Stockholm

The Stockholm Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch. . Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen , in... Gamla Stan in the capital, Stockholm. It neighbours the Riksdag, Sweden's parliament. The offices of the monarch , the other members of the Swedish Royal Family, and the offices of the Royal Court of Sweden are located there. The palace is used for representative purposes by the King whilst performing his duties as the head of state. The southern façade is facing the grand-style slope Slottsbacken; the eastern façade is bordering Skeppsbron, an impressive quay passing along the eastern waterfront of the old town; on the northern front is Lejonbacken, a system of ramps named after the Medici lions sculptures on the stone railings; and the western wings border the open space Högvaktsterrassen. The first building on this site was a fortress with a core tower built in the 13th century by Birger Jarl to defend Lake Mälaren.
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The Drottningholm Palace is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. It is located in Drottningholm. It is built on the island Lovön... , and is one of Sweden's Royal Palaces. It was originally built in the late 16th century. It served as a residence of the Swedish royal court for most of the 18th century. Apart from being the private residence of the Swedish royal family, the palace is a popular tourist attraction. The name Drottningholm came from the original renaissance building designed by Willem Boy, a stone palace built by John III of Sweden in 1580 for his queen, Catherine Jagellon. This palace was preceded by a royal mansion called Torvesund. The Queen Dowager Regent Hedwig Eleonora bought the castle in 1661, a year after her role as Queen of Sweden ended, but it burnt to the ground on 30 December that same year. Hedwig hired the famous Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Elder to design and rebuild the castle. In 1662, work began on the reconstruction of the building. With the castle almost complete, Nicodemus died in 1681.
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Stockholm City Hall is the building of the Municipal Council for the City of Stockholm in Sweden. It stands on the eastern tip of Kungsholmen... island, next to Riddarfjärden's northern shore and facing the islands of Riddarholmen and Södermalm. It houses offices and conference rooms as well as ceremonial halls, and the luxury restaurant Stadshuskällaren. It is the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet and one of Stockholm's major tourist attractions. In 1907 the city council decided to build a new city hall at the former site of Eldkvarn. An architectural contest was held which in a first stage resulted in the selection of drafts by Ragnar Östberg, Carl Westman, Ivar Tengbom jointly with Ernst Torulf, and Carl Bergsten. After a further competition between Westman and Östberg the latter was assigned to the construction of the City Hall, while the former was asked to construct Stockholm Court House. Östberg modified his original draft using elements of Westman's project, including the tower. During the construction period, Östberg constantly reworked his plans, resulting e.g.
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Sankt Nikolai kyrka , most commonly known as Storkyrkan and Stockholms domkyrka , is the oldest church in Gamla Stan, the old town in central... Stockholm, Sweden. It is an important example of Swedish Brick Gothic. Situated next to the Royal Palace, it forms the western end of Slottsbacken, the major approach to the Royal Palace, while the streets Storkyrkobrinken, Högvaktsterrassen, and Trångsund passes north and west of it respectively. South of the church is the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building facing the Stortorget square and containing the Swedish Academy, Nobel Library, and Nobel Museum. Storkyrkan was first mentioned in a written source dated 1279 and according to tradition was originally built by Birger Jarl, the founder of the city itself. For nearly four hundred years it was the only parish church in the city, the other churches of comparible antiquity originally built to serve the spiritual needs religious communities . It became a Lutheran Protestant church in 1527.
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The Vasa Museum is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully... intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. Together with other museums such as Stockholm Maritime Museum, the museum belongs to the Swedish National Maritime Museums . From the end of 1961 to 1988, Vasa was housed in a temporary structure called Wasavarvet where she was treated with polyethylene glycol. Visitors could only view the ship from two levels and the maximum distance was only 5 m . In 1981, the Swedish government decided that a permanent Vasa museum was to be constructed and an architects' competition for the design of the museum building was organized. A total of 384 architects sent in models of their ideas for the most suitable building to house the Vasa and the final winners were Marianne Dahlbäck and Göran Månsson with Ask .
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The Museum of Medieval Stockholm , centrally located north of the Royal Palace, was constructed around old monuments excavated in an extensive... archaeological dig in the late 1970s. Part of Stockholm's city wall, dating from the early 16th century, was also found. The museum was closed from June 15, 2007 until early 2010 during the restoration of the bridge Norrbro. During this period, the exhibition was rebuilt while a minor temporary exhibition was available in Kulturhuset at Sergels torg. The museum enables visitors to experience medieval Stockholm, with its brick houses and booths, workshops, harbour and gallows. It relates the medieval history of the city from the 1250s to the 1520s. In 2010, to celebrate 800 years since the birth of Birger Jarl, the founder of Stockholm, the museum opened an exhibition with a reconstruction of his face. The Museum of Medieval Stockholm produces theme exhibitions with a medieval emphasis and arranges lectures, symposia and programmes. It engages in broad educational activities, in which children, youth and schools are a key target group.
