Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »
Countries
  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan
Cities
  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Rose Window, St. John’s Episcopal Church
St. John's Episcopal Church
Frank & Nancy’s Marine Corps Museum
Giant Squid Museum
The Old Limestone Arch
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
Food window and entrance of center.
Indian Arts Center
Steaming Tender Restaurant
Tiptree Jam Museum entrance.
Tiptree Jam Museum
The Reading Room blends the intimacy of an inviting bar with the inviting solace of a good bookstore.
The Reading Room
Building
The Mountain House
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
One of the gargoyles that adorns Oxford’s Magdalen College.
8 Gargoyles and Grotesques Hiding in Plain Sight
Only-in-Anchorage Winter Traditions
Moose are frequently spotted around Flattop Mountain and the Glen Alps Trailhead.
Anchorage: A City Within the Wild
Where to See the World’s Creepiest Dolls and Toys

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Sweden Stockholm Västra Skogen Escalator
AO Edited

Västra Skogen Escalator

A Stockholm metro station is home to an escalator that is not only the longest in Sweden, but among the longest in the world.

Stockholm, Sweden

CoolCrab profile photo
Added By
CoolCrab
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
  Vargklo/CC BY-SA 2.5
  AleWi/CC BY-SA 4.0
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
  CoolCrab / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

People always had an obsession with records, taking immense pride in having the biggest, longest, oldest, or smallest version of a thing. Sometimes the records are small, and only count for a neighborhood or city, and sometimes they cover a country or even more. The exact object can seem very arbitrary, like the world's biggest Dalarna horse, which is located not far from the world's smallest Dalarna horse.

The Västra Skogen area of Stockholm does not pride with Dalarna horses, but rather with Sweden's longest escalator. This escalator measures a staggering 66 meters  (217 feet) long, and descends 33 meters (108 feet) into the ground. This makes it the ninth-longest in the world and the fifth-largest in Western Europe. (All titles which you can find being used.) 

The escalator is part of the Stockholm Metro Art Gallery and is decorated in a way that both shows off its length, and the difference between the over and underworlds. At the top, riders are met with smooth walls and bright colors that fade away into a ghostly white as they travel farther down.

At the halfway point, a checkered mosaic signals the midpoint of the journey. After that, the walls become rough and wild, showing the naked rock walls of the tunnel itself. You have now entered the underworld. The location is popular amongst children and escalator enthusiasts. 

A journey on the escalator takes approximately one minute and 24 seconds. The platform is another seven meters down, which is bridged with a shorter, non-record holding, escalator. 

Places

Discover your next amazing Atlas Place.

Get more unusual and extraordinary places each week with the Atlas Obscura Places newsletter.

Your newsletter subscriptions with us are subject to Atlas Obscura's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Know Before You Go

You need a metro ticket to access the escelator. There is only one exit to the building, so you can't miss it. 

Community Contributors

CoolCrab profile photo

Added By

CoolCrab

Published

September 10, 2021

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4stra_skogen_(tunnelbanestation)

Related Tags

Escalators World's Longest Stairs Transportation Subways Records
Västra Skogen Escalator
Stockholm, 171 61
Sweden
59.34759, 18.003984

Nearby Places

Pompes Grav (Pompe the Dog's Grave)

Stockholm, Sweden

miles away

Carl XII's Oak

Stockholm, Sweden

miles away

The Unmarked Grave of Christer Pettersson

Stockholm, Sweden

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Stockholm

Stockholm

Sweden

Places 132
Stories 6

Nearby Places

Pompes Grav (Pompe the Dog's Grave)

Stockholm, Sweden

miles away

Carl XII's Oak

Stockholm, Sweden

miles away

The Unmarked Grave of Christer Pettersson

Stockholm, Sweden

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Stockholm

Stockholm

Sweden

Places 132
Stories 6

Related Stories and Lists

24 Destination Subway Stations

List

By Daniel McDermon

Related Places

  • Wheaton Station Escalator

    Silver Spring, Maryland

    Wheaton Station Escalator

    The longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere takes over three minutes to ride down.

  • Piața Romană Metro Station

    Bucharest, Romania

    Piața Romană Metro Station

    This train station's platforms were built extremely narrow to deceive a rather arrogant government official

  • Caesars Palace Spiral Escalators

    Las Vegas, Nevada

    Caesars Palace Spiral Escalators

    This Las Vegas casino boasts one of only three spiral escalators in the United States—an engineering wonder.

  • De Tijdtrap

    Rotterdam, Netherlands

    De Tijdtrap

    A set of parking garage escalators doubling as a historical overview of Rotterdam.

  • Odoriba means "dance floor" and "staircase landing."

    Yokohama, Japan

    Odoriba Station

    This subway station is named after a local legend about supernatural dancing cats.

  • he River Westbourne flows above the station in a large iron conduit.

    London, England

    Sloane Square Tube Station

    One of London's lost rivers runs through a pipe over the tracks of this subway station.

  •  The statue of James Henry Greathead with a bus passing on one side.

    London, England

    Statue of James Henry Greathead

    This statue of one of the engineers who created the London Underground hides a ventilation shaft for the tube lines that run under the street.

  • Alisher Navoiy Station.

    Tashkent, Uzbekistan

    Tashkent Metro Stations

    An underground world of gorgeous, palatial metro stations designed as a nuclear shelter complex.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2026 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.