Riddarfjärden
Riddarfjärden (, "The Knight Firth") is the easternmost bay of Lake Mälaren in central Stockholm. Stockholm was founded in 1252 on an island in the stream where Lake Mälaren (from the west) drains into the Baltic Sea (to the east); today the island is called Stadsholmen and constitutes Stockholm's Old Town.
Stockholm University
In 1878, the university college "Stockholms högskola" started its operations with a series of lectures on natural sciences, open to curious citizens (a tradition still upheld by yearly publicly open lectures). Notable in the university's early history is the appointment of Sofia Kovalevskaya to hold a chair in mathematics department in 1889, making her the third female professor in Europe. In 1904 the college became an official degree granting institution.
In 1960, the college was granted university status, becoming Sweden's fourth state university. The university premises were situated in central Stockholm at "Observatorielunden" but increased enrollment resulted in a lack of space, which required the university campus to be shifted to a bigger facility. Since 1970 most of the university operations are pursued at the main campus at Frescati north of the city center, the former
Experimentalfältet, previously used by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.