Stadshuset

Before flying home, this morning I took a tour of Stockholm's Stadshuset or Town Hall. It is a magnificent building, completed in 1923 with some very grand public rooms.

This is the ceiling of the Council Chamber. Our guide explained the design is intended to reflect an upturned Viking longboat. They used their ships as shelters and gathering places during the Winter.

The blue strip down the centre is intended to be the sky which, she told us echoes the open strip in the roof of an otherwise windowless Viking house. But, she said, "it also symbolises openness, as freedom and democracy fly from the Council Chamber, like birds." Hmmmm!

A few other pictures of the building can be seen here.