Stockholm Ville Capitale du Royaume de Suede is a striking bird’s-eye portrait of the Swedish capital at the turn of the 18th century, rendered with theatrical clarity at the height of Sweden’s great-power era. Aveline sets the city amid its glittering archipelago, the channels of Norrström tying Lake Mälaren to the Baltic while rocky promontories and wooded hills frame the urban core. The king’s palace commands the skyline, with church spires pricking the horizon and fortified walls clasping the older town. This is a city map of uncommon interest: it captures Stockholm’s islanded geometry and maritime stage, the choreography of quays and bridges, and the poised moment just after the 1697 conflagration—before the sweeping expansions that would later redefine the capital’s waterfronts.

Pierre Alexandre Aveline, one of the early 18th century’s most accomplished viewmakers, fused decorative flourish with a documentarian’s eye. His engravings are alive with incident—rigging etched razor-fine, rooflines articulated in rhythmic tiers—yet they preserve a careful hierarchy of streets, squares, and monuments. Aveline’s pictorial maps helped codify the image of Europe’s capitals for a continent hungry for news and spectacle. Here he adapts the grand French tradition of oblique city views to a northern subject, translating Stockholm’s fractured topography into a legible, almost theatrical set, where architectural massing, navigable channels, and the business of empire read instantly across the page.

The map lingers over the tight weave of Gamla Stan, its alleys flowing toward market spaces such as Kornhamnstorg and out along the axial pair of Västerlånggatan and Österlånggatan. Across the water, the monastic precinct of Riddarholmen rises with its famous church, the Riddarholmskanalen glinting between piers and warehouses. St. Gertrude’s Church (Tyska kyrkan) lifts a distinctive spire amid the merchants’ quarter, while the looming royal residence—already reshaped in the mind of the era after the palace fire—anchors the ensemble. Bridges knit the islands together, with the sluice at Slussen regulating the city’s pulse between Mälaren and the sea, and the orderly progress of Regeringsgatan signaling ambitions on the Norrmalm shore.

Maritime life animates every reach of the harbor. Along Skeppsbron, hulls press the quay in close ranks, warehouses open to the water, and cranes silhouette the skyline. To the east, the naval precincts of Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen display masts, booms, and boat sheds—a visual manifesto of Stockholm’s power by ship. Stadsgården’s working shore on Södermalm shows docks and service craft, while open roadsteads in the Saltsjön bristle with inbound and outbound vessels. A cordon of bastions and walls girdles the older town, underscoring a capital that still thought in terms of gates and lines of fire, even as commerce and diplomacy tugged it outward across bridges, islands, and quays.

Aveline freezes a city mid-transformation. The 1697 palace fire, which consumed Tre Kronor, prompted an audacious Baroque reimagining under Nicodemus Tessin the Younger; the map hints at that renewed monumental core while preserving pre-expansion shorelines. Streets and pathways are etched as purposeful conduits—arteries from the markets of the old town toward Södermalm’s ridges and the royal parklands of Djurgården. Beyond the walls, rocky knolls, wooded tracts, and causeways remind us that Stockholm’s growth negotiated granite and water as much as policy. As a city map, it is notable for rendering the capital not as a flat plan, but as a lived, vertical landscape—an archipelago metropolis poised between medieval enclosure and Enlightenment order.

Streets and roads on this map

• Djurgårdsbrunnsvägen
• Gamla Stan
• Kornhamnstorg
• Långholmsgatan
• Munkbroleden
• Norrmalmstorg
• Regeringsgatan
• Riddarholmskanalen
• Slussen
• Södergatan
• Stadsgårdskajen
• Sturegatan
• Tullhusgatan
• Västerlånggatan
• Vetehusetgatan

Notable Features & Landmarks

• King’s Palace
• St. Gertrude's Church
• Fortified city walls
• Various residential buildings
• Ships and docks in the harbor
• Natural landscape features surrounding the city
• Roads and pathways depicted through the city and surrounding areas

Historical and design context

• Creation Date: 1700
• Mapmaker: Pierre Alexander Aveline, a prominent viewmaker of the early 18th century.
• Context about the Mapmaker: Aveline was known for his decorative engravings and significantly contributed to the representation of cities through pictorial maps.
• Design/Style: The map is an antique engraved bird's-eye view, characterized by a detailed and artistic representation of the urban landscape, capturing both architectural and natural elements.
• Historical Significance: The map reflects Stockholm's status as a rising power in Europe during the late 17th century, showcasing the city post-fire in 1697, highlighting the rebuilding efforts and urban layout before significant expansion.
• Bird's-eye view of Stockholm
• Urban development following a major fire
• Significant landmarks such as the king's palace and churches
• Maritime features including ships, docks, and the harbor

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 50in (125cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

The model in the listing images is holding the 24x36in (60x90cm) version of this map.

The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.

If you’re looking for something slightly different, check out my collection of the best old maps to see if something else catches your eye.

Please contact me to check if a certain location, landmark or feature is shown on this map.

This would make a wonderful birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, work leaving, anniversary or housewarming gift for someone from the areas covered by this map.

This map is available as a giclée print on acid free archival matte paper, or you can buy it framed. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that suits most aesthetics. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame colour or material. My frames are glazed with super-clear museum-grade acrylic (perspex/acrylite), which is significantly less reflective than glass, safer, and will always arrive in perfect condition.

This map is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The map is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present a map without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas maps and explore the differences between my different finishes.

For something truly unique, this map is also available in "Unique 3D", our trademarked process that dramatically transforms the map so that it has a wonderful sense of depth. We combine the original map with detailed topography and elevation data, so that mountains and the terrain really "pop". For more info and examples of 3D maps, check my Unique 3D page.