oldest section is

As early as the 15th century, the city had expanded outside of its original borders. Some pre-industrial, small-scale buildings from this era can still be found in Södermalm. During the 19th century and the age of industrialization Stockholm grew rapidly, with plans and architecture inspired by the large cities of the continent such as Berlin and Vienna. Notable works of this time period include public buildings such as the Royal Swedish Opera and private developments such as the luxury housing developments on Strandvägen.

In the 20th century, a nationalistic push spurred a new architectural style inspired by medieval and renaissance ancestry as well as influences of the Jugend / Art Nouveau style. A key landmark of Stockholm, the Stockholm City Hall, was erected 1911–1923 by architect Ragnar Östberg. Other notable works of these times are the Stockholm Public Library and the Forest Cemetery, Skogskyrkogården

• 
  The Hötorget buildings in 2007
• 
  Stockholm Palace, the northern facade
• 
  The Parliament House
• 
  The Stockholm City Hall
• 
  Modern construction at

  Sergels Torg
• 
  One of the oldest buildings in Stockholm,

  Riddarholmskyrkan

Museums

Stockholm boasts some 70 museums, making the city host one of the largest numbers of museums in the world. Collectively, these museums are visited by over 9 million people per year.

One of the most renowned museums is the Nationalmuseum, with the largest national collection of art: 16,000 paintings and 30,000 objects of art handicraft. The collection dates back to the days of Gustav Vasa in the 16th century, and has since been expanded with works by artists such as Rembrandt, and Antoine Watteau, as well as constituting a main part of Sweden's art heritage, manifested in the works of Alexander Roslin, Anders Zorn, Johan Tobias Sergel, Carl Larsson, Carl Fredrik Hill and Ernst Josephson.

The Museum of Modern Art, or

• Nationalmuseum
• Skansen - An open air heritage museum and zoo
• Vasa Museum, dedicated to the restored Vasa, a ship that sank in 1628
• The Nordic Museum with art and design from the Nordic countries
• The Stockholm City Museum
• The Museum of Medieval Stockholm
• The
  National Museum of Science and Technology
• The
  National Maritime Museum
• The Swedish Museum of Natural History
• The Biological museum, Swedish flora and fauna.
• The Museum of Spirits
• Millesgården - The home of sculptor Carl Milles.

Theatres

Distinguished among Stockholm's many theatres are the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten), one of Europe's most renowned theatres, and the Royal Swedish Opera, inaugurated in 1773.

Other notable theatres are the Stockholm City Theatre, the Peoples Opera (Folkoperan), the Modern Theatre of Dance (Moderna dansteatern), the China Theatre, the Göta Lejon Theatre, the Mosebacke Theatre, and the Oscar Theatre.

The stages of Stockholm number in their fifties at the least, and a wide variety of plays are constantly on, from classical to newly written.

Media

Stockholm is basically the media center of Sweden. It has four nationwide daily newspapers, is also the central location of the publicly funded radio (

The most popular spectator sports are football and ice hockey. The three most popular football teams are AIK, Hammarby IF and Djurgårdens IF.

Historically, the city was the host of the

• Stockholm Jazz Festival is one of Sweden's oldest festivals, the festival takes place at Skeppsholmen in July.
• Stockholm Pride is the largest Pride event in the Nordic countries and takes place in the last week of July every year. The Stockholm Pride always ends with a parade and in 2007, 50 000 people marched with the parade and about 500 000 watched it.
• The Stockholm Marathon takes place on a Saturday in early June each year
• The Nobel Banquet takes place at Stockholm City Hall every year on December 10

See also

• Culture of Sweden
• History of Stockholm

External links

• Stockholm Town Archived 2006-04-27 at the Wayback Machine - Stockholm's official tourist page
• Gratis i Stockholm - Stockholm's website with only free cultural events

References