1172, 1365, 3264 SWEDEN - Swedish Royal Family

1172 Swedish Royal Family on Sweden's National Day.
From left to right: Prince Daniel, Crown Princess Victoria,
Prince Carl Philip, Queen Silvia of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf,
Princess Madeleine, Christopher Paul O'Neill.

Posted on 31.07.2014, 20.12.2014, 24.11.2019
The current royal house of Sweden is the House of Bernadotte, which has reigned since 1818, and between 1818 and 1905 was also the royal house of Norway. Its founder, Charles XIV John of Sweden (r. 1818-1844), was adopted by Charles XIII of Sweden (r. 1809-818), the last member of the House of Holstein-Gottorp. In the postcard 1172 are several members of the Swedish royal family. In the middle are King Carl XVI Gustaf (full name: Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, born 30 April 1946), and his spouse, Queen Silvia of Sweden (née Silvia Renate Sommerlath; born 23 December 1943).

3264 Swedish Royal Family after the Nobel awards ceremony, 2015.
From left to right: Christopher Paul O'Neill, Princess Madeleine, Prince Daniel,
Queen Silvia of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf, Crown Princess Victoria,
Prince Carl Philip, Princess Sofia.

On 15 September 1973, Carl Gustaf succeeded his grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf. He is the only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 2011, Silvia (the daughter of Walther Sommerlath and his Brazilian wife Alice, née Soares de Toledo) became the longest serving queen consort of Sweden, a record previously held by Sophia of Nassau. In the left of the royal couple is Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland (Carl Philip Edmund Bertil; born 13 May 1979), the only son of the King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia.

1365 King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia in a carriage.

On 13 June 2015 Carl Philip and former glamour model Sofia Hellqvist married in Stockholm's Royal Palace chapel. On 19 April 2016, Princess Sofia gave birth to a son, Prince Alexander, Duke of Södermanland (Alexander Erik Hubertus Bertil). Their second child, also a son, was born on 31 August 2017, titled Prince Gabriel, Duke of Dalarna (Gabriel Carl Walther).

3160 SWEDEN (Skåne) - Kristianstad

Located in Scania, the southernmost province of Sweden, on the river Helgeå (lit. "The Holy river"), Kristianstad has gone during the last 15 years from a garrison town to a developed commercial city, which today attract visitors in the summertime. Sweden's lowest point, at 2.41m below sea level, is located in Kristianstad. Because of this, parts of the city have to be protected from flooding by a system of levees and water pumps, but on other hand, the wetlands around the city are starting to be regarded as an asset, not least thanks to the creation of Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve, a Unesco biosphere reserve.

2799 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Self-portrait by Rembrandt

The famous Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) created nearly one hundred self-portraits during his lifetime including approximately fifty paintings, thirty-two etchings and seven drawings. The one shown in the postcard is a small oil painting (15 x 12.2 cm), realised in 1630. Characterized by very fine brush strokes, it shows a focused, serious artist, with a slightly quizzical look. There are known only five paintings by Rembrandt, which were applied to copper, three of them with primed gold leaf as this self-portrait.

2672 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Zoie Ghika, Moldavian Princess

The beginning of the 18th century was a period of material reconstruction in Sweden as the country tried to recover from the huge costs of King Charles XII's wars therefore relatively few commissions were forthcoming from the court, the church and the nobility. Many of the newly trained Swedish artists, among them Alexander Roslin (1718-1793), went abroad to search for a living. Thanks to contacts and letters of recommendation he became a court painter both in Bayreuth and in Parma.

2600 SWEDEN (Blekinge) - Naval Port of Karlskrona (UNESCO WHS)

The city of Karlskrona is spread over 30 islands in the eastern part of Blekinge County, in the Baltic Sea, Trossö being the main one. It was founded in 1680 when the Royal Swedish Navy was relocated from the Stockholm area to the Trossö island, because at the time Sweden was the dominant military power in the Baltic sea region, but needed a better strategic location against Denmark, since southern parts of Sweden had been conquered only a few decades before.

1822 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Vädersolstavlan

Vädersolstavlan (The Sun Dog Painting) is an oil-on-panel painting depicting a halo display observed over Stockholm on April 20, 1535, and was named so after the sun dogs (Swedish: Vädersol, "Weather sun") appearing on the upper right part of the painting. It is the oldest depiction of Stockholm in colour, but also the oldest Swedish landscape painting and the oldest depiction of sun dogs. Sun dogs (scientific name parhelia - singular parhelion), are an atmospheric phenomenon that consists of a pair of bright spots on either side on the Sun, often co-occurring with a luminous ring known as a 22° halo, created by light interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere.

