19 Best Things to Do in Uppsala: Cathedral, Vikings and Linnaeus

The four things worth coming to Uppsala for are the cathedral, the university, the Viking burial mounds at Gamla Uppsala and everything left behind by Carl Linnaeus, and all four sit within a 40-minute train ride of Stockholm. Uppsala Cathedral is the tallest church in the Nordic countries at 118.7 m (389 ft). Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is the oldest in the Nordic region and its museum, the Gustavianum, reopened in June 2024 after a five-year rebuild. Gamla Uppsala holds around 300 burial mounds, three of them royal. Linnaeus, who invented the system every species on Earth is still named under, worked here for 35 years, and his garden, his house, his summer farm and his lecture room are all still standing.

Two days covers Uppsala properly. It is a small, flat, walkable city, and almost everything below is within 30 minutes on foot of the station.

The 19 best things to do in Uppsala

The 19 places to spend your time in Uppsala are listed below, starting with the four that justify the trip. Admission prices are given in Swedish kronor with rough dollar and pound equivalents, and Swedish museums change them, so check the venue’s site.

1. Uppsala Cathedral

Uppsala Cathedral is the tallest church in the Nordic countries and the burial place of Swedish kings, and it costs nothing to walk into. Construction began around 1270 after the archbishopric moved down from Gamla Uppsala, and the building was not finished until 1435; the twin spires reach 118.7 m (389 ft). It was Catholic first and Lutheran after the Reformation, and it holds the tombs of Gustav Vasa and of Carl Linnaeus, along with the shrine of Saint Erik, Sweden’s patron. The treasury museum in the north tower charges a small fee, around 80 SEK (about $8, £6) for adults, and holds medieval textiles and goldwork. Guided tours in English run for a similar amount.

2. Gamla Uppsala

Gamla Uppsala is the field of burial mounds where Sweden’s kings were once chosen, and it is free to walk around. The site lies 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the modern city at Disavägen and holds around 300 mounds raised between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. The three royal mounds stand 9-10 m (30-33 ft) high and 45-75 m (150-250 ft) across, and Norse tradition assigns them to Odin, Thor and Freyr, which is legend rather than archaeology. This was the site of the pagan temple and the thing, the assembly that elected kings. The outdoor site is free; the Gamla Uppsala Museum charges about 60 SEK (about $6, £5) for adults and is free under 19. City bus 2 runs there from the centre in around 20 minutes.

3. Uppsala Castle

Uppsala Castle is the pink fortress on the hill above the city, and its permanent exhibitions and art museum are free. Gustav Vasa began it in 1549 as a Renaissance fortress; the Sture Murders happened inside it in 1567 and Queen Kristina abdicated there in 1654. A fire in 1702 gutted it and the ruins were quarried for stone to build Stockholm Palace, so the present Baroque exterior dates from Carl Hårleman’s reconstruction in the 1740s. Uppsala Art Museum occupies part of the building with Nordic work from the 19th century on. Guided tours in English cost around 90 SEK (about $9, £7) for adults, 20 SEK for children.

4. Gustavianum

Gustavianum is Uppsala University’s museum and it reopened on 24 June 2024 after a five-year renovation, so anything written about it before then is out of date. The museum occupies the university’s oldest building, put up between 1622 and 1625, and the dome on the roof is the anatomical theatre built in the 1660s for public dissections, which now has a new copper roof. Inside are the Augsburg Art Cabinet, a 17th-century collector’s cabinet holding around 1,000 objects; Egyptian and classical antiquities from university excavations; and the instruments of Linnaeus, Celsius and the other Uppsala scientists. Adults pay about 60 SEK (about $6, £5), under-19s free.

5. Carolina Rediviva

Carolina Rediviva is the university library, and its exhibition hall holds the Silver Bible. The neoclassical building on Dag Hammarskjölds väg was designed by Carl Fredrik Sundvall, begun in 1820 and finished in 1841, and it holds more than 5 million volumes. The Codex Argenteus, made in 6th-century Ravenna, is a Gothic translation of the gospels written in silver and gold ink on purple-dyed vellum, and it is the single most valuable object in Sweden’s library system. The library also holds what is generally described as the only surviving copy of the Cancionero de Upsala, a Spanish songbook printed in Venice in 1556. The exhibition hall is free.

