| Stockholm, a city of 1.8 million people, is built on 14 islands in Lake Mälaren, which marks the beginning of an archipelago of 24,000 islands, skerries, and islets stretching all the way to the Baltic Sea. A city of bridges and islands, towers and steeples, cobblestone squares and broad boulevards, Renaissance splendor and steel-and-glass skyscrapers, Stockholm also has access to nature just a short distance away. You can even go fishing in the downtown waterways, thanks to a long-standing decree signed by Queen Christina. Although Stockholm was founded more than 7 centuries ago, it did not become the official capital of Sweden until the mid-17th century. While today Stockholm reigns over a modern welfare state, and the medieval walls of the Old Town (Gamla Stan) no longer remain, the old winding streets have been preserved.
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