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Stockholm_Vasa Museum

Geo tags: stockholm 

Descriptive tags: museum stockholm ship history culture 

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I like it!

Hi everyone, here i am for another reccomendation !!
As i already wrote i like museums, in Italy ( obviously ) and in Sweden too,
i really enjoyed my time visiting musuems of Stockholm and Göteborg.

I went to Stockholm 2 times, March 2007 and August 2007, each time i visited Vasa Musuems.
I really love it, the mistery of the disaster, the incredible operation of rescue !!

I suggest to experience this museum to you all, it's magical, when you enter the gate the time seems to stop,
i spent 3 hours between the floors, from the top the the lower zones of the ship.
I'm not an expert of architecture but i think that the building ( near the shore of the sea !!! ) is very modern,
inside an excellent illumination create a wonderful atmosphere, very very suggestive,
when you enter and watch the ship for the first time ... WWWOOOOOWWWWW !! It's real !! It's a giant !!
The hall is quite dark but many lights hit the ship in particular points to show the beauty of the decorations, once coloured !!
There are many info points about the historycal periode from the built to the fatal day, you can find documents of the Swedish life in 1600,
original objects rescued with the ship showed in many reliquaries.

There's a curious think about Vasa and me because i'm the assistant of a Photoreporter from Milano, Nevio Doz,
between 1990 and 2000 he went often to Sweden to take pictures for an Italian Tourist Magazines,
i don't remenber the exact year but he tell me that he took a reportage about Vasa Ship / Vasa Museum,
he worked for one week in the museum and he entered in the ship many times !! Lucky man !!
I never saw those photos, he gave the shots to the magazine.

I took good photos too, i think, here i attach just some photos,
i just posted new pics my page.

And last but not least in Vasa Museum the restaurant is very GOOD !! eh eh

Here some Info took by the official website :

http://www.vasamuseet.se/


THE DISASTER

" The Vasa was built at the Stockholm shipyard by Henrik Hybertsson -
an experienced Dutch shipbuilder. His experience was much needed
as the Vasa was to be the mightiest warship in the world, armed with
64 guns on two gundecks.

In 1628 the ship was ready. Sunday August 10 was the day of the
Vasa's maiden voyage. The beaches around Stockholm were filled with
spectators, among them foreign diplomats. The maiden voyage was
to be an act of propaganda for the ambitious Swedish king Gustavus
Adolphus.

The Vasa set sail and fired a salute. But only after a few minutes of
sailing the ship began to heel over. She righted herself slightly - and
heeled over again. Water started to gush in through the open
gunports. And, to everyones horror and disbelief, the glorious and
mighty warship suddenly sank! Of the 150 people on board, 30-50
died in the disaster. When Vasa had been salvaged in 1961,
archaeologists found the remains of 25 skeletons. "

DISCOVERING AND SALVAGING

On April 24 1961, the warship Vasa broke the surface of Stockholm´s
harbour after 333 years on the sea bottom.  At that time the "Vasa
adventure" had been going on for five years. After many years of hard
work the shipwreck-specialist Anders Franzén finally found the Vasa in
1956. He quickly found support for the idea of salvaging the ship.

The Vasa was located 30 metres beneath the surface. The Swedish
Navy's heavy divers, under the leadership of head diver Per Edvin
Fälting, dived down to the ship. They managed to flush six tunnels in
the mud beneath her, using specially made nozzles. Steel cables were
drawn through the tunnels. Two lifting pontoons on the surface were to
lift the ship using the cables. In August 1959 the time came for the
first lift.

At 9.03 on April 24 1961 the proud royal warship Vasa broke surface.
The first to go on board was Anders Franzén and Per Edvin Fälting.
During that summer the ship was excavated by archaeologists. An
untouched part of the 17th century had warped into the 20th century!

In 1962 the temporary Vasa Museum - the Wasavarvet - opened. The
ship and all the finds were preserved - an effort of gigantic
proportions. The Vasa is the biggest single object that has ever been
preserved. A chemical substance called polyethylenglycol (PEG) was
used. It replaces water in wooden objects to prevent them from
shrinking when dried.

In 1990 the new Vasa Museum was inaugurated.


bye bye, Luca


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  • yes i can certainly agree Vasa is amazing. We have a ship in England called the "Mary Rose" but it is only the bottom hull piece! It is just a wreck! I think i paid nearly 10 pounds for the ticket and i thought it was a bit expensive, that was until i saw the ship!!! It was brilliant, and there was so much to see around the ship i spent about 6 hours in there i think. i remember being in a hurry to finish reading about the skeletons because they made an annoucement that the museum was closing in 15 minutes!. But i did eat in the restaurant which is very good. great views from there. i had a kind of prawn swedish open sandwich a generous portion, Lots of prawns!
  • It truly is a gorgeous ship with such an interesting story. It was rather many years ago we visited it now and we've planned to do it again to refresh our memories and to admire it all again :-)
  • I saw the Vasa at the time it was being constantly sprayed with wood preservative.Whilst thoughts after what we see are oft difficult to put in to words;my feelings were it was no longer a lost Swedish treasure.It is as beautiful as your country and must be the pride of the Swedish nation.Bill Griffin.Warwickshire.England
  • I've never been there but I sure must someday :) The ship is beautiful
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