60 free Stockholm trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Stockholm is a capital of fourteen islands founded to keep pirates off a lake, and this quiz covers everything from Birger Jarl to Spotify. The history runs through Birka, the 1436 charter, the Bloodbath of 1520, Gustav Vasa, Queen Christina and Descartes, the Tre Kronor fire, the 1710 plague, Gustav III's opera and the demolition of Klara. The sights get their share: the Vasa's 1,300-metre voyage and 1961 salvage, Gamla Stan's old name, Östberg's City Hall and its 18 million tiles, the 1,430-room palace, Drottningholm's theatre, Skansen, Gröna Lund and ABBA's museum on Djurgården, the world's longest art gallery under the streets and the congestion tax above them. Then the Nobel ceremonies and why they fall on 10 December, the 1912 Olympics, AIK, Djurgården and Hammarby, Globen's Eurovisions, the Kreditbanken hostages who named a syndrome and the city's unicorns. Easy questions ask which band made the city famous and where the airport is; hard ones want the Nationalmuseum's founding king and the year of the first charter. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its landmarks, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Try our Sweden and Copenhagen quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Central Stockholm is spread across how many islands?
Fourteen
They sit where a great lake flows into the Baltic; over 30 percent of the city area is water and another 30 percent parkland.
Q 02Stockholm was founded as a city in 1252 by which Swedish statesman?
Birger Jarl
Erik's Chronicle says he built it to guard against Karelian sea raids after the sack of Sigtuna in 1187.
Q 03The 'holm' in Stockholm means what in Swedish?
Islet
'Stock' means log, or possibly fortification; the islet is thought to be Helgeandsholmen in the city centre.
Q 04Which freshwater lake, Sweden's third largest, flows out into the Baltic at Stockholm?
Mälaren
The city lies at the 59th parallel, further north than parts of Canada above the Arctic tree line, yet enjoys some 1,900 hours of sun a year.
Q 05Which Viking Age trading centre near Stockholm is a World Heritage Site?
Birka
Its restored remains sit on a lake island; the site of Stockholm itself appears in the sagas as Agnafit.
Q 06The Stockholm Bloodbath of November 1520 followed the coronation of which union king?
Christian II
Nearly 100 people were executed despite promises of amnesty, provoking the uprisings that broke the Kalmar Union and brought Gustav Vasa to power in 1523.
Q 07Roughly how many people were executed in the Stockholm Bloodbath despite promises of amnesty?
100
Archbishop Gustav Trolle used charges of heresy against supporters of the regent Sten Sture the Younger.
Q 08Stockholm became the official capital of the Swedish empire in which year?
1634
Its population had multiplied sixfold between 1610 and 1680 as Sweden became a great power.
Q 09Which philosopher died in Stockholm after being hosted for years by Queen Christina?
Descartes
Christina was a strong supporter of science and culture; the inventor Christopher Polhem also moved to the city.
Q 10The medieval Tre Kronor castle burned down in which year, to be replaced by the present Stockholm Palace?
1697
The replacement was not habitable until 1754.
Q 11Stockholm Palace, the monarch's official residence, contains roughly how many rooms?
1,430
About 660 have windows; the royal couple actually live at Drottningholm on Lovön island.
Q 12Which architect designed Stockholm Palace, with Carl Hårleman completing it after his death in 1728?
Nicodemus Tessin the Younger
King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika moved in during 1754.
Q 13Drottningholm Palace is a World Heritage Site chiefly for its Chinese Pavilion and what?
Its perfectly preserved 1766 theatre
UNESCO listed it in 1991 as the finest 18th-century northern royal residence inspired by Versailles.
Q 21The prizes are presented in Stockholm each year on 10 December because it is what?
The anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death
Nobel died in San Remo in 1896; only the Peace Prize is awarded elsewhere, in Oslo.
Q 22Where is the Nobel award ceremony held, before the banquet at Kungsholmen's municipal seat?
The Concert Hall
The prizes were first awarded in 1901, five years after Nobel's death; Nobel himself was born in Stockholm in 1833.
Q 23Skansen on Djurgården, opened in 1891 by Artur Hazelius, is Sweden's oldest what?
Open-air museum
Q 14The name Drottningholm means what?
Queen's islet
John III built the original Renaissance palace there in 1580 for his queen, Catherine Jagiellon.
Q 15The warship Vasa sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 after sailing roughly how far?
1,300 metres
Built for Gustavus Adolphus, she lay on the harbour bed for 333 years before being raised largely intact.
Q 16The Vasa was salvaged from Stockholm harbour in which year?
1961
She was shown in a temporary 'Vasa Shipyard' until 1988; the museum built for her is Scandinavia's most visited.
Q 17Which Stockholm institution is described as the most visited museum in Scandinavia?
The Vasa
More than 45 million people had seen the salvaged warship by the start of 2025.
Q 18Gamla Stan, Stockholm's historic core, was officially called what until 1980?
The Town between the Bridges
It consists mainly of the island of Stadsholmen plus Riddarholmen, Helgeandsholmen and Strömsborg, and is home to about 3,000 people.
Q 19Stockholm City Hall, venue of the Nobel banquet, was built 1911–23 by which architect?
Ragnar Östberg
It stands on the tip of Kungsholmen; Östberg abandoned the blue tiles planned for the Blue Hall but kept the name.
Q 20The City Hall's Golden Hall is named for mosaics made of roughly how many tiles?
18 million
The Blue Hall below houses Scandinavia's largest organ, with 10,270 pipes.
Its name has become a generic term for such museums across Central and Eastern Europe.
Q 24The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, has been called the world's longest what?
Art gallery
It was the first metro line in the Nordic countries; its Green, Red and Blue lines serve 100 stations, 47 of them underground.
Q 25The Stockholm Metro's three lines all intersect at which central station?
T-Centralen
Those other three are the only additional interchanges in a highly centralised network.
Q 26Stockholm has had a permanent congestion tax on vehicles entering the centre since which year?
2007
A seven-month trial in 2006 was followed by referendums; the city voted yes and the suburbs no, and the revenue now funds roads.
Q 27Sweden's largest airport, serving Stockholm, is called what?
Arlanda
It handled 27 million passengers in 2017; the Arlanda Express links it to Central Station, and Bromma is the closer city airport.
Q 28Stockholm hosted the Summer Olympics in which year?
1912
It later staged the 1956 Olympic equestrian events and Euro 1992, and bid unsuccessfully for the 2004 Summer and 2026 Winter Games.
Q 29Which three Stockholm football clubs all played in the 2024 Allsvenskan?
AIK, Djurgården and Hammarby
AIK play at the national arena in Solna (Strawberry Arena), the other two at 3Arena in Johanneshov.
Q 30The spherical Avicii Arena, colloquially Globen, hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in which two years?
2000 and 2016
Stockholm's first Eurovision, in 1975, was at Stockholmsmässan; the arena is one of the world's largest spherical buildings.