Stockholm is the European capital containing the Royal National City Park, the world’s first national urban park.
The Royal National City Park stretches through Stockholm and the neighboring municipalities of Solna and Lidingö. It links urban districts with forests, meadows, lakeshores and historic royal sites, creating an unusually large protected landscape within a metropolitan area.
The park was established in 1995 as Sweden’s first national city park and is commonly described as the world’s first national urban park. Its area includes Djurgården, Haga and Ulriksdal, places associated with royal history, museums, gardens and recreational paths.
The park is not the same as Stockholm’s city centre or the open-air museum Skansen, although Djurgården contains Skansen and many other attractions. Stockholm itself is built across islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea, so waterways and green spaces are central to the capital’s geography.