July 23, 2018 - This is a picture of the ‘Golden Hall’ in City Hall in Stockholm. I will come back to it in a moment.
The Stockholm City Hall, like Oslo earlier in the trip, was built at the turn of the 20th century is in the national Romantic Style with nods to the Italian Renaissance. Despite the fact Sweden has many fine churches, it is largely a secular country. The City Hall is a temple of sorts to Humanism and the ideal of people working together in community. So the statues and art reflect the accomplishments of the common man working toward a collective better future. It is in this building that The Nobel Prizes are celebrated. The Nobel Peace Prize for some reason is given out in the Oslo City Hall, but the rest are given out here. Some of the greatest minds the planet has ever known have walked these halls
The over the top Golden Hall is the work of a 28 year old artist working with millions of mosaic pieces. It only took two years. The display does not celebrate gods , but men and women important to the history of Sweden. In the early days, the Nobel’s were held here. But they are too large now and are held in the much larger room next door. No, in this room the ‘After Party’ is held.
Try to imagine the likes of Linus Pauling, Albert Einstein , and Gabriel Garcia Marquez throwing back Jell-O shots and dancing to the equivalent of ABBA here until dawn. Must have been quite a sight.
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