Start planning

Uppsala · Sweden

Gamla Uppsala

Gamla Uppsala is a significant destination in Uppland, centred on the unusually visible relationship between monumental burial, settlement, religion and later national memory, with the open landscape making the scale and placement of the mounds easy to understand. It rewards a visit for its specific cultural, historical or landscape context rather than spectacle alone.

Plan a trip here Website / visitor information
Gamla Uppsala Gunnar Creutz · CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical visit
2 hours 30 minutes
Setting
Outdoor
Region
Uppland
Last checked
11 Aug 2026

Why visit

Gamla Uppsala is worth time for the unusually visible relationship between monumental burial, settlement, religion and later national memory, with the open landscape making the scale and placement of the mounds easy to understand. Key elements include the great royal burial mounds, the old church and archaeological landscape, and museum interpretation of Iron Age society. Together these features place the destination within the wider story of Uppland. Attention to layout, materials, landscape and surviving details helps explain how the place has developed, functioned or been understood over time. It has enough substance for a focused visit and also connects naturally with a broader regional itinerary.

What you will see

  • the great royal burial mounds.
  • the old church and archaeological landscape.
  • museum interpretation of Iron Age society.

History

Gamla Uppsala was an important political and religious centre in Iron Age and early medieval Scandinavia. Its monumental burial mounds and later church mark a landscape repeatedly reinterpreted in Swedish historical tradition.

Photographs

Gamla Uppsala

Gunnar Creutz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · full attribution on the image credits page.

Visitor tips

  1. 1

    Weather-ready clothing and footwear suited to the surface are sensible, and marked paths should be followed.

  2. 2

    the great royal burial mounds is a useful first reference point for understanding the site.

About Uppland

Uppland brings together Uppsala’s university and ecclesiastical heritage with early Swedish royal centres, Sigtuna and the great lakeside estate at Skokloster.

Open the Sweden guide

Combine it with

More to see around Uppsala

All of Uppsala
Uppsala Cathedral Uppsala · Sweden Uppsala Cathedral is a significant destination in Uppland, centred on the scale of Sweden’s principal historic cathedral, its long association with church leadership and monarchy, and the way medieval fabric and later… Uppsala Castle Uppsala · Sweden Uppsala Castle is a significant destination in Uppland, centred on the castle’s position above Uppsala and its connection with sixteenth-century royal power, offering a strong visual and historical counterpoint to the… Linnaeus Garden Uppsala · Sweden Linnaeus Garden is a significant destination in Uppland, centred on a compact way to connect the history of botany with the physical organisation of an eighteenth-century teaching garden, making scientific… Sigtuna Old Town Sigtuna · Sweden Sigtuna Old Town is a significant destination in Uppland, centred on the survival of an unusually early Swedish town plan alongside medieval ruins, runic monuments and later wooden streetscapes, all within a compact… Skokloster Castle Skokloster · Sweden Skokloster Castle is a significant destination in Uppland, centred on an exceptionally intact seventeenth-century aristocratic residence where collections, interiors and an unfinished ceremonial room reveal both the… Birka Viking archaeological site Björkö · Sweden Birka on the island of Björkö preserves the archaeological landscape of an early medieval trading settlement, with burial grounds, ramparts and traces of a community connected to long-distance exchange.

Already worked out

Ready-made trips through Uppsala

All ready-made trips
Uppsala and Sigtuna 3 days · 6 stops · Moderate pace Uppsala and Sigtuna links places that fit naturally within the same part of Sweden, balancing time at major sites with regional landscape and local context. The sequence is designed around practical overnight bases rather than long sightseeing jumps.