Vasa Museum

Located on Stockholm's island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only nearly completely intact 17th-century ship in the world. Opened in 1990, the museum has been the most visited museum in Scandinavia since the year it was opened.

The history of the museum began with the Marine archaeologist Anders Franzén, who devoted his life to finding the wreck of the Vasa ship, which he knew from Swedish history. On August 25, 1956, after a period of 20 years, the ship that Franzén found was landed after two years of work, starting in 1957.

From 1961 to 1983, Vasa was held in a temporary structure called Wasavarvet ("Vasa Shipyard") and entered a 17-year program of preservation with chemicals, including polyethylene glycol.

In 1981 the Swedish government decided to build a permanent Vasa museum, and construction of the building began around the dry dock of the former naval shipyard, with an inauguration ceremony attended by Prince Bertil on 2 November 1987.

Officially opened on June 15, 1990, the museum is under controlled conditions to prevent the ship from rotting.