Here on your right stood one of Östermalm’s shape-shifters. In eighteen eighty-eight, architects Gustaf Lindgren and Kasper Salin gave Stockholm Nya Cirkus, an oriental-style circus with flair that promised spectacle before the curtain rose. From eighteen ninety-three to eighteen ninety-seven it turned into an exhibition hall called Industripalatset, and in nineteen hundred theater makers remade it as Olympiateatern. Four years later it became Östermalmsteatern. My favorite chapter starts in nineteen oh nine, when director Anton Salmson renamed it Operett-teatern, a private theater for operetta and revue - lively shows mixing songs, comedy, and dance. He called it “the theater of a thousand roses” and dreamed of forty thousand paper roses across the ceiling... but his company collapsed after one season, so the roses never bloomed. After a stint as a dance palace, the hall returned to Östermalmsteatern in nineteen twelve, then fire destroyed it on the thirtieth of March, nineteen thirteen, after careless smoking in the auditorium. What a final curtain. When you’re ready, continue on; the app lists hours here as ten to seven most days, and one to seven on weekends.
Stop 12 of 21
