Stockholm archipelago
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Map of Stockholm and its archipelago |
The Stockholm Archipelago (
Swedish:
Stockholms Skärgård) is the biggest
archipelago of
Sweden, and one of the biggest
archipelagos of the
Baltic sea. It stretches from
Stockholm and approximately 60
kilometers to the east, bordering
Alandia. It consists of approximately 24 000
islands and
islets. It mainly follows the coastline of the provinces
Södermanland and
Uppland.
In
1719 the archipelago was estimated to have a population of 2.900
people, mostly
fishermen. Today the archipelago is a popular holiday destination with some 50,000
holiday cottages (mainly owned by Stockholmers). The biggest town of the archipelago, apart from
Stockholm, is
Vaxholm. As would be expected, boating is an extremely popular activity. In the winter
skaters make excursions over the ice.
The landscape has been shaped - and is still shaped - by
land elevation. It wasn't until the
Viking Age that the archipelago began to assume its present day contours. The
islands are still rising by about five
millimeters each year.
The village of
Ytterby, famous among chemists for naming no fewer than four
chemical elements (
erbium,
terbium,
ytterbium and
yttrium), is situated in the Stockholm Archipelago.
Many poets,
authors and artists have been influenced and fascinated by the Stockholm archipelago. Among them are
August Strindberg,
Ture Nerman,
Roland Svensson,
Ernst Didring and
Aleister Crowley.
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Video of the Stockholm Archipelago
