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Stockholm guide

Djurgården museums on foot: a short walk

A short walk across Djurgården from the Nordic Museum past the Vasa ship and ABBA The Museum to Skansen. Suits first-time visitors who want four of Stockholm's best-known museums in one easy loop of the island.

Djurgården is the island where Stockholm keeps its museums, and four of the best known sit within a few minutes of each other. This walk links them in an order that never doubles back: a national collection, a warship, a pop band and a hillside of old farmhouses.

Decide beforehand which ones you will go inside. Each is big enough to fill an afternoon, so on two hours you pick one or two and pass the rest with a good look from outside.

Nordic Museum

Nordic Museum (Nordiska museet) is a national museum of Swedish cultural history. Artur Hazelius started the collection in 1873, and the architect Isak Gustaf Clason finished the present building in 1907, after nearly two decades of work.

Nordic Museum
Nordic MuseumMuseumGo in for the Great Hall, where Carl Milles' huge wooden statue of King Gustav Vasa stands. Even if you skip the exhibitions, the hall is worth the stop. Then follow the road on towards the ship.Photo: Jordgubbe, CC BY-SA 2.0

Vasa Museum

The Vasa Museum is built around one ship. The warship Vasa sank on her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628, after sailing about 1,300 metres, and lay on the harbour floor until she was raised in 1961. The museum around her opened in 1990.

Vasa Museum
Vasa MuseumMuseumWalk round the hull on every level; close to 500 carved sculptures decorate the ship, and the upper decks are the best place to see them at eye height.Photo: Hanay, CC BY-SA 3.0

ABBA The Museum

ABBA The Museum opened in 2013 and is a short way on: keep going along Djurgårdsvägen, past the amusement park gates of Gröna Lund, and you arrive at it.

ABBA The Museum
ABBA The MuseumMuseumWorth it if you like the music: there is a recreated Polar Studios, and a section about the 1974 Eurovision win with Waterloo. Then walk east along the road towards the hill.Photo: I99pema, CC BY-SA 3.0

Skansen

Skansen closes the walk. Hazelius, who began the Nordic Museum's collection, founded it in 1891 as an open-air museum. He moved around 150 houses here from across the country.

Skansen
SkansenAttractionWalk in and climb the hill between the old farmsteads, then look for the Nordic animals, such as brown bear, lynx, moose and wolverine. Give it the time you saved by not going into every museum before it.Photo: Holger.Ellgaard, CC BY-SA 4.0

Where it ends

Two stops share a founder, one is built around a single ship, and one is about four singers. Between them they cover what the island does best: collecting things carefully and putting them where people can walk up to them.