It’s more than just a cheap bad-weather alternative. For the price of one ticket, you can travel through the world’s longest art gallery in Stockholm. There are paintings, mosaics and sculptures to see in 100 metro stations over a total length of 110 kilometers. They can be found on the walls, on the ceilings, on the floor, in display cases or along the escalators. What began in the 1950s with decorative tiles and ornate columns culminated in spectacular cave paintings in the 1970s.
From bathroom to grotto
The most beautiful stations on the Tunnelbana, as the metro is called in Swedish, include T-Centralen, Kungsträdgården, Solna Centrum and Rådhuset. They belong to the so-called grotto stations, while the tiled stations of the 1950s are affectionately known as bathroom stations. It was only in the 1970s, during the third extension of the subway network, that people dared to show the bare walls carved into the rock. Ulrik Samuelson even made it a condition of his artistic work at Kungsträdgården station that it should show raw rock. Today, Kungsträdgården is one of the most popular metro stations in Stockholm.
An app guides you through the underground, provides information about the artworks and their artists and even reveals the best selfie spots.
Our tip: a ticket from Stockholm’s transport company Lokaltrafik SL not only opens up an underworld full of art and colorful rocky landscapes, but also boat trips through the rocky island world off Stockholm. The popular shuttle ferries, the Pendelbåtar, take you to the Gröna Lund amusement park as well as to Nackastrand for a sundowner. If you take one of the many ferries early in the morning, like commuters to work, you even get a free breakfast coffee!
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.
The research was supported by Visit Stockholm
