It is available as a printed brochure at the museum in different languages or digitally below.
Vasa is a warship that was built almost 400 years ago. The ship sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was floated to the surface after 333 years on the seabed. Welcome to a trip through the history of Vasa!
What’s old, what’s new? The ship you see in front of you is almost 400 years old. Most of the ship (98%) dates back to the 17th century. Take a careful look at Vasa. Can you see which parts are new? They’re a little lighter in colour.
First stop: Now walk straight into the museum with the ship on your left. You’ll soon arrive at a colourful model of Vasa.
Continue to The model
This model of Vasa gives you an idea of what the ship looked like when she was new. The ship was painted in strong colours with sharp contrasts – they really wanted people to notice this ship!
Second stop: Keep going straight on. You’ll soon come to four big wooden statues.
Continue to 2. Meet the King and Margareta
The man in red is the King himself, Gustav II Adolf. He was the one who ordered the ship. He’s chatting with Margareta Nilsdotter. She was married to the master shipwright. He died before the Vasa was completed, so Margareta made sure the ship was finished.
Third stop: Turn right and walk towards the windows. Here, you’ll find a model of the sinking that shows what happened to the ship.
Continue to 3. Feel the 17th century
Things didn’t go very well for Vasa – she sank after just twenty minutes! On the floor, you’ll see lots of round stones that were on board the ship that day. They were kept right at the bottom of the ship to make her more stable, but they didn’t help. Feel them – they were actually on board the ship!
Fourth stop: Carry on to the green room next door. This is where you’ll find
the diving bell.
Continue to 4. Try the diving bell
Back in the 17th century, divers were able to retrieve Vasa’s cannons from a depth of 30 metres using a diving bell. Go inside the diving bell, then imagine sinking to the bottom of the sea and seeing Vasa there.
Fifth stop: Go up one flight of stairs, or take the lift (to floor 5). Here you’ll see the cabin, the wheelhouse and part of the upper gun deck.
Continue to 5. Climb aboard
Take a look inside the cabin,
with the table set for dinner! Only the senior commanders were allowed in here – and the king, if he happened to visit.
Sixth stop: Go into the gundeck, where you’ll find the cannons.
Continue to 6. Take a breather between the cannons
Lots of people had to work and rest here. It was crowded and dark. The crew slept between the cannons.
Seventh stop: Just outside the gundeck, on the left, you’ll find a cross-sectional model of Vasa.
Continue to 7. Have a look at the model
Can you see the cabin and the wheelhouse? The kitchen on board the ship is known as the galley. Can you find the galley? Have a look for the ship’s cat as well!
Eighth stop: Go up another flight of stairs, or take the lift (to floor 6). Have a look for a big, round, wooden platform. This is a copy of the top, which was on Vasa’s main mast.
Continue to 8. Does the height make you dizzy?
Can you see the top on the real ship? The sailors and seamen worked with the sails and rigging from there. Stand next to the top, or climb up it.
When you stand there and look down into the museum, the distance is almost as far as it was from the top of Vasa down to the deck. But there’s no safety rail on the ship…
Ninth stop: Walk past the stern of Vasa, right the way to the other side. You can look down at Vasa’s figurehead here and see a square box. This is one of Vasa’s toilets!
Continue to 9. The ship’s toilets
Sometimes the crew aboard Vasa needed to go to the toilet, of course. The toilets are situated at the far end of the figurehead, and all they are are two square boxes without bottoms! Originally they had seats, with a round hole.
Continue to More Vasa tips!
The stern of the ship is richly decorated. Look carefully for the two cherubs. They’re holding onto the coat of arms of the Vasa family. That’s kind of like the ship’s nameplate. Vase is an old word meaning “bundle of sticks”, and you’ll see a sheaf of corn on the coat of arms. Can you see the cherubs and the sheaf of corn?
Look at how the coat of arms and other sculptures were painted. You’ll see a number of painted copies on the entrance level, on the wall beside the stern of the Vasa.
At the bottom of the museum, on floor 2, you’ll see an exhibition called Ansikte mot ansikte (Face-to-face). It’s all about the people who died aboard
Vasa. Skeletons can tell us a lot about people – how old they were, what they looked like and what they were wearing, for example.
A single gold item was found on the Vasa – a gold ring. If you want to find it, you’ll have to go on to the exhibition called Livet ombord (Life on board the ship) – you’ll see it straight after the crosssectional model on floor 5.
You can see two real cannons in the exhibition called STRID! (BATTLE!) on floor 5. You can touch them if you like. Vasa was carrying 64 cannons.
When you reach the very top of the museum, on floor 7, you’ll have a beautiful view over the ship – a seagull’s eye view!
Ask at the information desk, or visit vasamuseet.se
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