5 Best Sights in Side Trips from Stockholm, Sweden

Ideally, you should start your visit to the area with a trip to Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), 5 km (3 miles) north of the town. Here under three huge mounds lie the graves of the first Swedish kings—Aun, Egil, and Adils—of the 6th-century Ynglinga dynasty. Close by, in pagan times, was a sacred grove containing a legendary oak from whose branches animal and human sacrifices were hanged. By the 10th century, Christianity had eliminated such practices. A small church, which was the seat of Sweden's first archbishop, was built on the site of a former pagan temple.

The oldest building in Sigtuna still in use, the Church of St. Mary was originally part of a monastery founded by Dominican monks in the 1230s. The church was completed around 1255 and was the first structure in Sweden to be built using the technique of firing bricks. Its style is a mix of Romanesque with early Gothic elements, and it retains much the same appearance as it did at the end of the 13th century, when the vaulted ceilings and copper roof were added. The monastery was torn down during the Reformation, but the Church of St. Mary survived and has been used as Sigtuna’s parish church ever since. Its treasures include four 13th-century crosses, two medieval triptychs, stained-glass windows from the 16th and 17th centuries, and a carved wooden pulpit from 1647. The baptismal fonts are from around 1200 and predate the church itself.

During the early Middle Ages seven gray stone churches were constructed in Sigtuna. Most of these fell into ruin following the Reformation, but portions of three remain as evocative testaments to their former glory. All date from the 12th century. The best preserved are the ruins of S:t Olofs Kyrka, adjacent to the Church of S:t Mary, and S:t Pers Kyrka, just beyond the western end of Prästgatan. The latter is believed to have been the seat of Sweden’s archbishop until the see was moved to Uppsala in 1190. Between the two lies the ruin of S:t Lars Kyrka, of which only portions of a single tower remain.

Nowhere else in the world has as dense a concentration of rune stones as Sigtuna, where there are somewhere between 15 and 25 in the town center—more if you count fragments—and around 170 in the municipality. These stones date from the late 900s to the early 12th century, and most were raised as memorials to one or more people who died, sometimes in distant lands. One stands on Stora Gatan just outside the Sigtuna Museum, and others can be found in and around the three medieval church ruins and outside the Church of St. Mary. The tourist office and Sigtuna Museum have a brochure outlining a suggested rune stone walk, which can also be downloaded from the museum's website.

Founded in 1477, Uppsala's university is known for the Carolina Rediviva university library, which contains a large collection of Swedish and foreign works. Two of its most interesting exhibits are the Codex Argentus, a Bible written in the 6th century, and Mozart's original manuscript for his 1791 opera The Magic Flute.