From sfgate.com: Renaissance garden grows insight into the lives of long-gone sailors.
The Vasa was a magnificent ship. Decorated with symbolic sculptures, carvings and gold leaf, and bronze guns polished to a fare-thee-well, she was built to impress and strike fear as the pride of Sweden's 17th century Royal navy. On a fine August day in 1628, with king, court and populace gathered, she was launched. Within minutes -- sails set, flags flying, gun ports open for the royal salute -- she caught a gust, heeled over and sank.
The Vasa lay in the Stockholm harbor for 333 years. In 1961, she was brought up from centuries of enveloping mud. With the salvage came skeletons of the drowned along with about 24,000 preserved objects. In 1990, the Vasamuseet, located less than a nautical mile from the spot where she capsized, opened to display her restoration. The museum -- with its interactive exhibits and films that bring to life the Vasa and her times -- has become Scandinavia's most visited attraction. [continue]
More about the Vasa:
Vasa - Wikipedia
Vasamuseet - the Vasa Musuem site, available in Swedish, English, and many other languages
More old garden stuff at Mirabilis.ca:
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