Secret Stockholm

Step off the beaten track with this fascinating Stockholm travel guidebook, filled with well-hidden treasures. Ideal for locals and curious travellers alike, the book features more than 140 secret and unusual locations.

Take a break in a parish library with a time-warp interior and a unique collection of detective novels, discover the functioning dragon fountain in the foyer of an opulent 1930s cinema turned storage facility, visit the bizarre 1921 archaeologist's grave, built in the style of stone-age megalith tombs, discover the gigantic metal eye on the back of the brutalist Swedish Film Institute that pokes fun at the Swedish military in the neighbouring building. Find the mysterious medieval plaque hidden in an Old Town stairway, grab a bite at the French bakery on the ground floor of a socialist utopian-functionalist communal housing project, where a food lift sends croissants and onion soup to the apartments above. Get off the metro at a station with grotesque sculptures and a unique ecosystem featuring tiny spiders and a previously unknown fungus.

There's all this and more in an essential travel guide for those who think they know the Swedish capital well, or for those who want to discover its concealed gems.