The most beautiful cities in Sweden

Sweden is a country of rare beauty, even amid its starkest northern landscapes. Its cities and towns testify to 1000 years of urban life, but there are precious places offering glimpses into even older traditions of human settlement.

Architecture

Churches form the most common and durable features in Sweden’s built heritage throughout the medieval era. Many of these survive as stone ruins in towns such as Visby and Sigtuna, but early stone cathedrals include those in Lund, Uppsala and Skara and the church of Vadstena kloster survive largely intact. Tiny medieval stone parish churches are common in Uppland, in Östergötland, and on Öland and Gotland.

The restoration work of the architect Helgo Zettervall in the second half of the 19th century has been controversial in its interpretation of medieval cathedrals such as Lunds domkyrka, Uppsala domkyrka, Linköping domkyrka and Skara domkyrka.

Sweden has a single example of a stave church, Särna Gammelkyrka in upper Dalarna, which lacks the ornate carving of Norwegian churches of the type.

In Swedish spelling, colons are often used in contractions. Under this convention, the contraction St is often written S:t, so church names can appear in the style S:t Lars, S:t Klara.

Churches that are open to the public generally have a staff member present. Printed information in English is common in churches of historical interest, but not universal.

Sweden’s rural and traditional residential architecture can be viewed in towns such as Sigtuna and Eksjö and the Elsborg miners’ precinct of Falun, and at open-air museums such as the famous Skansen in Stockholm, Örebro’s Wadköping, Gamla Linköping, Mora’s Zorns Gammelgård, Östersund’s Jamtli and Karlstad’s Sågudden. Seven designated farmhouses in the province of Hälsingland are world-heritage listed for their decoration.

Outstanding examples of folk art are found in the extraordinary painted farmhouse interiors of the 18th and early 19th centuries. These are in many Swedish provinces, and part of Dalarna Museum in Falun is devoted to this art form.

Romanesque

Lunds domkyrka
Gamla Uppsala kyrka

Gothic

Uppsala domkyrka
Riddarholms kyrka, Stockholm
Vadstena klosterkyrka
Skara domkyrka
Linköping domkyrka

Renaissance

Kalmar slott
Vadstena slott
Malmö slott
Gripsholm slott

Baroque

Kungliga slottet, Stockholm
Drottninggholms slott
Riddarhuset, Stockholm
Fredrikskyrkan, Karlskrona
Trefaldighetskyrkan, Karlskrona
Kalmar domkyrka
Katarina kyrka, Stockholm
Storkyrkan, Stockholm