Livrustkammaren

Livrustkammaren or in English, Royal Armory, is a museum located in the Royal Palace. It contains a wealth of Swedish artifacts of Sweden’s Royalty and military history. It is said to have been founded in 1628 by King Gustavus Adolphus when seeking an area in which to store his clothing.
The museum is basically self-​guided but items are clearly marked with notations in English with regards to what is significant about it item. Doing a good tour of it takes about an hour to an hour and a half and is well worth doing. In it you’ll see various clothing of the Royal Families, lots of ornate and elaborate horse drawn carriages as well as various military artifacts but mostly pertaining to those of Polish-​Swedish Wars or periods between 1620 and 1629.

When choosing what to do in Stockholm, Livrustkammaren was an easy choice. Located beneath the Royal Palace, Livrustkammaren is Sweden’s oldest museum (est. 1628) and it moved to this central location in the 1970s. Just look for the placard featuring Gustav II Adolf’s horse, Streiff, as you walk towards the water from the palace.
The museum contains ceremonial armor and clothing worn by Sweden’s royal family in battle (one uniform still mud coated from the trenches) and at diplomatic occasions (including a blood soaked outfit worn during a botched assassination attempt at a costume ball). The king wanted to preserve these costumes as a testament to royal valor. Some of the royal family’s crowns, jewels and weapons (dualing pistols, swords) from the 16^th century through the present are displayed.
There are also some ceremonial gifts presented to the royal family and glorious ball gowns from the 17^th and 18^th centuries worn at weddings and coronations. I can’t get over those tiny waists. Poor ladies! For little ones there is a dress-​up area to help bring history alive.
The museum is split into three sections. The permanent exhibits are located on the main floor, but make sure you don’t miss heading downstairs for the royal coaches and (my personal favorite) gilded snow carriages. The upper floor contains the temporary exhibits and we hit the lottery since they had costumes from The Game of Thrones and Elizabeth and it’s sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. As you entered the museum, a replica of the Iron Throne was on display for great photo ops.
Visiting royal armories and war museums is one of my personal interests, so I would be remiss in not disclosing that while interesting, this museum is quite small in scale compared to some of its counterparts [1]. It is also a royal armory and so it is a niche museum and does not cover Sweden’s overall military history. But, it was an absolutely delightful experience for everyone in our family.
[1] In my opinion, the Musée de l’Armée in Paris is the crème de la crème of military museums in the world.