Museum of Wrecks

I was invited the other day to see and experience the newest museum in Stockholm: The Museum of Wrecks (Vrakmuseet). The museum takes a deeper (pun intended) look at the interesting marine archaeology found in the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is quite unique due to it being mainly brackish water combined with its large size and amount of countries sharing her shores. The brackish water means that wooden shipwrecks are better preserved due to the lack of salt and ship-worms. 

The most famous example of a preserved shipwreck is the Vasa, found at the nearby Vasa Museum. Read about my recent visit by clicking here. In fact, not only is the Vasa Museum a close neighbor of the Museum of Wrecks, they are also sister museums... all part of the collection of Swedish National Maritime and Transport History Museums. And, if you are at all interested in marine archaeology and history, these are great museums to combine on your visit to Stockholm. Both of them are located on the western shoreline of Djurgården. 

Vrak Café & Bar

 

The Museum of Wrecks is made up of two floors. We started our tour on the first floor with an immersive movie experience called Sea of Memories which gives you a good introduction. It isn't quite a 360 degree movie experience, but it does take up most of the walls, and even the ceiling, of the room. After the movie, the tour continued into the next large exhibition which is dedicated to the shipwreck Resande Man from 1660. It was quite famous in its time as the ship was carrying many prominent people and treasures. 

Resande Man exhibition

 

The ship sank in the southern Stockholm archipelago in 1660 and was found in 2012. The Resande Man (Swedish for "Traveling Man") exhibition is quite interesting in its use of technology to bring the wreck and objects to life. Many of the artifacts are displayed as holograms and the carpet of the exhibition is a life sized image of the wreck itself. And if you view the carpet through your mobile phone's camera, it shows up in 3D. Cool! As a person who visits many museums, it is really interesting to see how many of them successfully use new technologies in their exhibitions.

Carpeting made up of life size images of the Resande Man wreck

 

The museum exhibition continues up on the second floor. On one side they have a look at six individual shipwrecks through history in an exhibition called "The Divided Sea"... starting with the Stone Age and continuing through the Middle Ages, two world wars and up until the tragic sinking of the MS Estonia in 1994 which claimed 852 lives. On a side note: the memorial for the victims of the Estonia tragedy can be found just behind the museum. The guide explained that they were careful to include wrecks from different countries around the Baltic, not just Sweden, in order to show the shared history and culture of these countries. 

And finally, you have a chance to experience a deep dive in the Baltic using interactive glasses/headsets where you can steer yourself through the murky depths. See what it is like to be a marine archaeologist in the Baltic! Back on the entrance floor, we had an opportunity to peruse their nice gift shop and have something delicious to eat and drink at the Vrak Café and Bar. A nice way to end the tour!

Fellow Concierge trying their hand at marine archaeology

 

As I mentioned earlier, the museum is located on Djurgården... in the same neighborhood as many of Stockholm's other main museums and attractions, like Skansen, Gröna Lund, ABBA the Museum, Museum of Spirits as well as the aforementioned Vasa Museum and many more. The easiest way to get to the museum from the Hotel Rival is the convenient Djurgård ferry in nearby Gamla Stan. Or, if you are in the downtown area, you can take the Djurgård tram out to the island. 

Location on the Djurgård waterfront