Portal:Sweden

Stadion, currently known as Eleda Stadion for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Malmö, Sweden and the home of Allsvenskan club Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF. In UEFA competitions, the stadium has also been known as Malmö New Stadium and formerly known as Swedbank Stadion for sponsorship reasons. The stadium was named after Swedish-based banking group Swedbank, which owned its naming rights between 2007 and 2017. Apart from being the home of Malmö FF, Stadion has also hosted senior and youth international matches.

The stadium is the third largest used by a Swedish football club, behind AIK's Strawberry Arena and Djurgårdens IF's and Hammarby IF's Tele2 Arena, both located in Stockholm. In league matches, the stadium has a capacity of 22,500, of which 18,000 are seated, and 4,500 standing. In European matches, the 4,500 standing places are converted to 3,000 seats, making the stadium a 21,000-capacity all-seater. Stadion opened in April 2009, and replaced Malmö Stadion, where Malmö FF had been based since 1958. The new ground was originally budgeted to cost 398 million kronor, but ultimately cost 695 million kronor (€79.7). It is a UEFA category 4-rated stadium, and is thus able to host all UEFA club competition matches, except for finals. The ground's record attendance, 24,148, was set in an Allsvenskan match between Malmö FF and Mjällby AIF on 7 November 2010: in this match, Malmö FF won 2–0 and clinched that year's national championship. (Full article...)

Stortorget (Swedish: [ˈstûːˌʈɔrjɛt], "the Grand Square") is a public square in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is the oldest square in Stockholm, the historical centre on which the medieval urban conglomeration gradually came into being. Today, the square is frequented by tens of thousands of tourists annually, and is occasionally the scene for demonstrations and performances. It is traditionally renowned for its annual Christmas market offering traditional handicrafts and food. (Full article...)

• ... that Baggböle manor is built entirely of wood, but made to look like a stone building?
• ...that Estonians defeated invading Sweden in 1220 at the Battle of Lihula?
• ... that the Swedish military unit Kustjägarna has worked in Kosovo and Bosnia under the UN flag?

Vasa's port bow

Vasa or Wasa (Swedish pronunciation: [²vɑːsa] ^ⓘ) is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet ("The Vasa Shipyard") until 1988 and then moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park in Stockholm. As the most visited museum in Scandinavia, the ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 45 million visitors since 1961. Since her recovery, Vasa has become a widely recognized symbol of the Swedish Empire.

The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621–1629). She was constructed at the navy yard in Stockholm under a contract with private entrepreneurs in 1626–1627 and armed primarily with bronze cannons cast in Stockholm specifically for the ship. Richly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambitions for Sweden and himself, upon completion she was one of the most powerfully armed vessels in the world. However, Vasa was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite this lack of stability, she was ordered to sea and sank only a few minutes after encountering a wind stronger than a breeze. (Full article...)