Stockholm

Stockholm's oldest part is called the Old Town.

It has narrow streets and the king's palace. In a museum, you can see a giant wooden ship. It sank long ago and was lifted out of the water. At Skansen, you can visit old houses and farm animals.

Gamla Stan, the Old Town, is where Stockholm began. Its narrow streets follow the medieval pattern, and most of its buildings are from the 1500s and 1600s. Here stand the Royal Palace, Stockholm Cathedral and the House of Parliament.

East of the Old Town is the island of Djurgården, full of museums. The Vasa Museum holds a warship that sank on its first voyage in 1628 and was raised in 1961. Skansen, founded in 1891, gathers old houses, farms and animals from all over Sweden. Across the water, City Hall hosts the Nobel Prize banquet every December.

The original nucleus, the 'city between the bridges', is Gamla Stan: Stads, Helgeands and Riddar islands. Its medieval street network and buildings, mainly of the 16th and 17th centuries, are legally protected. Stads Island holds the Royal Palace, Storkyrkan (the Church of St. Nicholas), the German Church, the House of Lords and the Stock Exchange; the Riksdag stands on Helgeands Island, and Riddarholm Church dominates Riddar Island.

On Djurgården, the Vasa Museum shows the warship Vasa: 69 m long and over 1,200 tonnes, with 64 cannons, it heeled over in a gust and sank 1,300 m into its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628, and was raised on April 24, 1961, after 333 years. Skansen, founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius, calls itself the world's oldest open-air museum, with houses moved from across Sweden. Kungsholmen has City Hall, where the Nobel Prize banquet for 1,300 guests has been held in the Blue Hall since 1934.

To get around Stockholm, people cross lots of bridges.

They also ride trains under the ground. Most stations have art! Some look like caves, some have paintings, and some have statues.

Because Stockholm is spread over islands, bridges and overpasses tie the city together, linking the Old Town to the districts on the mainland to the north and south.

The Metro, or tunnelbana, opened in 1950. Since 1957 artists have helped design new stations, and older stations have been decorated too, so today more than 90 stations show art on platforms, walls or halls. Visit Stockholm, the city's official visitor guide, says the subway is said to be the world's longest art exhibition, about 110 kilometers long. Stockholm is also Sweden's second-biggest port.

Gamla Stan's islands are connected by old bridges and modern overpasses to districts on the mainland of Uppland (Norrmalm, Vasastaden, Östermalm, Kungsholmen) and Södermanland. The Metro opened in 1950, as older sections of the city were redeveloped between the 1950s and the 1970s.

Visit Stockholm, the city's official visitor site, describes the Metro as 'said to be the world's longest art exhibit', 110 km long: since 1957 artists have played a key role in each new station, and older stations built without art have since gained statues, murals and installations, so that more than 90 stations now show works of art. By sea, Stockholm is Sweden's second-largest port, after Gothenburg.

Many people in Stockholm work with computers and new ideas.

There are big universities and museums. Every December, Nobel Prize winners come to a grand dinner here. At Skansen, you can see old houses, animals and crafts.

Stockholm is Sweden's center for culture and learning, with Stockholm University, the Royal Institute of Technology and the Karolinska Institute, a famous center for medical research. Each December, Nobel Prize winners are honored in the city, and a banquet for 1,300 guests is held in the Blue Hall of City Hall.

Many people work in technology: Stockholm has one of the highest rates of new start-up companies in Europe. About 27 percent of people in Stockholm are immigrants or have a background from another country.

Britannica calls Stockholm Sweden's cultural and educational capital: Stockholm University (1877), the Royal Institute of Technology (1827) and the Karolinska Institute, a major center of medical research; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences selects Nobel laureates each year. The Royal Opera, the Stockholm Philharmonic and the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) lead its cultural life. After the award ceremony on December 10, the Nobel banquet, with 1,300 guests, is held in City Hall's Blue Hall, as it has been since 1934.

The economy combines government, finance, the Nordic region's largest stock exchange and a technology sector with one of Europe's highest start-up rates; tourism also matters. Immigration from abroad and migration within Sweden fuelled 20th-century growth; about 27 percent of Stockholmers are immigrants or of non-Swedish background, and 15 percent were born abroad. At Skansen, Hazelius soon had people demonstrating spinning, weaving and other crafts in the historic houses, a 'living museum'; today it offers music, dance, crafts, gardens and historic houses all year.