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Three islands - Riddarholmen, Staden and Helgeandsholmen - make up Gamla Stan or Old Stockholm , a clutter of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Renaissance buildings, hairline medieval alleys and tall, dark houses whose intricate doorways still bear the arms of the wealthy merchants who once dwelled within. On Helgeandsholmen, the Riksdagshuset is the Swedish parliament building, which can be visited on guided tours starting from the glassed-in rear (May-Aug Mon-Fri noon & 1.30pm; free). Being Sweden rather than Westminster, the members' seating is arranged in nonadversarial rows by constituency, not by party. In front of the Riksdagshuset, accessible by a set of steps leading down from Norrbro, the Medeltidsmuseum (Sept-June Tues & Thurs-Sun; 40kr; T-Gamla Stan) is the best city-related historical collection in Stockholm. Ruins of medieval tunnels and walls were discovered during excavations under the parliament building, and they've been incorporated into a walk-through underground exhibition. There are reconstructed houses, models and pictures, boats and street scenes. Over a second set of bridges is the most distinctive monumental building in Stockholm, the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace; T-Gamla Stan), a beautiful Renaissance successor to the original castle of Stockholm. Finished in 1760, it's a striking achievement, outside sombre, inside a magnificent Baroque and Rococo swirl. The Apartments (May to mid-Aug daily 10am-4pm; rest of year Tues-Sun noon-3pm; 50kr) form a relentlessly linear collection of furniture and tapestries; the Treasury (same times as apartments; 50kr) has ranks of jewel-studded crowns, the oldest that of Karl X (1650). Also worth catching is Livrustkammaren , the Royal Armoury (same times as apartments; 60kr), less to do with weapons than with ceremony - suits of armour, costumes and horse-drawn coaches from the sixteenth century onwards, most notably the stuffed horse and mud-spattered garments of King Gustav II Adolf, who died in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632. For those with the energy, the Gustav III's Antikmuseum (guided tours: mid-May to Aug Tues-Sun nooon, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm; 50kr) contains parts of the older castle, its ruins underneath the present building and an extensive collection of antique sculptures. Beyond the palace lies Gamla Stan proper, where the streets suddenly narrow and darken. The first major building is the Storkyrkan (mid-May to mid-Sept 9am-6pm; mid-Sept to mid-May 9am-4pm; 10kr, free in winter), a rectangular brick church consecrated in 1306, which is technically Stockholm's cathedral - the monarchs of Sweden are married and crowned here. The Baroque interior is marvellous, with an animated fifteenth-century sculpture of St George and the Dragon , and - perhaps more impressive - the royal pews, more like golden billowing thrones, and a monumental black and silver altarpiece. Stortorget , Gamla Stan's main square, is handsomely proportioned and crowded with eighteenth-century buildings. The surrounding narrow streets house a succession of arts and craft shops, restaurants and discreet fast-food outlets, clogged by summer buskers and evening strollers. Just off Vasterlanggatan, on Tyska Brinken, the Tyska kyrkan , or "German Church" (Sat & Sun noon-4pm), which belonged to Stockholm's medieval German merchants, is a copper-topped red-brick church that was also richly fashioned in the Baroque period. Keep right on as far as the handsome Baroque Riddarhuset (Mon-Fri 11.30am-12.30pm; 40kr), in whose Great Hall the Swedish aristocracy met during the seventeenth-century Parliament of the Four Estates. Their coats of arms - around 2500 of them - are splattered across the walls. Take a look downstairs, too, in the Chancery, which stocks heraldic bone china by the shelf-load and racks of fancy signet rings. From here it's a matter of seconds across the bridge onto Riddarholmen ("Island of the Knights"), and to Riddarholms Kyrkan (mid-May to Aug daily 10am-4pm; 20kr), originally a Franciscan monastery and long the burial place of Swedish royalty. You'll find the unfortunate Gustav II Adolf in the green marble sarcophagus.
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