|Stockholm Travel Guide|
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden. The City of Stockholm is administratively a municipality within Stockholm County. The Old Town is particularly spectacular, and walking around the city's waterways and parks is a glorious way to spend a week-long stretch of European summer. This city is a magnet for immigrants as well as tourists, over 15% of population.
Stockholm has 24,000 islands of the skärgård (archipelago) protecting the urban islands from the open seas. The city is best seen from the water. The metropolitan area is known as Stor-Stockholm. The conurbation of Stockholm, a statistical unit stretching through several municipalities, had a population of 1,695,946. As a capital, Stockholm is the site of the Government and the Parliament of Sweden. It is also the residence of the head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Facts in a glance
1252: The city is first mentioned. The name Stockholm is first heard of in the chronicle of Eric (Eriks krönikan), probably written between 1322 and 1332. According to this chronicle Stockholm was founded by Birger Jarl in 1252. It was named Stockholm, as referring to the town in between the bridges.
1270: The Riddarholmskyrkan (Riddarholm Church), a Franciscan monastery and Stockholm’s oldest surviving building, is founded in the Old Town
1306: Consecration of Stockholm’s oldest church (dedicated to St Nicholas), now part of Storkyrkan (Stockholm Cathedral)
1350: The Black Death enters the city.
1388: The city is given full city rights, as ratified by king Albert of Mecklenburg.
1392: Forces of the Danish Queen Margaret besieged the city.
1392: Privateers named Victual Brothers supplied the besieged city with food.
1419: Stockholm becomes the capital of Sweden.
1436 Earliest surviving charter of the city of Stockholm is enacted.
1471: The Battle of Brunkeberg is won by Sten Sture the elder, and the Danish are ousted.
1520: The Stockholm bloodbath is perpetrated by Christian II of Denmark.
1521: Gustav Vasa marches into Stockholm.
1611: Gustav II Adolf accedes to the Swedish throne; he soon makes Sweden a major European power with Stockholm as its chief city.
1622: First preserved map of Stockholm dates from this year.
1628: The warship Vasa sinks in Stockholm Harbour on its maiden voyage.
1634: Stockholm formally becomes the national capital of Sweden.
1697: The old castle, Tre Kronor, burns to the ground.
1710: A disastrous plague wipes out about one third of Stockholm’s
1754: The Swedish royal family move into the newly completed Royal Palace.
1833: Alfred Bernhard Nobel is born in Stockholm.
1849: Johan August Strindberg is born in the city.
1860: Opening of the railway link ends Stockholm’s isolation in winter.
1862: Legislation is passed making the City Council Stockholm’s supreme governing body.
1875-80: New plans for city growth approved: Stockholm expands rapidly as industrial development brings new prosperity.
1878: Stockholm College, later Stockholm University, begins giving classes.
1896: Alfred Nobel dies, leaving a fortune to sponsor prizes in various disciplines, administered by Swedish academies and awarded in Stockholm.
1901: Stockholm is the venue for the award of the first Nobel Prizes.
1961: Vasa is raised from the bed of Stockholm Harbour.
1986: The Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated while walking home from a Stockholm cinema with his wife; the identity and motives of his attacker remain a mystery.
1998: Stockholm is made European Capital of Culture.