Historiska Museet (Museum of National Antiquities)

A visit to this museum is like a journey to the past. We always feel like we're time-traveling here, from as far back as the Stone Age to the 16th century. The Viking era especially comes to life, through more than 4,000 objects and artifacts that reveal the lives of those rugged seafarers who terrorized the world.

We always head first for the Goldrummet or Gold Room, a virtual treasure chest that, amazingly, goes back to the Bronze Age. Inaugurated in 1994, in the presence of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, the Gold Room features Viking silver and gold jewelry, large ornate charms, elaborate bracelet designs found nowhere else in the world, and a unique neck collar from Färjestaden. The valuable treasury is underground, along long corridors and behind solid security doors. These precious objects were dug up all over the country, and the state paid the finders of the objects the equivalent of today's market value -- in kronor, not in gold.

After all this gold, the other exhibitions are a bit of a letdown. Still, you might want to check out the remaining highlights, including the Gothic Hall, with one of Scandinavia's finest collections of sculpture, church triptychs, and other ecclesiastical objects from the 12th century onward. In the Textile Chamber, fabrics from ecclesiastical and secular textiles from the Middle Ages to the modern era are on display.

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