The Most Popular Attractions in Sweden

The sights of Swe­den attract hun­dreds of thou­sands of tourists every year. In this col­lec­tion you will find out why this coun­try is so remark­able. You are wait­ing for the 10 most inter­est­ing places that are def­i­nite­ly worth a vis­it. For exam­ple, there is a Stone­henge here, which is called Ales Ste­nar. A mon­u­men­tal stone for­ma­tion, a colos­sal mega­lith­ic mon­u­ment that con­sists of 59 large boul­ders placed in the shape of a ship. Ales Ste­nar is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Kase­ber­ga in south­ern Swe­den. Accord­ing to some fables and folk­lore, the leg­endary Olav Trig­gva­son, the leader of the Vikings, was buried here with his ship. This is one of the most strik­ing traces of the mys­ti­cal peri­od of the Scan­di­na­vian Iron Age, keep­ing the secrets of the hero­ic deeds of the Vikings.

Hav­ing become acquaint­ed with the Swedish ver­sion of Stone­henge, we move on to a fur­ther list of attrac­tions in Swe­den.

2. Visby, Gotland.

A trea­sured blend of ancient spir­it and cap­ti­vat­ing nat­ur­al beau­ty, Wis­by is tru­ly remark­able and is arguably the best pre­served medieval town in Scan­di­navia. It is the only land with his­tor­i­cal city sta­tus in the home of the ancient Goths, the island of Got­land. When vis­it­ing the city of Vis­by, you will be enchant­ed by the com­fort­able cob­ble­stone streets, spec­tac­u­lar botan­i­cal gar­dens, charm­ing quaint hous­es and remark­able ancient church­es. Among all these virtues of the city, the most out­stand­ing attrac­tion is its 16 beau­ti­ful­ly restored ancient church­es.

3. The old city of Stockholm, Gamla Stan.

Con­nois­seurs of medieval and renais­sance archi­tec­ture will be extreme­ly excit­ed by their encounter with this incred­i­ble loca­tion. There is no oth­er more pic­turesque and inter­est­ing place in Stock­holm than the Old Town. If you want, you can take a train ride, or just walk around the city along its cob­bled streets and medieval paths. Undoubt­ed­ly, the most dom­i­nant among the var­i­ous ancient build­ings in the old town is the Roy­al Cas­tle. While explor­ing the virtues of Stock­holm’s Old Town, one can enjoy its muse­ums, tourist shops, stu­dios and a wide range of restau­rants. You will cer­tain­ly find that this is the only place where you can feel the true pulse of Stock­holm. Well, you can read more about it in the list of Stock­holm attrac­tions in a sep­a­rate arti­cle.

4. Uppsala Cathedral.

When vis­it­ing Swe­den, you can­not miss the extra­or­di­nary Neo-Goth­ic Upp­sala Cathe­dral. The church dates back to the late 13th cen­tu­ry and is the largest in Scan­di­navia. Until the coro­na­tion cer­e­monies of Swedish kings and queens began to take place in Stock­holm, these cer­e­monies were held in Upp­sala Cathe­dral. In addi­tion, a large num­ber of famous Swedes such as Eric the Sacred, Gus­tav Faza, Car­o­lus Lin­naeus and Johan III are buried in the church. A par­tic­u­lar­ly eye-catch­ing fea­ture is the inte­ri­or of the cathe­dral, which gives the impres­sion of being an ornate land­mark in Swe­den.

5. Drottingholm Palace

In case you would like to expe­ri­ence the splen­dor of a his­toric set­ting of the high­est inter­na­tion­al stan­dards, you must vis­it Drot­ting­holm Palace. Besides being the per­ma­nent res­i­dence of the Roy­al Fam­i­ly, the Palace is one of Swe­den’s top attrac­tions. The amaz­ing stone palace was designed and built by John III of Swe­den in 1580, who used his queen, Kather­ine Jaglelon, as inspi­ra­tion for this colos­sal project. Since then, a high num­ber of promi­nent roy­al char­ac­ters have left their def­i­nite marks on the palace. Drot­ting­holm is a unique mix­ture: the incred­i­ble Palace The­atre, the exot­ic Chi­nese palace and the incred­i­ble gar­dens. In addi­tion, you will see authen­tic fur­ni­ture, amaz­ing art and spe­cial chan­de­liers in the inte­ri­or of the cas­tle.

6. Kingdom of Crystals.

An extra­or­di­nary place where you can watch the process of artis­tic cre­ation, the King­dom of Crys­tal is home to the world famous Swedish glass indus­try, which con­sists of 11 glass fac­to­ries char­ac­ter­ized by their own diverse atmos­phere. You will be delight­ed with the skill of the glass­blow­ers and the way they turn mold­ed glass into won­der­ful works of art. At exhi­bi­tions and muse­ums, one sees unusu­al designs and fan­tas­tic vin­tage col­lec­tions of glass­ware. If you like to col­lect sou­venirs, there you can buy exact­ly what will please your friends and rel­a­tives.

7. Karlsten.

Found­ed by order of the famous King of Swe­den Charles X, the stone fortress Karl­sten is locat­ed on the high­est peak of Marstrand. Nowa­days, it is a won­der­ful his­tor­i­cal land­mark that attracts a huge num­ber of vis­i­tors. The fortress sur­vived two ene­my attacks in 1677 and 1719 and was even con­quered, but after mul­ti­ple agree­ments and nego­ti­a­tions it was returned to Swe­den.

8. Gothenburg.

With its archi­tec­tur­al and cul­tur­al high­lights, Gothen­burg is one of the most vis­it­ed cities in Swe­den. There is a tru­ly end­less list of places you can vis­it in the sec­ond largest city in the Scan­di­na­vian coun­try. The Art Muse­um, the Opera House, the Gothen­burg Botan­i­cal Gar­den, Scan­di­navi­a’s largest shop­ping cen­ter, Nord­stan are just a few of all the pos­si­bil­i­ties that the city pro­vides. If you have an adven­tur­ous spir­it, you can also reach by fer­ry the most pop­u­lar Swedish touris­tic nation­al attrac­tion: the south­ern Gothen­burg Arch­i­pel­ago, which is a scenic loca­tion made up of many small islands.

9. Uppsala Castle

A mon­u­men­tal build­ing that inspires great respect, such thoughts arise in vis­i­tors at the sight of this beau­ti­ful build­ing. Built dur­ing the glo­ri­ous times when Swe­den became one of the most pow­er­ful coun­tries in Europe. Upp­sala Cas­tle con­veys all its extra­or­di­nary majesty. What makes the cas­tle even more spe­cial is its dra­mat­ic his­to­ry and the many turn­ing points in Swedish his­to­ry that have tak­en place here. After a fire in 1702, the roy­al build­ing was seri­ous­ly dam­aged, but after many years of hard work it was restored.

10. Stockholm archipelago.

The Stock­holm arch­i­pel­ago stretch­es 60 kilo­me­ters into the Baltic Sea and includes more than 24,000 islands. You can use a pri­vate motor­boat, steam­boat or fer­ry to sail through the islands. Here you can feel how free to enjoy the wind play­ing with your hair, while the boat is peace­ful­ly car­ried by the waves.

This was a list that includ­ed the most pop­u­lar must-see attrac­tions in Swe­den. In the future, it will be replen­ished with new places, so stay tuned.