Vasa Museum | vasa museet | visit Sweden

Vasa or Wasa[a] (Swedish pronunciation: [²vɑːsa] (listen)) is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961. She was housed in a temporary museum called Wasavarvet (“The Vasa Shipyard“) until 1988 and then moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park[2] in Stockholm. The ship is one of Sweden’s most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961.[3] Since her recovery, Vasa has become a widely recognized symbol of the Swedish Empire. The ship was built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus as part of the military expansion he initiated in a war with Poland-L