National Historical Museum, Stockholm, Sweden

The National Historical Museum (Historiska muséet) covers Swedish cultural history and art from the Stone Age to the 16th century. The museum is known for its so called "Gold Room" (Guldrummet) by the architect Leif Blomberg, where a large number of gold objects are kept as part of the exhibition. The museum hosts also the largest Viking exhibition, with more than 4,000 original artifacts.

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User Reviews

Priyanka Shinde (16 months ago)
The museum is very well designed. It has information in English too. The best thing is that it is for free.

Chuck Hill (16 months ago)
Excellent! Our entire family had a great time visiting. One could spend hours going through and studying everything or you go thru and see all the highlights in an hour or too. Def a good place to go when it's cold out!

Dave Hoekstra (2 years ago)
A great place to spend some time learning about Swedish history. Some of the facts are a bit dry, but there is something for everyone. And it is free!

Olga P (2 years ago)
Wonderful museum free of charge. Be preperated to spend 2 hours there... Its very interactive and it really makes you understand about the culture of Sweden

Katja Jacobs (2 years ago)
Free-entrance museum. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Sweden's background. Young lady at the museum shop desk was so friendly. There are free spacey lockers to leave your stuff during the visit. The service desk lady said I could do the whole museum in 1,5 - 2 hours. I only had 1,5 hours and chose to go straight to the Viking part. This is just a fraction of the whole museum but took me already 1,5 hours to see and read everything! It's a blessing this Museum is free for visitors, this way you can visit it several times and take enough time to see everything on a slower pace.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Arnie Papp

Historic Site of the week

Klis Fortress

From its origin as a small stronghold built by the ancient Illyrian tribe Dalmatae, becoming a royal castle that was the seat of many Croatian kings, to its final development as a large fortress during the Ottoman wars in Europe, Klis Fortress has guarded the frontier, being lost and re-conquered several times. Due to its location on a pass that separates the mountains Mosor and Kozjak, the fortress served as a major source of defense in Dalmatia, especially against the Ottoman advance, and has been a key crossroad between the Mediterranean belt and the Balkan rear.

Since Duke Mislav of the Duchy of Croatia made Klis Fortress the seat of his throne in the middle of the 9th century, the fortress served as the seat of many Croatia"s rulers. The reign of his successor, Duke Trpimir I, the founder of the Croatian royal House of Trpimirović, is significant for spreading Christianity in the Duchy of Croatia. He largely expanded the Klis Fortress, and in Rižinice, in the valley under the fortress, he built a church and the first Benedictine monastery in Croatia. During the reign of the first Croatian king, Tomislav, Klis and Biograd na Moru were his chief residences.

In March 1242 at Klis Fortress, Tatars who were a constituent segment of the Mongol army under the leadership of Kadan suffered a major defeat while in pursuit of the Hungarian army led by King Béla IV. After their defeat by Croatian forces, the Mongols retreated, and Béla IV rewarded many Croatian towns and nobles with 'substantial riches'. During the Late Middle Ages, the fortress was governed by Croatian nobility, amongst whom Paul I Šubić of Bribir was the most significant. During his reign, the House of Šubić controlled most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia. Excluding the brief possession by the forces of Bosnian King, Tvrtko I, the fortress remained in Hungaro-Croatian hands for the next several hundred years, until the 16th century.

Klis Fortress is probably best known for its defense against the Ottoman invasion of Europe in the early 16th century. Croatian captain Petar Kružić led the defense of the fortress against a Turkish invasion and siege that lasted for more than two and a half decades. During this defense, as Kružić and his soldiers fought without allies against the Turks, the military faction of Uskoks was formed, which later became famous as an elite Croatian militant sect. Ultimately, the defenders were defeated and the fortress was occupied by the Ottomans in 1537. After more than a century under Ottoman rule, in 1669, Klis Fortress was besieged and seized by the Republic of Venice, thus moving the border between Christian and Muslim Europe further east and helping to contribute to the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The Venetians restored and enlarged the fortress, but it was taken by the Austrians after Napoleon extinguished the republic itself in 1797. Today, Klis Fortress contains a museum where visitors to this historic military structure can see an array of arms, armor, and traditional uniforms.

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