Medieval Museum - Stockholm's history underground

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This weekend we visited the Medieval Museum in Stockholm and experienced Stockholm's history underground. Although we've lived in Stockholm for decades, we've never made it here, until now. And we highly recommend this museum! There are remnants of the real medieval Stockholm and beautifully constructed medieval environments. What's more, visiting the museum is completely free of charge.

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Stockholm's history underground

While building a garage for the Parliament building in the late 1970s, many artefacts from medieval Stockholm were unearthed. In addition to house foundations, they found Gustav Vasa's city wall, a 14th century cemetery wall, seven tonnes of human bones, three tonnes of animal bones and eleven boats. No small finds, then! Fortunately, the plans for a garage were cancelled and a medieval museum was built instead.

Medieval Museum in Stockholm

When you enter the Museum of the Middle Ages, you will find a lot of real remains from medieval Stockholm. In addition, they have built up medieval environments that you can stroll around in. Really nicely done!

The medieval city

At the end of the Middle Ages, Stockholm had between 5,000 and 7,000 inhabitants. Swedes, Germans and Finns lived in Stockholm, and many were bilingual. So it is far from new that we have a multicultural city!

The city's population consisted mainly of merchants, craftsmen and servants. The majority of the population lived in the countryside, and it was there that food was produced so that the city could continue to grow.

The medieval inn

Did you know that medieval Stockholm was required by law to have at least two inns to accommodate travelling visitors? Beer, mead and wine were served, with different levels of alcohol. The wine, which was relatively expensive, was bought from Germany, France and Spain, and its quality was checked at the wine merchants by the Council's appointed winemakers.

But you shouldn't get too drunk! The vomit law regulated drinking, and the amount of fines you had to pay depended on where you fell over or where you threw up... The Swedes have always had a somewhat bittersweet relationship with alcohol, and if you want to know more about it, you can also take the opportunity to check out Stockholm's Liquor Museum.

What about food? The Middle Ages included meat and fish (preferably dried, smoked or salted), sausages, pies, sole and dishes such as chicken fricassee and sheep-in-cabbage. The church also prescribed days of fasting, when you could not eat meat but could eat fish, and then it was often perch.

Medieval environments

The Museum of the Middle Ages is not a classical boring museum with stands, but a really nice way to show the medieval everyday life. The constructed environments tell the story of life in the Middle Ages and you can stroll through medieval streets, shops, inns, churches and herb gardens.

If you want, you can also walk over to the gallows hill and see an illustrative painting of all the creative ways to physically punish people who have committed a crime... This is where Stockholm's Middle Ages come alive again!

Have you also been to the Medieval Museum? What did you think?

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