Gunnar Asplund’s masterpiece, the City Library, is one of the capital’s most architecturally important buildings. Asplund, the champion to he Functionalist style prevalent in the 1930s, designed a public library which was dominated by Classical ideas. It was opened in 1928.

Internally, the furnishings and many of the light fittings were designed by Asplund himself. The work of Swedish artists is well represented: in the entrance hall are Ivar Johnsson’s stucco reliefs with themes from Homer’s Iliad: the sparkling mural painting in the children’s section, John Blund, is by Nils Dardel; and the depiction of the stars in the heavens by Ulf Munthe. The door lintels, door handles and drinking fountains are by Nils Sjogren. Hilding Linnquist was responsible for the giant-sized tapestry, and also for four mural paintings using ancient fresco techniques.

The library lends more than a million books every year.