6. Linnaean Garden and Linnaeus Museum

The Linnaean Garden is Carl Linnaeus’s own teaching garden, replanted to his 1748 layout, and it is the best single place to understand what he actually did. Olof Rudbeck the Elder founded the garden in 1655; it burned with the rest of the city in 1702, and the Swedish Linnaean Society restored it in 1917 using the plan Linnaeus published in “Hortus Upsaliensis”. The beds are laid out by his sexual system of classification, which is the point: you are looking at the argument, not just the plants. Linnaeus lived in the house beside it from 1743 until his death in 1778, and that house is now the Linnaeus Museum, with his study reconstructed. One ticket covers both.

7. Linnaeus Hammarby

Linnaeus Hammarby is the country house Linnaeus bought in 1758, and it is the only one of his properties left more or less as he had it. The farm sits about 12 km (7.5 mi) south-east of Uppsala at Danmarks-Hammarby, and he used it as a summer residence, a working farm and a place to teach students away from the city. The manor house keeps original furnishings, and the walls of his bedroom are papered with the botanical plates he pinned up. The grounds still grow plants he cultivated. It opens seasonally, so check dates before making the trip.

8. Botanical Garden

The Botanical Garden below the castle is the university’s main garden and it is much larger than the Linnaean one, with a tropical greenhouse and a Baroque garden. Carl Hårleman laid it out in the 18th century and King Gustav III gave it to the university in 1787, along with the Linneanum, the neoclassical orangery that closes the garden’s northern end. The tropical greenhouse charges a small entry fee; the outdoor garden is free and it is where Uppsala students sit in May.

9. Museum of Evolution

The Museum of Evolution holds the largest dinosaur fossil collection in Scandinavia, which is not a claim most people expect from a Swedish university town. The museum is split across two buildings in the university’s science quarter, palaeontology at Norbyvägen 22 and zoology at Villavägen 9, and the fossil halls carry material collected by Uppsala palaeontologists in China and Sweden. The zoology side is the older cabinet-of-curiosities style, with skeletons and mounted specimens. Both are a 20-minute walk south-west of the centre.

10. Upplandsmuseet

Upplandsmuseet is the county museum and it occupies an 18th-century watermill on an island in the Fyris, which is the most photographed building in Uppsala after the cathedral. The mill, Akademikvarnen, belonged to the university, and the exterior appeared in Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander”. Inside are Viking, medieval and folk collections covering the Uppland countryside, along with archaeology from the local excavations. Entry is free.

11. Biotopia

Biotopia is a natural history museum built around habitat dioramas, and it is free, which makes it the best rainy-hour option in the city with children. The museum opened in 1910 at Vasagatan 4 and its original painted dioramas of Uppland wildlife, with moose, beaver, otter, lynx and wolf, have been kept as they were made. A biolab runs hands-on sessions where children look at samples under microscopes, build feeders and cast animal tracks. It is a five-minute walk from the station.

12. Bror Hjorths Hus

Bror Hjorths Hus is the studio-home of the sculptor Bror Hjorth, kept exactly as he left it, and it is the most personal museum in Uppsala. Hjorth (1894-1968) had the house built in 1943 at Norbyvägen 26 as a combined home and workshop, painted in the same reds and ochres as his sculpture. It holds the largest collection of his paintings, reliefs and carvings, including the studies and rejected versions that show how he worked. Adults pay about 60 SEK (about $6, £5).

13. Fyris River

The Fyris is the river that splits Uppsala into the old west bank and the modern east, and its towpaths are the best free walk in the city. The Fyrisån runs about 80 km (50 mi) in total and passes through the centre in a series of weirs and low bridges, with the cathedral, the castle and Upplandsmuseet all on or above it. In summer you can hire a canoe or take a guided boat trip, and in a cold winter the river freezes and people skate on it. The student raft race, Forsränningen, has run every 30 April since 1975 and sends roughly 500 people over the weirs on about 120 homemade rafts, which is worth timing a visit for.

14. Stadsträdgården

Stadsträdgården is Uppsala’s main city park, on the riverbank just south of the centre, and it is free. The park was laid out in the late 19th century and holds flowerbeds, a pond, a large playground and the little island called Lycksalighetens Ö, Bliss Island. The Parksnäckan open-air stage puts on free and ticketed concerts through the summer. It joins the riverside path, so it works as the end of a walk down from the cathedral.

