Tag: Stockholm

Swedish Trade

Today is a great World Cup day. The two teams for which I am rooting are playing—thankfully not yet against each other. Later this afternoon England takes on Colombia. But this morning Sweden will play Switzerland. (Neutrality is no longer an option.) And in the spirit of Sweden, I figured I would return to my winter trip to Stockholm and dig out a graphic. This one seemed particularly relevant.

All around the world—or at least Europe
All around the world—or at least Europe

It may be difficult to read, because it is in Swedish along with being large, but it shows medieval trade routes connecting Sweden to Europe. For example, Stockholm received cloth from East Anglia in modern-day England and from Bruges in Flanders, beer from modern-day Germany, and wine from modern day France and Spain.

Even in the Medieval period, international trade was vital to the economies of the emerging European cities and states.

Credit for the piece goes to the Medieval Museum design department.

Below Stockholm’s Streets

I survived my holidays and hopefully you did as well. My holiday included a two-week trip to Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, and York. Over the next few weeks, you can expect to see posts with graphics and diagrams that I captured whilst on holiday.

Today’s post is about a rather large piece from the Medieval Museum in Stockholm. The city dates probably from the 13th century, but there is no definite date nor any definite explanation of the origin of the name Stockholm. A lot of work thus has to be done via archaeology and this piece, easily twice as tall as me, shows just how deep those artifacts are buried. The years can be seen to the right for a sense of scale.

Layers of history
Layers of history

But why did I love it? Because Converse trainers. And did I ever see so many black Converse walking around.