We like to do one museum or similar to each trip – a spot of culture. So the Vasa Museum was the chosen one. We walked there early in the morning to avoid the cruise ship passengers, this was a really good plan. We went through the museum, which houses the ship and artefacts found as well as information on construction methods. We went for a coffee and snack part way through, and back to finish off the museum, by now far too crowed. It is a marvellous museum. It is lovely to see such a great ship up close, there is also a lot of information about the artefacts found, the construction and the history.
Note – these pictures were all taken with a pocket camera, nothing fancy.
The red dots and the monitoring points for humidity, shrinkage and swell.
WikiP says –
“Vasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship foundered after sailing about 1,300m into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor. Salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. The ship is one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961.[3] Since her recovery, Vasa has become a widely recognized symbol of the Swedish “great power period” and is today a de facto standard in the media and among Swedes for evaluating the historical importance of shipwrecks.
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 under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannons cast in Stockholm 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. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable and top-heavy with 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 stronger than a breeze”
After our museum visit we took a boat back to the old town, wandered some more and then got ready for a few long travel days.
Review of the Vasa Museum – we would highly recommend a visit, unless you are totally against history and museums. It is a magnificent opportunity to see such a ship.
Next – Train from Stockholm to Lubeck
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