Swedish architecture was the fulcrum of Scandinavian developments in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s Scandinavian architecture reflected the growing design interests in France and other countries in Europe that became later known as ‘Art Deco’. Scandinavian Art Deco blended these European forms with national identities.
The City Hall Stockholm Sweden
The City Hall in Stockholm, capital city of Sweden, is regarded as a fine example of Scandinavian Art Deco. With the site of the City Hall in Stockholm on the waterfront, the gravitas of the building is hard for visitors to Sweden to ignore.
Ragnar Östberg made the first drawings for the City Hall on Stockholm’s waterfront in 1909. It is known that there was a series of changes up to the completion of Stockholm City Hall in 1923. The exterior architecture includes a 314-foot tower topped with three golden crowns, shown in the photographs below. These three crowns have become one of the major symbols of Sweden and Swedish national identity.
Jennifer Hawkins Opie in her chapter ‘‘Lovely Neoclassical Byways’: Art Deco in Scandinavia’ in Art Deco 1910-1939 edited by Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton and Ghislaine Wood (V&A Publications, 2003) states of the City Hall Stockholm Sweden: “The waterside building with its campanile was historicist in profile, but its rough construction and deep colours were a deliberately modernizing antithesis. Östberg, while articulating the vast spaces essential for civic pride and functionality, produced a building that is richly decorative, a showcase for contemporary Swedish crafts”.
Visiting the City Hall Stockholm Sweden, an Art Deco building
Visitors to Sweden and the city of Stockholm are able to find the City Hall or Stadshuset on the waterfront. The 314-foot tower can be climbed, with an elevator to halfway, by visitors. From the top of the City Hall tower, the Art Deco building, offers an outstanding view of Gamla Stan and elsewhere in Stockholm.
Taking a guided tour, in English or Swedish, of the City Hall Stockholm is the only way to enter the building:
- In September, weekend tours start at 10:00 12:00 and 14:00hrs.
- From October to May, tours start daily at 10:00 and 12:00 hrs.
- In June to August, tours start daily at 10:00. 11:00. 12:00, 14:00 and 15:00 hrs.
Price of the tour of City Hall Stockholm is 60 SEK (Swedish Crowns) for adults, 50 SEK for seniors and students, and 30 SEK for children aged 12 to 17 years old with an adult. Free entrance and guided tour of City Hall Stockholm is available for visitors to Sweden with a Stockholm Card or Stockholm à la Carte and for children aged under 11 years if with their parent or guardian. Up-to-date information about guided tours is available by calling City Hall Stockholm +46-8-508 29 058 or +46-8-508 29 059.
City Hall Stockholm Sweden and Nobel Prize
Stockholm’s Deco building, the City Hall by Ragnar Östberg, is well known as a venue for the annual Nobel Prizes held in Sweden. The Blue Hall and the Golden Hall in the City Hall Stockholm are locations for the Nobel Prizes award ceremony and banquet. Virtual tours of the Stockholm City Hall are available as a taster to the visual delights.
The Grand Hôtel, (Sodra Blasieholmshamnen 8, 103 27 Stockholm, Sweden, Tel: +46-8–679 35 00) in Stockholm has traditionally been where the Nobel Laureates have stayed to attend the ceremony and banquet.
Susan Morris - Susan Morris, Scottish food and drink business manager, organic gardener, author and editor
