In November 1520, King Christian II of Denmark had 91 Swedish nobles and a bishop decapitated in Gamla Stan's main square over three days. A red building on Stortorget carries a small white stone for each victim. The episode, known as the Stockholm Bloodbath, remains one of the more bracing welcomes any old town has to offer.

Stockholm's medieval heart is spread across four small islands, founded in 1252 by Birger Jarl on rising post-glacial land that still gives architects fits. Its tangled cobbled lanes include Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, the narrowest, which squeezes down to 90 centimetres. Until 1907, not a single house had a toilet.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours follow Vikings turned merchants who settled the islands in the 1100s, the Hanseatic Germans who raised the towering Saint Gertrud church, and the pastry tradition still producing fresh cinnamon buns on Järntorget.