15. Stadsskogen

Stadsskogen is a nature reserve of pine forest and bog that starts at the western edge of the city, a 20-minute walk from the cathedral. The reserve is criss-crossed by marked trails, of which the Yellow Trail (Gula stigen) runs south from the centre towards Skarholmen and Lake Mälaren. Deer, foxes and a lot of birds live in it, and there are barbecue spots and running tracks. In winter the trails take cross-country skis. Free, always open, and the single easiest way to see ordinary Swedish forest without leaving town.

16. Fyrishov

Fyrishov is the city’s swimming and sports complex, with an indoor water park attached, and it is where Uppsala families go on a wet Sunday. The site at Idrottsgatan 2 combines a 50 m pool, a tropical-themed indoor water park with slides over 10 m high, an outdoor summer pool area with mini golf and sandpits, gyms and sports halls. Adult entry to the water park is around 130 SEK (about $13, £10), children 7-15 around 60 SEK, with a refundable wristband deposit. A cheaper daytime rate applies before mid-afternoon.

17. Uppsala Stadsteater

Uppsala Stadsteater is one of Sweden’s largest regional theatres and it stages 15 to 20 productions a year across four stages. The theatre at Kungsgatan 53 opened in 1907 and was rebuilt and enlarged in 1951, and its main auditorium seats over 500. The programme runs from drama and comedy to musicals, dance and concerts, almost all of it in Swedish, so check before booking if that matters. Tickets for the main stage typically run from about 200 to 450 SEK (about $20 to $47, £16 to £36). The building also hosts screenings during the Uppsala International Short Film Festival each autumn.

18. Kungsängsbadet

Kungsängsbadet is the municipal outdoor pool, open from roughly June to August, and it is where the city swims when the weather allows. The complex on Dag Hammarskjölds väg has a 50 m eight-lane pool 1 to 3.5 m deep, diving towers, a waterslide, a pirate-themed children’s pool, sand volleyball courts, lawns and a cafe. Swimming lessons run in the mornings. It is a summer-only facility, so it is worth checking the season dates and the current entry fee before walking over.

19. Gränby ice rink

The Gränby ice rink is Uppsala’s main skating venue, with three indoor sheets and public sessions most days. The arena on Råbyvägen opened in 1974 and seats about 2,800 for hockey; Almtuna IS play their home games there, and the main hall now carries a sponsor’s name, Upplands Bilforum Arena, so signage and tickets may not say Gränby at all. Public sessions cost around 60 SEK (about $6, £5) for adults with skate hire on top. Stick-and-puck sessions and learn-to-skate courses run alongside. It is out in the north-east of the city, reachable by city bus.

Where to stay in Uppsala

Stay in the city centre, because Uppsala is small enough that anywhere else costs you a bus ride for no saving worth having. The centre puts the cathedral, the castle, the Linnaean Garden, Gustavianum and the station inside a 15-minute walk of each other. Luthagen, on the west bank north of the castle, is the quiet residential alternative and still walkable. Kungsängen, across the river to the south-east, is where the cheaper beds are. Book early around 30 April, because Valborg fills every room in the city with returning alumni and their families. Compare hotels and apartments in Uppsala on Booking.com against a night in Stockholm before you decide; the train is 40 minutes, so either can be the base.

Tours and day trips from Uppsala

The trips worth booking from Uppsala are the ones that string together sites public transport separates: Gamla Uppsala with the cathedral, the Linnaeus properties including Hammarby, and the Viking runestone route out through Uppland. Sigtuna, Sweden’s oldest town, and Skokloster Castle both sit on Lake Mälaren between Uppsala and Stockholm and are awkward without a car. Current options and prices are below.

What to eat in Uppsala

Eat husmanskost, the plain Swedish home cooking, because Uppsala is a student town and the good version of it is cheap here. The 5 dishes to look for are listed below.