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Swedish Museum of National Antiquities is a museum located in Stockholm, Sweden that covers Swedish cultural history and art from the Stone Age to... the 16th century. The museum is known for its so called "Gold Room" by the architect Leif Blomberg, where a large number of gold objects are kept as part of the exhibition. The museum is also the place to see objects related to Vikings. The main museum building, the design of architects Bengt Romare and George Scherman 1935-1940, reflects an ambivalence between the predominant modern style of the era and the historical context given not only by the context requirements, but also the 19th century barracks and stables south of the museum designed by Fredrik Blom and built 1805-1817. The latter are neoclassicist in style and the repetitive façades used to be exposed to the Stockholm Harbour, while the former forms a compact block taking a step backwards from the street to leave space for a forecourt. The portico and sculptures on the main façade were designed by the sculptor Bror Marklund in 1938.
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The Stockholm Observatory is an astronomical institution in Stockholm, Sweden, founded in the 18th century and today part of Stockholm University.... Its history is connected to two actual historical observatory complexes in the Stockholm area. The first observatory was established by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on the initiative of its secretary Per Elvius. Construction, according to designs by the architect Carl Hårleman, was begun in 1748, and the building was completed in 1753. It is situated on a hill in a park nowadays named Observatorielunden. The first head of the observatory was Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin. Later heads of the observatory include Hugo Gyldén and Bertil Lindblad. This 18th century observatory today functions as a museum. 59°20′30″N 18°03′17″E / 59.34167°N 18.05472°E / 59.34167; 18.05472 A newer observatory was built in Saltsjöbaden outside Stockholm and completed in 1931 . 59°16′18″N 18°18′30″E / 59.27167°N 18.30833°E / 59.27167; 18.
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Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed... success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards. In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and the only one to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at #1 spot in the domestic box office tally.
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Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård is a Swedish actor. He is best known for his roles as vampire Eric Northman on the HBO series True Blood,... Meekus in Zoolander and Brad Colbert in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. Skarsgård was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He is the son of Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård and his first wife, My, a physician. He has six younger siblings: Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter Skarsgård, and a half-brother, Ossian. His brothers Gustaf, Bill, and Valter are also actors. A director friend of his father gave Skarsgård his first film role when he was seven years old. He played Kalle Nubb in Åke och hans värld . In 1989, the lead role in the Swedish television production Hunden som log made him famous in Sweden at the age of thirteen. Uncomfortable with being recognized, he quit acting for the next seven years. At age 19, he applied to do his national service. He served in the Swedish military for 18 months, in a unit that dealt with anti-sabotage and anti-terrorism in the Stockholm archipelago.
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Dolph Lundgren is a Swedish actor, director, and martial artist. He belongs to a generation of film actors who epitomise the movie action hero... stereotype including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme. A graduate in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia in 1982, Lundgren holds a rank of 3rd dan black belt in Kyokushin Karate and was European champion in 1980 and 1981. While in Sydney, he became a bodyguard for Grace Jones and began a relationship with her. They moved together to New York City, where after a short stint as a model and bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub 'The Limelight', he got a small debut role in the James Bond film A View to a Kill as a KGB henchman. Lundgren's breakthrough came when he starred in Rocky IV in 1985 as the imposing Russian boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, he has starred in more than 40 movies, almost all of them in the action film genre. He portrayed He-Man in the 1987 film Masters of the Universe, and Frank Castle in the 1989 film The Punisher.
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Ernst Josephson was a Swedish painter from a prominent Jewish family, whose main work was done on portraits and paintings of folk life. He did his... art studies in Italy, France and the Netherlands, among others, and is reputed to have said at the age of 20: "I will become Sweden's Rembrandt or die." However, his life was marred by illness. He contracted syphilis at a relatively young age, and in 1888 he became mentally ill during a visit to Brittany, having religious hallucinations and believing that he was God and Christ. He was later taken to hospital in Uppsala and diagnosed with schizophrenia, but continued working throughout his disease, often while in a trance-like state. He also wrote poetry, in the collections Svarta rosor and Gula rosor . His main work, Strömkarlen , was refused by the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm - however, Prince Eugén, Duke of Närke, bought the painting in fury over the decision. Related to the Swedish actor Erland Josephson who is celebrated for his roles in the films of Ingmar Bergman.
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Malin Maria Åkerman is a Swedish–Canadian actress, singer and model. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden and moved to Canada at the age of... two. As a child, she appeared in several television commercials before going on to win a modelling contract at age sixteen. Åkerman's acting career began with her debut on the Canadian television series Earth: Final Conflict in 1997, after which she made appearances on several other Canadian productions. In the early 2000s, she had many television and film parts, including The Utopian Society and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle . Following a supporting role on the short-lived comedy series The Comeback , Åkerman gained her first starring roles in the feature films The Heartbreak Kid and 27 Dresses . Åkerman was cast as Silk Spectre II in the 2009 superhero film Watchmen, a role for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. The same year, she had supporting and starring roles in both The Proposal and Couples Retreat, two commercial hits that garnered mixed to negative reviews.
