Nelson Mandela

Slottsbacken is the wide, open slope beside the Royal Palace, running down towards the water, with a tall obelisk standing in the middle. Picture a statue of Nelson Mandela here, facing the palace. There is no such statue; for this tour it is an example placement.

Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1993 together with F.W. de Klerk, "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa". The two men had been opponents. Mandela had spent eighteen years, from 1964 to 1982, on the prison island of Robben Island, and was not released until 1990.

Here is something many visitors to Stockholm do not expect. Mandela did not receive his prize in this city. The Peace Prize is the one Nobel Prize awarded in Norway, because Alfred Nobel's will gave that choice to a committee chosen by the Norwegian parliament. Mandela and de Klerk received their medals and diplomas at Oslo City Hall on 10 December 1993, the same day the other laureates were honoured here in Stockholm.

Of all the Nobel Prizes, the one for peace is the only one that is never handed out in Stockholm.