The Berzelius statue
At the park's centre among large trees.
Helge Høifødt — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Ray Swi-hymn from Sijhih-Taipei, Taiwan — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden — CC BY 2.0
Berzelii Park is a small park in central Stockholm between Nybroplan and Hamngatan, named after **Jöns Jacob Berzelius** — the Swedish chemist whose statue has stood at its centre since 1858. Berzelius is a name worth knowing: he devised the **system of chemical symbols** used worldwide today — the one or two letters standing for each element, O for oxygen, Fe for iron, Na for sodium. He discovered several elements himself and determined the atomic weights of about forty with an accuracy remarkable for his time. Every chemical equation written today uses his system. The park itself is small: large trees, benches, paths, and the historic Berns restaurant on its edge in a building of 1863. Its value is practical — a green pause in the busiest part of Stockholm, minutes from everything. **Free and always open.**
At the park's centre among large trees.
An 1863 hall on the park's edge.
Berzelii Park, Norrmalm, Stockholm
The Hallwyl MuseumThe Hallwyl Museum is a private late-nineteenth-century town palace left exactly1 minute walk4.6
Raoul Wallenbergs torgA small square on the water in central Stockholm, named after Raoul Wallenberg a1 minute walk4.3
Kungstradgarden (The King's Garden)Kungstradgarden is a long rectangular square in the heart of commercial Stockhol3 minutes walk4.6
NationalmuseumNationalmuseum is Sweden's largest museum of art and design, with a collection e6 minutes walk4.7
Kulturhuset StadsteaternA cultural centre and city theatre in a glass building on Sergels torg in centra6 minutes walk4.2Four, on streets, statues and museums. **Carl Linnaeus**, who devised the naming of living things. **Jöns Jacob Berzelius**, whose park this is and who devised the chemical symbols. **Anders Celsius**, of the centigrade temperature scale — though he originally set it upside down, with zero for boiling. And **Alfred Nobel**, who invented dynamite and left his fortune to his prizes. All four appear on banknotes, stamps or squares, and what they share is systems of measurement and naming the whole world uses without knowing where they came from.