A place for history to read and by slideshows

Malmö

Stockholm

Year 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games

Year 1914 Malmö Baltic Fair

Stockholm Saltsjöbaden year 1910

Gothenburg adress Andra Långgatan

Gothenburg "Järntorget"

Gothenburg "Järntorget"

Did you know? The Brand ABBA Herring are older than The ABBA Group

The first Car - Bomb in Sweden, perhaps in The World (Stockholm)

Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members perished. S. A. Andrée, the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. The scheme was received with patriotic enthusiasm in Sweden, a northern nation that had fallen behind in the race for the North Pole. 

Bornhöft

Stockholm

The history of Stockholm, capital of Sweden, for many centuries coincided with the development of what is today known as Gamla stan, the Stockholm Old Town. Stockholm's raison d'être always was to be the Swedish capital and by far the largest city in the country. 

The name Stockholm first appears in historical records in letters written by Birger Jarl and King Valdemar dated 1252. However, the two letters give no information about the appearance of the city and events during the following decades remain diffuse. While the absence of a perpendicular city plan in medieval Stockholm seems to indicate a spontaneous growth, it is known German merchants invited by Birger jarl played an important role in the foundation of the city. 

During the Kalmar Union (1397-1523), controlling Stockholm was crucial to anyone aspiring to control the kingdom, and the city was consequently repeatedly besieged by various Swedish-Danish factions. In 1471, Sten Sture the Elder defeated Christian I of Denmark at the Battle of Brunkeberg only to lose the city to Hans of Denmark in 1497. Sten Sture managed to seize power again in 1501 which resulted in a Danish blockade lasting 1502-1509 and eventually a short peace. Hans' son Christian II of Denmark finally conquered it in 1520 and had many leading nobles and burghers of Stockholm beheaded in the so-called Stockholm Bloodbath. When King Gustav Vasa finally besieged and conquered the city three years later, an event which ended the Kalmar Union and the Swedish Middle Ages, he noted every second building in the city was abandoned.

By the end of the 15th century, the population in Stockholm can be estimated to 5,000-7,000 people, which made it a relatively small town compared to several other contemporary European cities. On the other hand, it was far larger than any other city in Sweden. Many of its inhabitants were Germans and Finns, with the former forming a political and economic elite in the city.

Sten Sture the Elder enters Stockholm in 1471. Painting by Georg von Rosen, 1864. 

After Gustav Vasa's siege of Stockholm, he restored the privileges of the city which was beneficiary to the burghers of the city. The king maintained his control over the city by controlling the elections of aldermen and magistrates. By the mid-century, the numbers of officials increased in order to make the management of the city more professional and to ensure the state-controlled trade. Stockholm thus lost much of the independence it had had during the Middle Ages and became politically and financially bound to the state.[13] During the reign of his sons (1561-1611), the city council remained escorted by a royal representative and both magistrates and aldermen were appointed by the king.

Panoramic view showing the northern city gate with fortifications. Copperplate by Frans Hogenberg around 1570-80. 

Gustav Vasa invited the clergyman Olaus Petri (1493-1552) to become the city secretary of Stockholm. With the two side-by-side, the new ideas of the Protestant Reformation could be quickly implemented, and sermons in the church where held in Swedish starting in 1525 and Latin abolished in 1530. A consequence of this development was a need for separate churches for the numerous German and Finnish-speaking citizens and during the 1530 the still-existent German and Finnish parishes were created. The king was, however, not favourably disposed to older chapels and churches in the city, and he ordered churches and monasteries on the ridges surrounding the city to be demolished, together with the numerous charitable institutions

Olof Persson, sometimes Petersson (6 January 1493 - 19 April 1552), better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri (or less commonly, Olavus Petri), was a clergyman, writer, judge and major contributor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden.

Around 1560-80, most of the citizens, some 8.000 people, still lived on Stadsholmen. This central island was at this time densely settled and the city was now expanding on the ridges surrounding the city. Stockholm had no private palaces at this time and the only larger buildings were the castle, the church, and the former Greyfriars monastery on Riddarholmen. The surrounding ridges, unable to boast a single timber framed building, were mostly used for activities that either required a lot of space, produced odours, or could cause fire. Even though some burghers had secondary residences outside the city, the population living on the ridges, perhaps a quarter of the city's population, were mostly poor, including the royal personnel occupying the ridges north of the city. 

