Page 13 iGap travelguide 2023
P. 13
iGap Travel Guide
13
Stockholm had been born and Sweden had bagged
itself a new capital, albeit via a most unusual selection
process. Mushrooming with each passing century,
today the capital comprises 14 islands in the Stockholm
archipelago, before filtering into some 24,000 smaller
islands and islets, stretching 80km into the Baltic Sea.
Gamla Stan, however, remains the core of downtown
Stockholm and forever its historical heart.
I amble through its slender streets with no real
purpose other than to ogle at the architecture and
soak up the colours like plants absorbing sunlight.
A tussle for the prime photograph spot ensues in
Stortorget Square as eager fellow tourists endeavour
to snap one of Stockholm’s most recognised locations.
Flanked by a smattering of cafés and the grand exterior
of the Stock Exchange Building (which now houses the
Nobel Museum and the Nobel Library), Stortorget is a
most picturesque plaza. However, it is the eye-catching
parade of oblong structures in an ochre rainbow of
red, orange, yellow and green that has us all lunging
for our cameras. Photographs of buildings 14-22 adorn
the front cover of many a Stockholm guidebook.
The square is modest in size, and though attractive, on
this bitter winter morning it is a little lacking in life. In
the Middle Ages, Stortorget was the centre of goings-
on in Stockholm – a chief meeting place for townsfolk
and a stage of humming activity on market days.
Today it is a textbook coffee break spot for snap-happy
tourists, and having already caffeined-up, I swiftly
continued my stroll.
Shimmying through the shadowed streets, I pass a
shop window displaying unusual
Alice in Wonderland
mannequins. A peek through the door reveals shelf
upon shelf of other peculiar dolls and an elderly
lady with a stern countenance – presumably their
craftswoman – sitting at a worktable. In two minds
about whether to investigate the bizarre shop further,
she casts me a glare and I hurry on, though it strikes me
that the atmosphere in Gamla Stan is a touch spooky.
On turning the corner my premonition is confirmed
as I am greeted with a blackboard advertising an
evening Ghost Walk: one of the district’s most popular
tourist attractions where costumed guides clad in top
hats and coat tails and brandishing glowing lanterns,
divulge tales of chilling murders, spectral hauntings,
and unresolved mysteries.
Popular myth has it that Stockholm’s Royal Palace
– tucked into the corner of the island of Gamla
Stan – is professed to be one of the city’s most
haunted sites, plagued by the ghost of the White
Lady (a harbinger said to appear before a death in
the royal family), and the Grey Man (an ancient spirit
allegedly residing in the cellars). Also woven into the
island’s unnerving history is the notorious tale of
the Stockholm Bloodbath, when in 1520 Stortorget
Square underwent a brief yet grisly transformation
into an execution site. This sinister chapter in Swedish
history saw 82 dignitaries and alleged enemies of
King Christian II beheaded and burned in a horrifying
exercise of power, and it is believed that the 82 white
stones adorning the brick-red exterior of building
number 20 symbolise the heads decapitated. Gamla
Stan may glow with ochre hues, however in its history
is buried an ineradicable darkness.
I amble through its
slender streets with
no real purpose other
than to ogle at the
architecture and soak up
the colours like plants
absorbing sunlight.
Stortorget Square
13
Stockholm had been born and Sweden had bagged
itself a new capital, albeit via a most unusual selection
process. Mushrooming with each passing century,
today the capital comprises 14 islands in the Stockholm
archipelago, before filtering into some 24,000 smaller
islands and islets, stretching 80km into the Baltic Sea.
Gamla Stan, however, remains the core of downtown
Stockholm and forever its historical heart.
I amble through its slender streets with no real
purpose other than to ogle at the architecture and
soak up the colours like plants absorbing sunlight.
A tussle for the prime photograph spot ensues in
Stortorget Square as eager fellow tourists endeavour
to snap one of Stockholm’s most recognised locations.
Flanked by a smattering of cafés and the grand exterior
of the Stock Exchange Building (which now houses the
Nobel Museum and the Nobel Library), Stortorget is a
most picturesque plaza. However, it is the eye-catching
parade of oblong structures in an ochre rainbow of
red, orange, yellow and green that has us all lunging
for our cameras. Photographs of buildings 14-22 adorn
the front cover of many a Stockholm guidebook.
The square is modest in size, and though attractive, on
this bitter winter morning it is a little lacking in life. In
the Middle Ages, Stortorget was the centre of goings-
on in Stockholm – a chief meeting place for townsfolk
and a stage of humming activity on market days.
Today it is a textbook coffee break spot for snap-happy
tourists, and having already caffeined-up, I swiftly
continued my stroll.
Shimmying through the shadowed streets, I pass a
shop window displaying unusual
Alice in Wonderland
mannequins. A peek through the door reveals shelf
upon shelf of other peculiar dolls and an elderly
lady with a stern countenance – presumably their
craftswoman – sitting at a worktable. In two minds
about whether to investigate the bizarre shop further,
she casts me a glare and I hurry on, though it strikes me
that the atmosphere in Gamla Stan is a touch spooky.
On turning the corner my premonition is confirmed
as I am greeted with a blackboard advertising an
evening Ghost Walk: one of the district’s most popular
tourist attractions where costumed guides clad in top
hats and coat tails and brandishing glowing lanterns,
divulge tales of chilling murders, spectral hauntings,
and unresolved mysteries.
Popular myth has it that Stockholm’s Royal Palace
– tucked into the corner of the island of Gamla
Stan – is professed to be one of the city’s most
haunted sites, plagued by the ghost of the White
Lady (a harbinger said to appear before a death in
the royal family), and the Grey Man (an ancient spirit
allegedly residing in the cellars). Also woven into the
island’s unnerving history is the notorious tale of
the Stockholm Bloodbath, when in 1520 Stortorget
Square underwent a brief yet grisly transformation
into an execution site. This sinister chapter in Swedish
history saw 82 dignitaries and alleged enemies of
King Christian II beheaded and burned in a horrifying
exercise of power, and it is believed that the 82 white
stones adorning the brick-red exterior of building
number 20 symbolise the heads decapitated. Gamla
Stan may glow with ochre hues, however in its history
is buried an ineradicable darkness.
I amble through its
slender streets with
no real purpose other
than to ogle at the
architecture and soak up
the colours like plants
absorbing sunlight.
Stortorget Square
