3 Best Sights in Gamla Stan and Skeppsholmen, Stockholm

In the vaults under the massive stone bridge of Norrbro is Medeltidsmuseet, a museum built around the surviving city wall that once protected the growing city of Stockholm. The museum explores Stockholm's medieval past, with exhibits on life in the city's narrow, winding streets, religion, crime, and trade, in the centuries after Stockholm took the mantle from Sigtuna as the base of power in Sweden.

Dating from 1270, Riddarholmskyrkan, the Greyfriars monastery, is one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm. It's the burial place for two medieval kings, as well as every Swedish sovereign since 1632 except Queen Kristina, who abdicated and died in Rome, and Gustav VI Adolf, the current king's predecessor, who is buried at Haga Park. The redbrick church, distinguished by its delicate iron-fretwork spire, is rarely used for services and is more like a museum now. The most famous figures interred within are King Gustavus Adolphus, hero of the Thirty Years' War, and the warrior King Karl XII, renowned for his daring invasion of Russia, who died in Norway in 1718. The most recent of the 17 Swedish kings to be put to rest here was Gustav V, in 1950. The different rulers' sarcophagi, usually embellished with their monograms, are visible in the small chapels dedicated to the various dynasties.

When in session, the Swedish Parliament meets in this neoclassical building, which was inaugurated in 1905. Above the entrance, the architect placed sculptures of a peasant, a burgher, a clergyman, and a nobleman. Take a tour of the building not only to learn about Swedish government but also to see the art within. In the former First Chamber are murals by Otte Sköld illustrating different periods in the history of Stockholm, and in the current First Chamber, a massive tapestry by Elisabet Hasselberg Olsson, Memory of a Landscape, hangs above the podium. An English-language guided tour is the only way to gain admission; tours, held at 1:30 on Saturday and Sunday are first come, first served, and limited to 28 people, so arrive early.