Stockholm presented as a capital worthy a powerful nation. Engraving from Suecia Antiqua et Hodierna around 1690. 

Following the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Sweden was determined never to repeat the embarrassment experienced following the death of Gustavus II Adolphus (1594-1632) when Stockholm, still medieval in character, caused hesitation on whether to invite foreign statesmen for fear the lamentable appearance might undermine the nation's authority.

The Skeppsholmen Church by Fredrik Blom. 

Church: Maria Magdalena

Age of Liberty (1718-1772)

Following the Greater Wrath and the Treaty of Nystad in 1722, Sweden's role as a major European power was over, and the decades that followed brought even more disasters. Black death and the sufferings caused by the Great Northern Wars made Stockholm the capital of a shrinking nation, despair which would deepen even further when Sweden lost Finland in 1809. Notwithstanding Sweden's partial recover of spirit with the union with Norway in 1814, during the period 1750-1850, Stockholm was a stagnating city, with a dwindling population and widespread unemployment, marked by ill-health, poverty, alcoholism, and rampant mortality. The Mälaren region lost in influence to the benefit of south-western Sweden, and as population and welfare dwindled in the capital, there was a leveling of social classes.[26] Wars and alcohol abuse resulted in a surplus of women during the period, with widows outnumbering widowers six to one in 1850. Stockholm was marked by an absence of children, caused by the number of unmarried people and high infant mortality. Average length of life was limited to 44, but those who survived infancy were likely to get about as old as people do today, except those born to a life of hard labour.

The era saw the rise of the so-called "Skeppsbro Nobility" (Skeppsbroadeln), the wealthy wholesalers at Skeppsbron who made a fortune by delivering bar iron to the international market and by controlling the chartered companies. The most successful of them was the Swedish East India Company (1731-1813) which had its headquarters in Gothenburg, but was of significant importance to Stockholm because of the shipbuilding yards, the trade houses, and the exotic products imported by the company.  

Gustavian era (1772-1809)

During the enlightened absolute monarchy of Gustav III Stockholm managed to maintain its role as the political centre of Sweden and developed culturally.

The king had a great interest for the city's development. He created the Gustav Adolf square and had the Royal Opera inaugurated there in 1782 - in accordance to the original intentions of Tessin the Younger for a monumental square north of the palace. The façade of Arvfurstens palats on the opposite side is identical to the now replaced façade of the opera.

The neoclassical bridge Norrbro, designed by Erik Palmstedt (1741-1807) and was completed in ten years. It was a very ambitious project that caused the centre of the city to gradually move out of the medieval city.[30]

The colourful and often burlesque descriptions of Stockholm by troubadour and composer Carl Michael Bellman are still popular.

The period ended as King Gustav IV Adolf was deposed in 1809 in a coup d'état. The loss of Finland that same year meant Stockholm ceased to be the geographical centre of the Swedish kingdom

Royal Library Humlegården

Early industrial era (1809-1850)

For Stockholm, the early 19th century meant the only larger-scale projects to be realised were those initiated by the military which favoured a more stiff classicism, the local Swedish version of the Empire style (in Sweden named Karl Johansstil after King Charles XIV John). The architects dominating the era, Fredrik Blom and Carl Christoffer Gjörwell, both were commissioned by the military. Due to the general stagnation, few other constructions were realised - in average ten smaller residential buildings per year - additions which the ambitious city plans of the 17th century could easily handle.

During the later half of the 18th century real income dwindled to reach an all-time low in 1810 when it corresponded to roughly half that of the 1730s; public officials being those worst affected. Norrköping became the greatest manufacturing city of Sweden and Gothenburg developed into the key trading port because of its location on the North Sea.

Most people still lived within the present Old Town, with a growth along the eastern shore. Population also grew on the surrounding ridges, more so in the wealthy district Norrmalm and less so in the poor district Södermalm. However, many of the ridges surrounding the city were slums mostly rural in character without water and sewage and frequently ravaged by cholera.

                                              King Oscar II

Swedish (Reign) Kings and Queens year 1523 - 2019