History

About ten thousand years ago the inland ice receded and the ground which for thousands of years had been pressed down by the heavy masses of ice began to rise.

What was to become the Stockholm Archipelago began to rise from a level 150 metres below the surface of the Baltic Sea and about 4000 years ago the first islands became visible. This land raising process is still ongoing at a rate of 4 mm per year.

Together, the archipelagos of Stockholm, Åland and Finland form the largest archipelago in the world counting more than 100 000 islands in total, out of which the Stockholm Archipelago accounts for about one third, or 30000.

The first inhabitants of the archipelago were stone-age hunters and fishermen from coastal regions, and settled in what at that time was the outer archipelago but today is recognised as Södertörn and Värmdö.

At that time Möja aswell as Arholma were merely rocks braking waves on the surface of the Baltic Sea.

In 1719, Tsar Peter of Russia sent a fleet of 26 000 men to ”teach the Swedes” a lesson as part of the ongoing peace negotiations between the two countries – and this resulted in a catastrophe for the Stockholm Archipelago.

Almost all villages and towns from Gävle in the north to Norrköping in the south were burned. The islands were looted, cattle slaughtered and tools were destroyed. The only buildings left standing were the churches.

In 1830 steamship traffic was introduced in the archipelago, and the previously uncultivated and unfriendly islands became much more accessible as popular retreat and weekend destinations.

Tradesmens houses were built in Lindalssundet, Vaxholm and around Trälhavet and Skurusundet, serving as summer houses and symbols of prosperity for the wealthy wholesale tradesmen of Stockholm.

In the 1920s it became common for ordinary people to build summer houses in the archipelago and today there are about 75 000 such houses and about 120 000 leisure boats.