Vasa museet (Museo Vasa)

The Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus II

Yesterday I visited the Vasa museum (Vasamuseet in swedish). The Vasa was a warship built in Sweden between 1626 and 1628. This giant ship was suposed to be one of the best and biggest warships of the swedish fleet carrying 64 cannons, more than usual, as the swedish king Gustavus Adolphus II wanted to, and this made the ship dangerously unstable.

 It's first journey was the 10th of August 1628, but as it was too heavy it sank after sailing 1,300km. It's construction was part of the military expansion that king Gustavus Adolphus initiated, and it was going to sail from Stockholm's harbour to Poland, which was the main enemy in that time. The arqueologist Anders Franzes found the warship in 1956 and after a gigantic operation they rescued it in 1961, and then they housed temporary in a museum called Wasavarvet until 1988, when it was moved to the Vasamuseet.

 In the museum you can se the ship fully restored with 98% of it's original construction and around 40.000 objects that were found in and around the ship, like the cannons, personal belongings of the crew, weapons, tools and coins, and even some interesting scultures. It was a really nice experience, and everything is very well preserved. Highly recommended.

The cannons

A model of the ship