Ekerö

Ekerö [ˈeːkərˈøː] is a freshwater archipelago in lake Mälaren, which forms a municipality in Stockholm County. Ekerö is also the only Swedish municipality with two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Viking age settlement Birka, and Drottningholm Palace, which is the residence of the Royal family.

Not to be confused with Eckerö, a municipality in Åland.

. . . Ekerö . . .

During the Ice Age, Nordic bedrock was pushed down, and since the ice melted around 8000 BC it slowly ascends, in Stockholm at the rate of 0.5 centimetres per year (see Nordic countries#Understand). The islands of Ekerö rose above sea level about 1000 BC. around AD 1000, Birka and Adelsö were important centres of commerce, and the water was still part of the brackish Baltic Sea. In the 13th century, as the straits around Stockholm have become narrow enough to make Mälaren a freshwater lake, Stockholm became the natural point of transfer between domestic and international ship transport. The main island Lovön became royal property in the 16th century, housing the Drottningholm Palace, and a number of royal manors. Ekerö and Stenhamra were villages, and grew to suburbs of Stockholm in the 1970s. Though the proximity to Stockholm, farms and forests still dominate the islands.

See Stockholm County#Public transit for advice on public transport.

SL buses from the metro station at Brommaplan (Västerort).

Strömma runs boats from Stockholm City Hall (Kungsholmen) to Drottningholm and Birka.

. . . Ekerö . . .

. . . Ekerö . . .