0526, 1739 SWEDEN (Uppsala) - Uppsala Cathedral

0526 Uppsala Cathedral

Posted 25.02.2013, 13.07.2015
Situated at 67 km north of Stockholm, on a fertile flatland, Uppsala is better known for its university, the oldest centre of higher education in Scandinavia and one of the most prestigious institutions of this kind in Europe. But only few know that Uppsala was also the main pagan centre of Sweden, and since 1164 it became the ecclesiastical centre of the country. It was originally located a few kilometres to the north, at a location now known as Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), today's Uppsala being then called Östra Aros.

1739 Gustav Vasa's sepulcre in Upssala Cathedral

In 1274, Östra Aros overtook Gamla Uppsala as the main regional centre, and when the cathedral of Gamla Uppsala burnt down, the archbishopric was moved to Östra Aros, where was erected the impressive Uppsala Cathedral, one of the largest in northern Europe. Inaugurated in 1435, this Gothic church was of course Roman Catholic (dedicated to Saint Lawrence, highly cherished in Sweden, to Saint Eric, the patron of Sweden, and to Saint Olaf, the patron of Norway), but since the Protestant Reformation, it has been controlled by the Lutheran Church of Sweden.

1679 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - High above the Old Town of Stockholm

 

Stockholm isn't only the capital and largest city of Sweden, but also the most populous city in the  Nordic region, with almost one milion inhabitants. Spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden, at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, it was founded as a city by Birger Jarl in 1252, to protect Sweden from a sea invasion. The first part of the name (stock) means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word (Stock) meaning fortification. The second part of the name (holm) means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. The core of the present Old Town (Gamla Stan) was built on the central island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid-13th century onward.

1627 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Den Gyldene Freden

Located in the old town of Stockholm, Den gyldene freden (The Golden Peace) is one of Sweden's most well-known restaurants and the oldest restaurant in the world which have the same surroundings, more or less unchanged since the day the restaurant started in 1722. "Freden" as it's locally called received its name from the famous peace of Nystad in which Russia won the most provinces but strangely and to a great joy (hence the golden) let Sweden keep Finland.

1608 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Birka and Hovgården (UNESCO WHS)

Gaming pieces from the grave 523 in Birka, 10th century

During the Viking Age, Birka, on the island of Björkö (literally: "Birch Island"), was an important trading center between Ladoga (Aldeigja) and Novgorod (Holmsgard) to the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasid Califate. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30km west of Stockholm. The archaeological sites of Birka and  Hovgården, on the neighbouring island of Adelsö, make up an archaeological complex which illustrates the elaborate trading networks of Viking Scandinavia and their influence on the subsequent history of Europe.

1544 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Waldemarsudde

Now a museum located on Djurgården in central Stockholm, Waldemarsudde (Cape of Waldemar) is the scenic former home of the Prince Eugen (1865-1947), Duke of Närke, the fourth and youngest son of Oscar II, King of Sweden (1872-1907) and of Norway (1872-1905). The prince showed early artistic promise which later on would result in a life-long commitment to arts. As a young student in Paris he took his first steps as an art collector, and by the turn of the century, he bought the property at Waldemarsudde where he found the space needed for his own works and the art he collected. He bequeathed his home and his collections to the Swedish state and since 1948 it has been open to the public as a museum.

1395 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - The old town hall in Sigtuna

Located not far to Stockholm, at the bay Skarven, Sigtuna is a locality with only approximately 8,500 inhabitants, but, although less significant today, it has an important place in Sweden's early history, because is the oldest inhabitat town in the country, founded in 980. It operated as a royal and commercial centre for some 250 years, and was one of the most important cities of Sweden. During a brief period at the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th century, Sweden's first coins were minted here. St. Mary's Church, built in the 13th century by the Dominican order, still remains largely intact.

1204 SWEDEN - The world's largest struck coin

In 1646 a ship, loaded with iron bars, was wrecked in the archipelago of Gryt in Östergötland. In the cabin there was a chest containing nearly two thousand Swedish copper coins. Furthermore, five newly issued plate money coins were kept in the cabin. The denomination of each one of them was 10 daler sm, four of them were struck in 1644 and one in 1645, during the reign of Queen Christina of Sweden. The lack of silver in Sweden at the beginning of the 17th c. was the main reason why copper coins were brought into production, the first ones being issued in 1624 in low denominations.

