Every year in the week leading up to December 10, Stockholm celebrates that year’s Nobel Prize Winners with a week of scientific attractions and festive meals. For the winners the week culminates with the Nobel Award Ceremony in Stockholm Concert Hall and the Nobel banquet in the City Hall. These events are exclusive affairs, for specially invited guests only, but there are several ways for everyone else in the city to enjoy Stockholm in a Nobel way.

A visit to the Nobel Prize Museum

Naturally a visit to the Nobel Prize Museum cannot be missed during the Nobel Prize Week. As you wander through the museum you’ll learn more about the work and life of famous prize winners such as Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, and many more. The exhibition is filled with ideas that changed the world and are sure to inspire you.

Inside the former stock exchange in Stockholm’s Old Town, the Nobel Prize Museum allows you to immerse yourself in an extensive collection of videos, artifacts, multimedia, and lectures. A visit to the museum will help you to understand key contributions to the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.

Watch the lights brighten up the city

From 3 to 11 December, works of art directly inspired by Nobel Prize-winning discoveries will illuminate the winter darkness in Stockholm for the Nobel Week Lights. There will be light-art all over the city from the Royal Institute of Technology in the north of the city to Bofills Båge on Södermalm. There will be 21 light-art pieces spread across the city.

The Nobel Week Lights is one of the most accessible ways to enjoy the Nobel Week in Stockholm as this annual light festival is free to visit for all. The Nobel Week Lights gives both international and local artists and designers the opportunity to create large-scale public light artworkds, which illuminate the Nobel laureates’ important discoveries in new ways.

 A Nobel scavenger hunt

There are several places in Stockholm with a concrete connection to the prize and Alfred Nobel which you can visit as you explore the city, especially eateries. Restaurant Den Gyldene Freden in a medieval basement in Gamla Stan has been a meeting place for the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature, for over 100 years.

For a trip down Nobel cuisine history you can book a table at Stadhuskällaren, the restaurant in Stockholm City Hall, which offers you the chance to experience any past Nobel banquet (as long as you book for a minimum of 10 people and book at least one week in advance). Café Winterviken, in the southern suburb of Aspudden, is located in Alfred Nobel’s old workshop and factory. It is the perfect spot to visit if you want to take a short excursion from the city centre, as it is only a 25 minute train ride away.