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Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson , better known by her stage name Lykke Li , is a Swedish singer-songwriter. Her music often blends elements of pop, indie... rock and electronic; various instruments can also be found in her songs, including violins, synthesizers, tambourines, trumpets, saxophones and cellos. Her debut album, Youth Novels, was released in 2008. Lykke Zachrisson was born in Ystad, Skåne; her mother is a photographer, and her father is a musician. The family moved to Stockholm when Zachrisson was a toddler and when she was six moved to a mountaintop in Portugal where they lived for five years. The family also spent time in Lisbon and Morocco, and winters in Nepal and India. She moved to the neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn in New York for three months when she was 19. She returned when she was 21 to record her album. Lykke had some success with the EP "Little Bit" in 2007. Stereogum named her an artist to watch in October 2007 and described her music as a mix of soul, electro and "powdered-sugar pop".
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Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and... classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three of her twenty-four Hollywood films were profitable. Garbo was nominated four times for an Academy Award and received an honorary one in 1954 for her "luminous and unforgettable screen performances". She also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for both Anna Karenina and Camille . In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on their list of greatest female stars of all time, after Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman. Garbo launched her career with a leading role in the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gosta Berling. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro Goldwyn Mayer , who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She immediately stirred interest with her first silent film, Torrent, released in 1926; a year later, her performance in Flesh and the Devil, her third movie, made her an international superstar.
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Gösta Ekman, Sr. , born Frans Gösta Viktor Ekman, was a Swedish actor. Generally spoken of as Swedish theatre's most legendary stage actor,... Gösta Ekman enjoyed a prolific stage career during his short life, becoming the first real star of Swedish theatre. His boyish good looks attracted both sexes, helping to create a massive cult following and elevating him to the status of a living legend. Combined with a beautiful voice and a powerful stage presence, Ekman was able to captivate his audiences. Known as a self-taught master of disguise with theatre make-up and costumes, Gösta Ekman was equally convincing as a farmer's son, an 18th Century middle-aged aristocrat, or an 80-year old lunatic. Furthermore, he played in comedies, tragedies, dramas, and operettas. As a result, it was believed that he was capable of being convincing in all genres and as all types of characters. At different times, he also ran and supervised several private theatres in Stockholm, including the Oscarsteatern, the Vasateatern, and the Konserthusteatern. He was also head of the Gothenburg City Theatre in the 30's.
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Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the... Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca , a World War II drama co-starring Humphrey Bogart and as Alicia Huberman in Notorious , an Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Cary Grant. Before becoming a star in American films, she had already been a leading actress in Swedish films. Her first introduction to American audiences came with her starring role in the English remake of Intermezzo in 1939. In America, she brought to the screen a "Nordic freshness and vitality", along with exceptional beauty and intelligence, and according to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, she quickly became "the ideal of American womanhood" and one of Hollywood's greatest leading actresses. Her producer David O.
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Christian Lindskog is the vocalist for the band Blindside. Christian Lindskog was born in Stockholm, Sweden on September 3rd, 1976. In 1994,... Christian and his friends Marcus Dahlström, Simon Grenehed, Tomas Näslund and Magnus Eriksson started the band "Underfree". After about 1 year, Magnus left the band. They then changed their name to Blindside in 1996, which was taken from lyrics of a song that a friend wrote. Christian has helped design shirts, logos and other merchandise for his band. On his myspace he posted pictures of clothes that he might have designed. He is also known as a poet and most of his lyrics are originated from his poetry.
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Pernilla August is a Swedish actress, director and script-writer. Being one of Sweden's leading actresses and a long time collaborator with director... Ingmar Bergman, she won the Best Actress Award at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival for her role in his The Best Intentions. Her international career includes the role of Shmi Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. August started acting during her childhood in theater and at school. Her professional acting career started in 1975 when acclaimed director Roy Andersson cast her in a minor role in the film Giliap the same year, followed from 1979 by films by other internationally renowned directors, Vilgot Sjöman and Lasse Hallström. She studied acting at Swedish National Academy of Mime and Acting in Stockholm 1979-82. Before finishing her studies, she even attracted the attention of Ingmar Bergman who cast her in his film Fanny and Alexander , playing the nanny in the director's romanticised portrait of his childhood.
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David Hoflin is a Swedish-born Australian actor. He is most famous for playing Jason Bates in Ocean Girl between 1994 and 1998, and Oliver Barnes in... Neighbours between 2007 and 2008. He has appeared in TV shows such as Ocean Girl, Head Start, A Country Practice, McLeod's Daughters, Eugenie Sandler P.I., State Coroner, The Lost World. Hoflin was ten when he starred in his first role alongside Meryl Streep and Sam Neill in Evil Angels, a film about the famous tragic case where a dingo stole baby Azaria Chamberlain from her tent at Ayers Rock. In the Australian medical drama All Saints, he played a character named Kieran who had become heavily intoxicated with alcohol at a rave and subsequently passed out and neglected his younger sister, who was later raped by his friend Lewis. In Ocean Girl, he played one of the lead male characters. The romantic chemistry between his character and that of Marzena Godecki's character, Neri is one of the central themes of the series. Hoflin joined Neighbours in 2007 as Oliver Barnes. He received the job without auditioning after Christian Clark quit with immediate effect.
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