When I was preparing for my summer in Stockholm I made a list with all the castles and museums I was going to visit. Six weeks into my stay I’ve only visited two. One thing I can blame this on is the heatwave but I’ve also experienced a lost interest in walking around castles this summer. I’m not quite sure what’s going on but I’ll have to revisit the subject when I get back to Helsinki.
One place I visited pretty early on is the Hallwyl Museum. I had seen some pictures of the interior on social media and I knew it used to be someone’s home so I was a bit curious. I’m really glad I paid for the guided tour, I got a lot more information than if I had been walking around by myself (I sometimes get lazy with reading the descriptions). There was only three of us on the tour so we got to see more spaces than if we had been a larger group. The rooms are preserved in their original state and give you a glimpse of how the super wealthy and forward thinking lived during that era.
The rooms are as one would expect, heavily decorated and filled with beautiful artefacts.The most impressive thing to me however, is the collections and the meticulous documentation of those collections. Wilhelmina von Hallwyl who did most of the collecting, knew early on that she wanted her home to eventually become a museum. She had every item in the house (as well as the house itself) catalogued. Not only is there an image and a thorough description of every item but there’s stories and personal anecdotes as well. I was drooling over her jewellery collection, there were so many pieces in it I would love to wear.
I’ve never really been a collector of anything, I’ve moved so many times that I’m very picky of the things I own. Maybe that’s why I was so impressed by this avid collector. If you’re ever in Stockholm and are maybe a Downton Abbey fan, I would recommend you to visit this museum.