View from stockholm

摘要

Looking down as my flight from Copenhagen neared Stockholm, the coastline seemed to dissolve into the Baltic like a melting ice pack, forming an archipelago as seemingly insubstantial as flecks of foam on the water. The Swedish capital was founded on one of these islands—now known as Gamla Stan (the Old City)—and has extended itself over 13 more, becoming a work of art that is defined by its waterfronts. The urban fabric is looser and more varied in elevation than that of Venice, to which Stockholm is inevitably compared, making each island a three-dimensional composition of varied facades, spiky skylines, and expanses of greenery. Restrained Baroque and exuberant Beaux Arts buildings predominate, with a smattering of Art Nouvcau and romantic extravaganzas like the City Hall, but modern buildings arc surprisingly inconspicuous in the city centre, except in the commercial core around Sergcls Torg and the railway station.