Stockholm

Stockholm, strikingly beautiful and politically progressive, is a not-to-be-missed destination

Stockholm is Scandinavia’s most regal, elegant, and intriguing city. Although the city was founded more than 7 centuries ago, it did not become Sweden’s official capital until the mid-17th century. Today, Stockholm reigns over a modern welfare state and is home to one of the world's most liberal, progressive, and democratic populaces.

Because of Sweden's supposed neutrality, it was saved from aerial bombardment during World War II, so much of what you see today is truly antique, especially the historical heart, Gamla Stan (the Old Town). Yet Sweden is one of the world's leading exponents of modern architecture, funkis (functionalism), so some of the world's most innovative building appears on the city’s fringes.

Stockholm also enjoys the most dramatic setting of any of Europe’s small capital cities; it was built on 14 islands in Lake Mälaren, which marks the beginning of an archipelago of 24,000 islands stretching all the way to the Baltic Sea. A city of bridges and islands, towers and steeples, cobblestone squares and broad boulevards, Renaissance splendor and steel-and-glass skyscrapers, Stockholm also offers travelers access to nature just a short distance away.

© 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.