Monuments to visit Malmö

In 1999, the Spaniard Santiago Calatrava (born near Valencia in 1951) participated in the competition to build the trans-Øresund link. His project was not selected, but it included a strange twisted monument on the Swedish shore that seduced the examiners enough for them to propose that the architect modify it into a residential building. This was done in 2005, and the 190-meter high tower (the tallest in Northern Europe) has since become one of the symbols of Malmö.

Malmö Castle is the heir of a first building founded by Erik of Pomerania in 1430 before being rebuilt a century later and occupied by the mint. After the return of Skåne to Sweden, the defenses were strengthened and a moat system dug. After the return of peace with Denmark, the building was converted into a prison and then into a museum in 1937. Of the castle itself remains, beyond the wooden bridge over the moat, a massive facade framed by two round towers, all built of brick.

In the courtyard, a modern building (also without lightness) houses four sections of the Malmö Museums (Malmö Museer). The restaurant Wega is located on Slottsholmen, right next to the main entrance of the Malmö Museums.

The Governor's House and the House of Technology and the Navy are located outside the castle. Between the museum and Kommendanthuset, there are some brightly painted wooden huts: this is the Fiskehoddorna, which serves as a fish market every morning.

Kontsmuseet (Museum of Fine Arts). Beautiful collection of Swedish landscape artists such as Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911). There are also contemporary works, notably by the sculptor Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (born in 1934) and the Malmö-born surrealist painter Max Walter Svanberg (1912-1995). One room is devoted to a sketch made by the Dane Joakim Skovgaard for the mosaic of the cathedral in Lund. Beautiful collection of Russian paintings from the late ^19th century and representative works of Swedish design.

Historical museum. Documents, plans and objects tracing the history of Malmö Castle and focusing on life in Skåne in the ^17th century, when it became part of Sweden.

Aquarium & Tropicarium. Local fish and amphibians, but also (more exotic) gymnotes, better known as electric eels, and other piranhas.

Museum of natural history. Flora and fauna of Skåne, geology and paleontology with notably a dinosaur skeleton.

Kommendanthuset (the Governor's house). An ^{eighteenth-century} mansion that now houses exhibitions on photography. Right next to the Governor's house is a very nice little café serving organic and locally grown products (sandwiches, pies, salads, ice cream and homemade pastries).

Tekniken och Sjöfartens Hus (House of Technology and the Navy).

This building, built in 1901 to house a museum at the time, was enlarged between 1997 and 2000 by Henning Larsen, the architect of the Copenhagen Opera House, who designed the huge glass façade that has earned the place its nickname of "glass calendar". Inside, the atmosphere is calm and studious, with large tables, comfortable armchairs, pretty lamps... Everything invites you to take a book and enjoy the place, if only for a few hours.

A must-see for architecture buffs! This wildly ambitious development project began in 2001 and will not be fully completed until 2035. The objective is to transform the former industrial port into a 100% energy self-sufficient eco-district, with a focus on renewable energy. The result is a modern splendor with a very Swedish minimalism: canals running along the streets, lush plazas, floating houses made of glass, wood or steel, vast lawns... and the possibility to dive directly into the Baltic Sea from Daniaparken.