On Location - Sweden

The most striking thing about Stockholm is how gorgeous its waterfront promenades and harbours are and how many there are. The city is made up of 14 islands where the freshwater Lake Mälaren flows out into the Baltic Sea, and along them are the 30,000 islands of the Stockholm Archipelago, a ferry ride away.

April 2018

A colourful military tradition completed by the ceremonial guard to the accompaniment of a band on horseback. The procession, a daily occurrence in the summer months and less so in the winter months, starts from the cavalry barracks and ends at the Royal Palace where the changing of the guard is performed. A great spectacle steeped in military tradition.

April 2018

Vasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship foundered after sailing about 1,300 m into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961 but extensive stabilisation, preservation, and restoration works, eventually finding home in the purpose built Vasa Museum, Stockholm.  

The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm and armed primarily with bronze cannons cast specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. With two gun decks on each side, the Vasa was dangerously unstable and had too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and foundered only a few minutes after encountering a wind no stronger than a breeze.

April 2018