0872 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Royal Domain of Drottningholm (UNESCO WHS)

Even if the City of Stockholm is the official capital of Sweden, the King of Sweden actually lives in Ekerö Municipality, at Drottningholm, a locality situated on the island Lovön in lake Mälaren on the outskirts of Stockholm, which has now about 400 inhabitants and was planned and built in the mid 18th century for the people working at the palace. The current Swedish royal family have used Drottningholm as their primary residence since 1981.

0390, 0856 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Vasa, the ship which sailed only 1300 meters

Posted on 20.11.2012, 06.11.2013
On 10 August 1628, Vasa, the first in a series of five warships which aimed to had to end a series of defeats suffered by Swedish fleet and to make this country the dominant maritime power of the Baltic Sea, left the port of Stockholm in its maiden voyage. To mark the solemnity of the occasion, several volleys were fired by the cannons placed on the two decks, on both sides. While the majestic ship headed slowly towards the exit of the harbor, a gust of wind tilted it on its side. After redressed it, another gust tilted it again.

The water entered  through the open cannons ports, and Vasa sank, taking with it in depths between 30 and 50 of the 150 crew members. The ship sailed just 1300m and it was at only 120m of the shore full of people came to attend the event, including foreign ambassadors. The news of the sinking reached the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who led the army in Prussia, after two weeks. Obviously, the disaster had to be the result of "foolishness and incompetence," and the guilty must be punished.

0780 SWEDEN (Södermanland) - S/S Ejdern of Södertälje

0780-1 S/S Ejdern of Södertälje in nowadays

Located at 30km southwest of Stockholm, on a bay of Lake Mälaren, which is here connected with the Baltic Sea by the Södertälje Canal (56 km in length), Södertälje is the main site for truck manufacturer Scania AB and also for pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Furthermore, the port of Södertälje, the second in the Stockholm region, hosts something unique: the oldest coal fired propeller driven steamer, with original engine, in the world.

0780-2 S/S Ejdern of Södertälje in 1905

Built in 1880 in Gothenburg to frequent the archipelago, in nowadays S/S Ejdern makes day trips during the summer to Birka, Adelsö, Drottningholm, Stockholm and Mariefred. A voyage with S/S Ejdern is like travelling back to the past. The propulsion is provided by a Compound engine at 65 IHP, and a boiler of Scotch type, coal fired. Between 1914 and 1957 it had a single captain, Rikard Fredmark.

0722, 0756 SWEDEN (Stockholm) - Stockholm City Hall

0722 Stockholm City Hall

Posted on 06.07.2013, 20.07.2013
Located on the eastern tip of Kungsholmen island, Stockholm City Hall (Stadshuset in Swedish) is the building of the Municipal Council and houses offices and conference rooms as well as ceremonial halls, and the luxury restaurant Stadshuskällaren. Erected between 1911 and 1923 after the projects of Ragnar Östberg, which have undergone many changes, it was carried out by craftsmen using traditional techniques. Were used nearly eight million dark red bricks, called munktegel (monks's brick) because of their traditional use in the construction of monasteries and churches.

0756 Stockholm City Hall - interior

 

The building follows a roughly rectangular plan, being built around two open spaces, a piazza called Borgargården on the eastern side, and the Blue Hall (Blå hallen) to the west. The Blue Hall, named so even it hasn't blue decorations, is known as the dining hall used for the banquet held after the annual Nobel Prize award ceremony. After the 1,300 guests have finished dining, they move upstairs to the Stadshus’s most jaw-dropping room, the shimmering Golden Hall (Gyllene Salen - in the second postcard), where 19 million gold mosaic tiles decorate the walls.

0470 Baltic Sea map

Bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands, Baltic Sea is a brackish sea, mostly enclosed, which has a limited exchange of water with outer oceans. Is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via Kattegat, Skagerrak and North Sea, but also by man-made waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal, and to the North Sea via the Kiel Canal. It has 1,600 km long, an average of 193 km wide, and an average of 55 m deep, with the maximum depth 459 m.

0237 SWEDEN (Gotland) - A church from 13th century

Gotland, considered by some historians the original homeland of the Goths, is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. Its population is 57,221, of which about 22,200 live in Visby, the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia, reason for which has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church in the image isn't in Visby, but in Fleringe, located near of a couple of farms with a very small population (98 inhabitants).