Stockholm is a city with many secrets. One of those is its extensive free art gallery in the subway. Hiding beneath its busy streets lies a network of some of the best art in the city. For the cost of a single subway ticket you can zip around the stations and admire rainbows of colour, eerie caves and mysterious sculptures. On a recent visit to Stockholm, I thought I’d check out some of the stations and discover the Stockholm Subway Art for myself!
One of the most colourful things to do in Stockholm, Stockholm’s subway art is reportedly the world’s longest art exhibit and consists of 110 kilometres of track, with over 90 of the 100 stations being decorated with mosaics, paintings and installations by more than 150 artists. Began in the 1950s, the stations are an eclectic mix of styles and are well worth exploring.
According to Visit Stockhom, these are the best stations to visit for their art. Most can be easily reached with a single subway ticket which allows unlimited changes within 75 minutes for 36 SEK. However, if you plan to do a lot of travelling within the city, then I’d recommend a 24 hour or 72 hour ticket for 115 or 230 SEK respectively, which also gives you more time to take photos of the stations! I prefer shots without people, if you’re the same then time your visit to avoid rush hour and other peak times.
Blue line: Green line: Red line:
Kungsträdgården Hötorget Tekniska Högskolan
T-centralen Thorildsplan Stadion
Rådhuset Bagarmossen
Solna Centrum
Tensta
My favourite was the rainbow at Stadion, and the Super Mario inspired Thorilsplan, as well as the pretty blue & white vines at T-centralen. Take a look for yourselves, which is your favourite?
Thank you to Visit Stockholm for providing my subway pass.
Click for more information about Stockholm’s transport system.
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This is so cool! I didnt know about this until today! Def going to check it out. Thanks
I was in Stockholm earlier this year and loved seeing the subway art. So creative! Nice post.
Stockholm is a great city, hope you can check out the subway art when you visit!
Have heard a lot about stockholm from a friend who lives in the city but never heard about this art gallery. All the pictures have come out really well and am definitely visiting on our trip to Sweden.
Definitely! I hate having people in my photos, I’m not very good at portrait shots & much prefer photos of what’s behind the people!
Stockholm is a great city! It has a lot more to do than I thought, I really enjoyed it there, hope you get there soon!
Hehe it is a ‘must see’ in the city for sure! I loved all the stations, I could have easily spent more time exploring the ones I missed 🙂
Me too! It just makes everything so much more interesting and colourful 🙂 Be sure to check it out if/when you get to Stockholm!
All of these look so cool, I’m struggling to pick my favourite of the bunch!! Street art is one of my favourite ways to explore a new city, I’ll definitively remember this post should I ever find myself in Stockholm!
I love Stockholm underground’s art and even have a similar blogpost to yours. Just stations are not all the same. I highly recommend everyone to see that.
This place looks awesome. I really want to go to Stockholm this year so hopefully I can see this for myself!
Super cool art! Looks like it is really empty during the non-rush hour. I would not mind a couple of people on my photos, but I can imagine during the rush hour they would completely cover up the art.
Stockholm surprised me actually, there was much more to do & see there than I expected! You should definitely add it to your travel list 🙂
Agreed, there should be more things in life that combine beauty & functionality!
the rainbow is my favourite too! 🙂
Ah yes – I hope this inspires you to do something similar! 😀
Ooh that’s a good question, I have no idea! It is such a great use of the space though
It really was quite special – I just had to wait for the trains to leave then snap before too many people arrived!
This is so amazing. Absolutely breathtaking and I would love to see it. I love how there were no people in the pictures and you could see the art so well.
I’m trying to imagine how long it took for 150 artists to complete all that work. What a beautiful art gallery and what a novel way to present it. A boring place completely revamped.
That’s quite interesting I’m working on an architecture uni project which has underpasses near my site it looks like I have some precedent on re-purposing that space.
This is super nice! The rainbow is the coolest 🙂
I might just go to Stockholm for a metro stations stroll. Very nice and original article!
So amazed that you managed to take photos without any pedestrians! The artwork is incredible – love that these stations are beautiful and functional!
I like the rainbow best as well!
What a great idea to brighten up a space that traditionally tends to be quite stark and boring. Stockholm is not on my current travel schedule, but one day I will get there to have a look.