Sweden's oldest museum: The Royal Armoury

The Royal Armoury, located in the cellar vaults of the Stockholm Palace, is the oldest museum in Sweden. It houses a drinking horn made from a horn of the last aurochs bull, which was taken by the Swedish army as war booty from Jaktorów, Poland, during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655-1660). The site emerged from the Vasa dynasty's heritage as a functional armory in the 16th century used to store personal weapons, armor, and garments.

King Gustavus Adolphus transformed the arsenal into a historical repository in 1628 when he ordered that his blood-stained clothes from his campaign in Poland be preserved for 'eternal memory'. This established a tradition of preserving items associated with key moments in Swedish royal history, including coronation robes, royal carriages, ceremonial attire, and funeral regalia.

The museum's collection was moved to the Nationalmuseum in 1865 and to the Nordic Museum in 1906. In 1978, it returned to the cellar vaults of the Stockholm Palace, where it remains open to the public today. The collection includes state carriages, costumes, armor, weapons, and a stuffed horse called Streiff.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons