The most beautiful places 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.

Visual arts

Anders Zorn worked extensively in France and the US, painting portraits, landscapes and nudes, the last in his native region Dalarna. He also sculpted and produced etchings. He is famous for having produced portraits of the king Oscar II, the Swedish and US upper class, and three American presidents.

Carl and Karin Larsson were an arts couple, Carl as perhaps Sweden’s second-best known painter and Karin as a worker in textiles and design. Bruno Liljefors received accolades for his work in painting wildlife.

Johan Tobias Sergel was a Neoclassical sculptor whose most prominent work is the Stockholm statue of Gustav III. The sculptor Carl Milles worked mostly in the 20th century and produced the statue of Poseidon on the forecourt of Gothenburg’s art museum. His home near Stockholm is now a sculpture park and one of Sweden’s most popular attractions.