The Vasa Museum, the Royal Palace and the Stadshuset are always among the top sights in Stockholm. There are plenty of travel tips and rankings for restaurants and shopping, but one can only hope that the tipsters have been there themselves and know what they are talking about. Then there are the discoveries for a second look. On a city walk through Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town, we discovered many of these hidden gems. This was only possible with the help of a great city guide, who showed us the important sights without leaving out the little things.
This article is dedicated to the often overlooked sights and is also a plea for booking a guided city tour. Guided tours are almost always worthwhile, whether in a metropolis or a place steeped in history. Guided city tours expand your knowledge of history and first-hand tips prevent you from making mistakes when choosing a restaurant and reduce the fear of missing out on something important.
The gossip mirror
There’s no better way to kick off this list of overlooked sights than with this 18th-century gossip mirror. The Skvallerspegel, as it’s called in Swedish, hangs from a number of houses in Stockholm’s Old Town. In the 18th century, women were not allowed to walk the streets without a male escort. To pass the time and stay informed, they used the mirror, which curved outwards, to watch the street in both directions without appearing curious. Instead of pressing their noses against the window pane, they could sit with a friend over an extended fika and gossip about the people passing by downstairs.
Fine pee
This little house in the shape of an advertising pillar is pretty to look at. It stands at the level of St. Nicholas Church, between Stor Torget and Schlossplatz. It is neither a guardhouse nor an old-fashioned telephone box, but a urinal that can still be used today.
At the pulse of time
Lars Magnus Ericsson was a Swedish inventor and founded the Ericcson company in 1876. He himself thought the invention of the telephone was a toy for rich people for a long time. But he was wrong and thanks to his company’s good marketing, there was a time when Stockholm had more telephone booths than New York, London or Paris. Some of these booths can still be found in Stockholm today. Instead of a cable telephone, however, there is now a defibrillator for first aid in the historic telephone booth.
In the sign of the phoenix
Brända Tomten is an idyllic square in Stockholm’s old town. The three-cornered square was created after the great fire of 1740 as a turning area for horse-drawn carts. Fire insurance was also introduced. Houses with the sign of the golden Phoenix were extinguished first in the event of a fire.
Deadly invitation
Hidden behind the rusty plaque on the wall of a house near Kornplatz is a real historical drama: in the late summer of 1649, the French philosopher René Descartes accepted an invitation from the young Queen Christina of Sweden. After exchanging letters with her since 1645, he agreed to her request and explained his philosophy to the queen in several audiences. In January 1650, after he had been left to his own devices for almost three months, the Queen requested intensive philosophy lessons from Descartes. But at the beginning of February 1650, the philosopher unexpectedly fell ill and died ten days later at the home of his host, the French ambassador Pierre Chanut. The quick diagnosis was pneumonia.
In Stockholm, however, another rumor was circulating: The Queen’s famous guest had been poisoned . Ambassador Chanut had the epitaph inscribed: “He atoned for the attacks of his enviers with the innocence of his life”. But Decarte’s sudden death was never treated as a murder case. It was not until 1980, more than three centuries later, that the German scholar Eike Pies discovered a letter from Johann van Wullen, the personal physician of Queen Christina, in the manuscript archive of Leiden University. The doctor, the only knowledgeable eyewitness at the time, reported in diplomatic terms that the course of the illness was typical of arsenic poisoning and not pneumonia. Less talented scientists at the Queen’s court or the Catholic Church could have been the envious parties and therefore the culprits in this never-solved mystery. Christina, queen of a major Protestant power, flirted with Catholicism and Descartes, who elevated doubt to a scientific method and is considered the founder of rationalism, was the biblical thorn in the Church’s side.
Gallic figures on the mainland
Anyone who has visited the Vasa Museum will immediately recognize the resemblance. The figures underneath the ornate Ercker are by the same artist who worked on the doomed warship Vasa. While the ship’s figures sank in 1628, after only 1,300 meters in the sea, and were only recovered in 1961, these four figures were allowed to watch the goings-on in the central grain market, the Kornhamnstorget, throughout.
Even underground, Stockholm is worth a visit. The Stockholm Metro is considered the longest art exhibition in the world. The Swedish city of Uppsala, 80 kilometres north of Stockholm, is one of the most important in the country. Many centuries before Stockholm was mentioned as a small trading post, Uppsala was the pagan centre of the Vikings. We report on cult and culture in Gamla-Uppsala and on the entertaining messages of the Swedish rune stones and reveal Stockholm’s secret eye-catchers.
On Visit Stockholm there is an overview of themed tours and a list of certified guides for a private tour of Stockholm.
