This Stockholm restaurant is a time machine to the 18th century

It is said that every Thursday, members of the Swedish Academy wander down the quaint, cobbled streets of Gamla Stan, meandering between tourists and locals alike, and take a seat at one of the city’s most hallowed institutions. So expected are they, that they reportedly have their own table, where they huddle in together in the remarkably unchanged 18-century dining hall of Den Gyldene Freden, a restaurant in the city’s old town which has remained unchanged since its opening in 1722. And by candlelight, with wine flowing, it is in this very place that many a Nobel Laureate has been plucked from the pages of regularity and confirmed a prize-winning author. Well, legend has it, that is...

As one of the city’s, and indeed the world’s, oldest restaurants, Den Gyldene Freden has a long and remarkable history stretching back hundreds of years. The establishment takes its name, which translates as the Golden Peace, from the Treaty of Nystad, which concluded the war between Sweden and Russia and was brokered just a year prior to the restaurant opening its doors. The wooden tables and warm-butter coloured walls of the place have hosted many of Sweden’s great and good, with regulars such as theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, botanist Carl Linnaeus, a naturalist and explorer, and musician Carl Michael Bellman frequenting it often.

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A living example of a quintessential 18-century tavern, Den Gyldene Freden’s walls have certainly seen some action in their time. But by the beginning of the 1900s, the restaurant had fallen on hard times. Losing its liquor licence and teetering towards bankruptcy, things weren’t looking too bright for the now historic Stockholm spot. But as luck would have it, one of its regular guests, an artist Anders Zorn, a Bellman mega fan, wanted in and bought the establishment, saving it from closure.

A description from the time detailed how "the Bellman-worshipping Anders Zorn leans against the table with his head resting in his hand. He closes his eyes, seems to want to be unmoved by every external impression, in order to fully enjoy the adorable tones.”

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Over the years, many more of the country’s cultural elite, everyone from poets, artists, actors and musicians, flocked to the tavern’s basement to muse away hours drinking and dining, including the artist Albert Engström, painter and illustrator Vicke Andrén and even royalty, with Prince Wilhelm, the Duke of Södermanland, reportedly a regular visitor. Upon Zorn’s death, the ownership of Den Gyldene Freden changed hands, with Zorn bequeathing the restaurant to the Swedish Academy, who still today own the building and often pitch up for a bite to eat.