1. Toast Skagen. Chopped prawns in mayonnaise with dill and lemon on fried bread, topped with roe. It comes from Gothenburg but it is on every menu in Sweden.
2. Köttbullar. Meatballs with cream sauce, lingonberry jam and either mash or pressgurka. The version at Odinsborg, the restaurant by the Gamla Uppsala mounds, comes with the site attached.
3. Kräftor. Freshwater crayfish, boiled with dill and eaten cold at the August crayfish parties, with schnapps and hats and a great deal of singing.
4. Rårakor. Grated potato pancakes fried crisp, served with fried pork and lingonberry. Winter food, sold in pubs and at the Saluhallen market hall.
5. Ostkaka. Swedish curd cake, somewhere between a custard and a cheesecake, eaten warm with jam and cream at fika.

Two Uppsala institutions are worth knowing by name. Domtrappkällaren occupies medieval cellars at the foot of the cathedral on St Eriks gränd and has served food there since 1939, with main courses in the 225-365 SEK range. Flustret is the wooden pavilion by the Svandammen pond next to Stadsträdgården, open since 1842, and it is a restaurant by day and a nightclub by night; it is the oldest place in the city to eat and the least serious place to drink.

Uppsala practicalities

Uppsala is one of the simplest cities in Europe to visit, and the details you need are listed below.

• Currency. The Swedish krona (SEK). Sweden is close to cashless: cards and phones are taken everywhere and some places no longer accept notes at all, so bring a card rather than currency.
• Language. Swedish, with English spoken by almost everyone under 50 and by essentially all university staff and students.
• Time. Central European Time, UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, the same as Berlin and Paris.
• Plugs. Types C and F, 230V at 50Hz. Continental European devices work as they are; American and British ones need an adapter.
• How long to stay. Two days. One day covers the cathedral, the castle, Gustavianum and the Linnaean Garden at a jog; the second gets you Gamla Uppsala and a museum or two without rushing.
• When to go. Late April for Valborg on 30 April, when the students race rafts down the Fyris and the whole city is on Castle Hill, or May and June for the gardens. Winter days are short, but the cathedral and the museums are indoors and the city is at its quietest.

Getting to Uppsala

Uppsala sits about 70 km (43 mi) north of Stockholm and 35 km (22 mi) north of Arlanda Airport, and the train is the answer in both cases. From Arlanda the train takes around 20 minutes and runs from the station under Sky City by Terminal 5; regional bus 801 takes about 45 minutes for a good deal less money, which matters because the Arlanda station charges a steep passage fee on top of the fare. From Stockholm Central the fast trains take under 40 minutes and the regional services around 55, with departures through the day. Driving from Stockholm on the E4 takes about 50 minutes, but Uppsala is compact and central parking is not worth the trouble. Plenty of people day-trip from Stockholm and never see Uppsala after dark, which is a mistake in a student city; a night here usually costs less than the same standard of room in the capital, so it is worth pricing a night in Uppsala against one in Stockholm before deciding. See also our guides to Sweden and to the other destinations in Sweden.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from re-checking every address, name and route on this page in 2026, and 4 of them fix something older Uppsala write-ups still get wrong.

1. Take regional bus 801 from Arlanda instead of the train. The train covers the 35 km (22 mi) in about 20 minutes, but Arlanda’s station charges a steep passage fee on top of the fare, and the bus takes about 45 minutes for a good deal less money.
2. Keep Uppsala’s two university gardens apart. The Linnaean Garden on Svartbäcksgatan is the 1655 Rudbeck garden, replanted to Linnaeus’s 1748 layout, with his house next door on the same ticket. The Botanical Garden below the castle is a later and far larger one, given to the university by Gustav III in 1787, and its outdoor part costs nothing.
3. Allow for the Museum of Evolution occupying two buildings. Palaeontology sits at Norbyvägen 22 and zoology at Villavägen 9, both indoors in the science quarter about 20 minutes’ walk south-west of the centre, and the dinosaur material is on the palaeontology side.
4. Look for Upplands Bilforum Arena rather than Gränby Ishall on a skating ticket. The rink on Råbyvägen now carries a sponsor’s name, so the signage and the booking page may never say Gränby at all.
5. Distrust any Gustavianum write-up published before mid-2024. The museum was closed for a five-year renovation and reopened on 24 June 2024 with new permanent exhibitions, a new entrance onto the University Park and a new copper dome over the anatomical theatre.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Sweden for independent travellers, including the Uppsala University museums, the Linnaeus houses and gardens, the Gamla Uppsala mounds and the day trips and hotels that make them easy to reach. Opening arrangements and prices are rechecked when they move, and this page was updated after Gustavianum reopened in 2024.