This Swedish city has created an “IQ tourism” route that promotes the development of intelligence

In one of the tourist regions of Sweden, the authorities have come up with an unusual way to combat homogeneous tourism – the “IQ-tourism” program. Instead of guiding travelers to the most popular and Instagrammable locations, the city of Uppsala, located just 40 minutes from Stockholm, suggests focusing on the IQ symbol. It points to places with deeper meaning – those where you can learn interesting stories, feel the atmosphere and discover unexpected layers of history.

Uppsala is considered a young city – almost half of its residents are under 30 years old. Therefore, a significant part of the routes is connected with university life. Uppsala University, the oldest in the country, played a key role in the formation of the city. “Smart” routes offer an immersive experience of student life, for example in the old cafe Ofvandahls Hovkonditori, opened in the 19th century, or in the Arrenius coffee shop, where it is easy to strike up a conversation with strangers – as was common in European coffee shops of the past. Not far from the city is the Gamla Uppsala Museum, located next to the ancient royal burial mounds. Here you can learn about the Vendel period and the Viking Age, when the site was used for rituals and sacrifices to gods such as Thor, Odin and Frey. The city will also install mobile red binoculars to help observe small details on buildings.

The program also introduced an unusual mobile observation deck on the Red Tower, which draws attention to small details of the city that usually go unnoticed. Among them are the uncleaned glass in Uppsala Cathedral, allowing you to see its former appearance, a stone with the inscription “Nothing Happened Here” near the Östgöta Nation building, and miniature mouse houses created by artists and hidden throughout the city.