The Stockholm Metro, the World’s Largest Underground Art Museum

Would you believe us if we tell you that at the price of one subway ticket, you can gain access to the world’s largest underground art museum?

One of Europe’s biggest best-kept secrets, the Stockholm Metro is said to be the longest art exhibition in the world. More than 90 of the 100 stations have been adorned with art installations: paintings, sculptures, tiled mosaics, engravings, and reliefs by over 150 artists as part of a tradition of public art for public transport dating back in the 1950’s.

Each station has a theme of its own. For instance, the Solna Centrum station (blue line) is stark with its cavernous, bright red ceiling and walls decorated with a a spruce forest that is one kilometre in length. The artists of the Kungsträdgården subway station made it appear like an archaeological excavation, decking it with artifacts from the old Stockholm Makalös palace. Another station is bedecked with 1950s tiling and reliefs, while another has rainbows painted over the rock-hewn archs, with colorful arrows pointing passengers to the right direction.

Now, why put art in the subway rails? According to their website, ‘The art makes the stations perceived as more beautiful, safer and it helps to make the trip into something more than just a transport between two places.”

Guided tours led by Metro experts can be availed for tourists who want to see the best of the Stockholm Metro art gallery, for the price of just one valid metro ticket.