Stallmästaregården

Even in a city rich with green space, Stockholm’s Stallmästaregården offers up a surprisingly pastoral scene. A former stable-master’s farm and the oldest inn in the city, it’s situated on the banks of Brunnsviken Bay in Royal Haga Park, lending it the feel of a country retreat even though it’s just minutes from the center of the city.

The forty-nine rooms around the 17th-century farmhouse are designed in 18th-century Swedish style, which makes them sound perhaps more old-fashioned than they are. It takes a deft hand — perhaps, more specifically, a Scandinavian one — to create such unfussy rooms from a palette of pastel-colored walls and flower-print curtains. All the rooms, starting with the Classic, include large beds, a writing desk, and bathrooms with amenities by Stockholm-based Byredo Parfums. An upgrade to a Superior or Deluxe room adds garden or park views, respectively, while the suites offer both more space and a flood of sunlight through oversized windows.

The hotel’s restaurant is just what you’d hope from a former farm in a cosmopolitan city. The space feels both rustic and sophisticated (another trick Scandinavians pull off well). Seasonal menus feature creative preparations of local ingredients, as in a dish of reindeer, beetroot, spruce shoot, moss and blueberries.

Beyond the grounds of the hotel, the nearest neighborhood, Vasastan, is full of restaurants, bars, shops and art galleries — further evidence that, in Stockholm, pastoral beauty and the pleasures of urban life can happily coexist.