MEDIEVAL MUSEUM
Stockholm, Sweden
Medieval Museum was dedicated to the medieval history of Stockholm from the 13th to the 16th century.
The museum itself came into existence thanks to an unexpected archaeological discovery: in the late 1970s, construction workers uncovered the remains of a medieval city while building an underground parking garage. Instead of completing the parking project, the city decided to create a museum around the artifacts that had been found.
The museum focused not so much on kings and wars as on the everyday lives of medieval Stockholm’s residents—craftsmen, merchants, children, sailors, and ordinary townspeople. Visitors could literally walk through reconstructed streets and experience the city as it was nearly 700 years ago.
One of the most impressive features of the museum was a preserved 55-meter section of the 16th-century city wall. Visitors could see it exactly where it had stood for centuries. The museum also featured a medieval cemetery, the remains of a 16th-century warship, and reconstructions of streets, workshops, marketplaces, and residential buildings.
In 2010, the museum unveiled a reconstruction of the face of Birger Jarl, the man widely regarded as the founder of Stockholm. Created using studies of his remains, the reconstruction allowed visitors to see what a person who stood at the origins of the city nearly eight centuries ago may have looked like.
