Vasa History

Gustav II Adolf

Gustav II Adolf (1594-1632) was the son of King Karl IX and Kristina of Holstein-Gottorp. His grandfather was Gustav I, or Gustav Vasa as he is often called today, the first of the Vasa dynasty.

Gustav II Adolf

Gustav II Adolf (1594-1632) was the son of King Karl IX and Kristina of Holstein-Gottorp. His grandfather was Gustav I, or Gustav Vasa as he is often called today, the first of the Vasa dynasty.

Vasa History

The Ship Yard

People from a half dozen countries toiled here from sunrise to sunset, six days a week, as carpenters, sawyers, smiths, mastmakers, turners, and a host of other specialized trades. Welcome to Skeppsgården, the navy yard in Stockholm and Vasa's birthplace.

Vasa History

The Disaster

What started with church services and a festive atmosphere ended in a watery grave. It was the 10th of August 1628, when Vasa, the most powerful warship in the Baltic, foundered in Stockholm harbour before the eyes of a large audience, scant minutes after setting sail for the first time.

Vasa History

The Inquest

Already the day after Vasa sank, the Council of State started looking for the responsible parties, but nobody was ever punished for one of the greatest disasters of Sweden's Great Power Era.

Vasa History

Vasa – the machine of war

Her cannon could fire 250 kilograms of ammunition in a single broadside, and when the heavy iron shot left the muzzles, they travelled near the speed of sound. For a brief few minutes, she was the most powerfully armed ship in the Baltic, if not the world, a floating fortress to be feared from Reval to Copenhagen.

Vasa History

Life on Board

450 men crowded into less than 600 square meters of living space, sleeping in shifts, eating from communal bowls, disease an ever-present risk, tedium the order of the day. But the food was regular, the duty was clearly defined, and unlike in the army, you could come home in the winter.

Vasa History

The Search for Vasa

On 25 August 1956, a small piece of black oak stuck in a coring device that had been dropped into Stockholm's harbour. It does not sound like much, but is by far one of the most important events in the modern history of Vasa.

Vasa History

The Salvage

Some have called it Sweden's Apollo Program, a dramatic and complex technical effort over several years to do something few thought possible: raise an intact 17th-century warship from the bottom of the sea. Even today, many still remember where they were when Vasa finally rose from the deep after 333 years in darkness.

Vasa History

The Excavation

Dressed in rain wear and newly vaccinated against whatever bugs might live in a sunken ship, a team of archaeologists descended into the black sludge that filled Vasa in April 1961. When they finished five months later, they had recovered more than 30,000 fascinating objects from 1628 and begun to understand what life might have been like aboard a Swedish warship.

Vasa History

The Museum

The Vasa Museum has become a natural part of Stockholm's skyline. Its masts rising high above Djurgården have become a beacon guiding curious tourists and Stockholmers alike. Vasa has not always been housed in such splendour. From her salvaging in 1961 until 1988 Vasa's home was a 27-year long temporary one at the Wasavarvet Museum.