Ropsten is a cape at the eastern part of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

mainland at the inner part of Stockholm

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Two bridges named

Lidingöbron Lidingöbron (Swedish: "The Lidingö Bridge") is the name of two existing and two historical bridges across the strait of Lilla Värtan between the mainland Norra Djurgården at Ropsten, at the eastern part of Stockholm, and the island of Liding� ...

extend from Ropsten over to the island of

Lidingö Lidingö, also known in its definite form ''Lidingön'' and as ''Lidingölandet'', is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2010, the population of the Lidingö urban area on the island was 31,561. It is ...

. Ropsten area is located between

Hjorthagen Hjorthagen is a district in the northeastern part of central Stockholm, located near Ropsten and Lidingöbron Lidingöbron (Swedish: "The Lidingö Bridge") is the name of two existing and two historical bridges across the strait of Lilla Vär ...

and the Stockholm city main port

Värtahamnen Värtahamnen is a port in Stockholm, Sweden. Värtahamnen and the adjacent Stockholm Free Port at Lilla Värtan is Stockholm's main port. Värtahamnen primarily serves passenger ferries for the shipping company Silja Line as well as freighters for ...

. Ropsten is the terminal station for the eastern part of

Stockholm Metro The Stockholm metro ( sv, Stockholms tunnelbana) is a rapid transit system in Stockholm, Sweden. The first line opened in 1950, and today the system has 100 stations in use, of which 47 are underground and 53 above ground. There are three colou ...

system and is also the terminal station for

Lidingöbanan Lidingöbanan is a Light-railway line in Stockholm, Sweden, between Ropsten and Gåshaga brygga, serving the southern half of Lidingö island. The Lidingöbanan has its origins in the ''Stockholm-Södra Lidingöns Järnväg'' (Stockholm-Souther ...

, the railway for public transportation, covering the area of Lidingö.

History

Ropsten has been the communication center for the traffic between Stockholm and Lidingö since the 13th or 14th century, when the first inhabitants settled on Lidingö and began farming, 200–300 years after the end of the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

. The name "Ropsten" stems from the fact that in old times, going back to the 13th or 14th century, people used to shout out loud from this area to Lidingö, a distance of about 750 meters, to call for a boat transport over to

, before the first regular rowboat ferry line was introduced and before the first bridge was built. In the old times, the part of the Ropsten area close to the waterfront was named ''Ropudden'' (corresponding to "cape shout"). The large rock or

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

in the water close to this cape gave the place its name, "the rock at cape shout", ''Ropsten''. The rock itself, however, was probably not used as a place to shout from, as it was surrounded by water (during average sea level conditions) according to old maps from the end of the 17th century, in particular a map from 1696. When there was an extreme low sea levelThe sea level in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

normally fluctuates between -0.5 meter to +0.5 meter, in extreme case up to one meter, depending on atmospheric tide differences between the Baltic Sea and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. When there is high atmospheric pressure in the Baltic area compared to the atmospheric pressure in the North Sea for a longer period, the water is pressed out into the Atlantic Ocean and the water level will sink. it was probably possible to reach the rock by foot, as indicated on the painting by Piere Joseph Trere from 1795. The entire area, named Ropsten, dramatically changed appearance in just a few years when the first bridge between Ropsten and Lidingö and the main port for Stockholm was built in this area from around 1884. Today nothing remains of the old Ropsten as it appears on the painting from 1795.

Image gallery, Ropsten year 1696-2008

Image:Ropsten_1696.jpg, Map from 1696, covering the area around Ropsten.
Map orientation; north facing up. Image:Ropstens_gård_1784.jpg, Map from 1784, covering the area around Ropsten.
Map orientation; north facing up. Image:Ropsten_1874.jpg, Map from 1874, covering the area around Ropsten.
Map orientation; north facing up. Image:Lidingöbanan A.jpg,

at Ropsten railway station. Image:Ropstenplatformblur.jpg,

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

platform at Ropsten station. Image:Bellman vid Elfvik.jpg, A painting showing

Carl Michael Bellman Carl Michael Bellman (; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well ...

leaving

in a rowboat ferry after a visit to the island in September 1789. The boat is the kind of broad boat normally used for transport of bulky goods, horses and cattle etc. with two rowers.

Footnotes

{{reflist Geography of Stockholm