Where to Stay in Uppsala, Uppsala County

What is Uppsala known for?

Two institutions define Uppsala: its university and its cathedral. Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is the oldest in Scandinavia, and its students still set the tempo of the streets each term. Domkyrkan, the largest church in the Nordic countries, rises over the old town in twin Gothic spires.

Carl Linnaeus worked here. The Celsius scale carries the name of a professor who taught here too.

What are the main landmarks in Uppsala?

Domkyrkan, Scandinavia's tallest cathedral, holds the tombs of Gustav Vasa and Carl Linnaeus beneath its brick vaults. Uppsala Castle looks down from the ridge above. The great royal burial mounds of Gamla Uppsala rise north of the centre, a pre-Christian seat of power older than the unified kingdom of Sweden itself.

Two museums anchor the rest: the Gustavianum, with Olof Rudbeck's anatomical theatre, and the Uppsala konstmuseum within the castle. See the mounds at dusk.

What is the history of Uppsala?

Uppsala's roots run deeper than its charter. The burial mounds at Gamla Uppsala mark a centre of Norse kingship and ritual that chroniclers abroad were already describing in the eleventh century. Power later shifted south to the present town, where the archbishop's seat settled and the cathedral slowly rose.

Learning followed. Uppsala University opened in 1477 under a papal bull, faltered, and was re-founded in 1593 to stay for good. The Thirty Years' War brought unexpected fortune, when manuscripts seized on the continent flowed north to form the core of the Carolina Rediviva library.

Kings came and went. The university endured.

Where is Uppsala?

Uppsala lies in the eastern part of Uppsala County, set on the flat Uppland plain that rolls north of Stockholm toward the Bothnian coast. The Fyrisån runs through the middle of town and drains south into Lake Mälaren. A low gravel esker, the Uppsalaåsen, lifts the castle and the cathedral well above the valley floor, the only real relief for miles.

Open fields, runestones, and drainage ditches stretch out beyond the last streets. It is famously level. Cyclists rule here.

What is the climate of Uppsala?

Uppsala has a humid continental climate, shaped by its inland position in eastern Sweden. Winters are long, cold, and often snow-covered from December into March. Summers are mild and bright, and around midsummer the slow northern dusk stretches the evenings so far past nine that the dark barely arrives at all.

Spring comes late but fast. Autumn turns grey and wet before the first frosts settle over the plain.

How do you get to Uppsala?

Uppsala Central Station ranks among Sweden's busiest rail hubs outside Stockholm. Fast intercity trains reach Stockholm in well under an hour, and the line carries on north toward Gävle and the Bothnian coast. Commuter and regional services thread out to smaller towns across the county.

Trains to Arlanda need no change in the capital. The E4 motorway skirts the eastern edge of the city. Bikes do the rest.