The Medieval Museum in Stockholm - history, relocation and our visit

Writer: Helena Bergström

Updated: October 2026 | The Medieval Museum in Stockholm tells the story of the city's origins and the lives of people during the Middle Ages. The museum's former premises under Norrbro are closed, and a move to the Stock Exchange Building in Old Town is planned. Here we tell you about what's going on now and about our visit in 2018, when we got to experience Stockholm's history underground.

Is the Medieval Museum open?

The Medieval Museum's exhibition under Norrbro on Helgeandsholmen closed on November 5, 2023. It is therefore no longer possible to visit the underground museum seen in our pictures.

The plan is for the Medieval Museum to move to the Stock Exchange Building at Stortorget in the Old Town. The Nobel Prize Museum is currently located there, which in turn will move to a new Nobel Center. An opening date for the new Medieval Museum has not yet been announced.

The museum's activities will continue in the meantime, including city walks, lectures and tours of historical rooms. You can still learn about Stockholm's medieval history together with the museum's guides.

Current information about the move and the program can be found at The Medieval Museum website.

READ MORE: Things to do in Stockholm – attractions and experiences

Our visit to the Medieval Museum in 2018

Even though we had lived in Stockholm for decades, we had never visited the Medieval Museum until an autumn weekend in 2018. And we were very pleasantly surprised!

The museum was located under Norrbro, with an entrance from the area next to the Riksdagshuset. When we stepped inside, we were greeted by both real historical remains and built environments that made it easier to imagine life in the old city.

It was above all the combination that we appreciated. We could look at the remains of older Stockholm and then walk further through environments that showed how people lived, worked and socialized.

The Riksgropen – from garage plans to museum

The creation of the Medieval Museum began with plans for a garage. When the Riksdagshuset was to be rebuilt in the late 1970s, there was also a desire to create parking space for the cars of the members of parliament.

Prior to the construction, extensive archaeological investigations were carried out on Helgeandsholmen between 1978 and 1980. The excavation was named "Riksgropen" and attracted great attention.

Thousands of objects and remains from different periods of Stockholm's history were found here. Among the finds were eleven boats, parts of Gustav Vasa's city wall from 1530, and the Helgeandshuset cemetery from the 14th century.

The remains were so significant that they had to be preserved in situ. The planned garage was therefore significantly smaller, and instead an underground museum was built around the historical finds. The Medieval Museum was inaugurated on May 22, 1986.

Medieval environments that brought history to life

During our visit, we were able to stroll through built environments with streets, crafts, an inn and an herb garden. It was nicely done and gave a sense of what everyday life might have been like.

For us, the story became more concrete when it took the form of rooms and environments. It was easy to start thinking about the people who had lived here: What did they work with? What did they eat? What was a typical day like?

The museum also told us about the darker sides of life, such as crime and punishment. It gave us perspective on how different life could be, even though we were in the middle of the same city we know today.

Inns, beer and partying rules

One of the settings that caught our interest was the medieval inn. Of course, travelers needed somewhere to stay and eat even then, and according to city law, there should be at least two inns, or taverns, in a city.

Beer was an important drink, but there was also wine. In Stockholm, special winemen, appointed by the city council, worked to control the wine.

One detail that stuck out to us was the so-called Spyabalken. It regulated drinking at the guilds' feasts, and the fines could depend on where someone vomited or fell over. So even medieval feasting had its own rules of order!

READ MORE: Liquor museum in Stockholm

What did people eat during the Middle Ages?

Food was also part of the story of medieval everyday life. Salting and drying were important ways of preserving food, and fish was of great importance to Stockholm.

The church's fast days affected what people ate. People abstained from meat but could eat fish, such as herring, salmon, cod, pike and bream.

It's these everyday details that we find particularly interesting in historical museums. Kings and great events have their place, but food, work and people's homes make it easier to imagine life in the past.

What happens to the remains under Norrbro?

The permanent ancient remains will not be moved to the Stock Exchange Building. Gustav Vasa's city wall and the other permanent remains will be preserved on Helgeandsholmen, where the Riksdag Administration is planning a new meeting center.

Among the remains is also a secret passage from the early 18th century, which ran between the Royal Palace and the court stables on Helgeandsholmen. It was therefore younger than the Middle Ages, even though it was part of the former museum. The movable objects from the exhibition are stored in storage in front of the new museum.

More history to discover in Stockholm

We really enjoyed our visit to the former Medieval Museum. The built environments and the real remains made Stockholm's history both interesting and easy to absorb. Now it will be exciting to see how the city's medieval history is gradually presented in Börshuset.

If you want to visit more historical museums in Stockholm, you can also read our reports:

• Army Museum – war, peace and conflict
• Vasa Museum in Stockholm
• The Mediterranean Museum in Stockholm

Have you visited the former Medieval Museum, or followed one of the museum's city walks? Please tell us about your experience!