Linköping is a city in the region of Östergötland, and it is one of Sweden’s largest. The city has been the ecclesiastical center of Östergötland since the 12th century, and the city’s bishop held the first Swedish church meeting in Linköping in 1152 with attendance of King Sverker. King Valdemar Birgersson was crowned in the city’s cathedral in 1251, which emphasized Linköping’s importance. At this time, a cathedral school was also established in the city. In 1598, the Battle of Stångebro was fought at Linköping, and one of the consequences was the so-called Linköping massacre, where five noblemen were executed in the city in 1600.
One hundred years later, Linköping was ravaged by a fire that destroyed most of the city on 29 January 1700. The city’s cathedral and castle were among the buildings that survived the fire, but the rest of the city had to be rebuilt. Later, several regiments were moved to Linköping, which also became the location of SAAB’s military aircraft production from 1937. The company and others brought growth and prosperity to the city.
Today you can enjoy some lovely walks in Linköping, where the street network in the center is still as it was in the Middle Ages, despite the fire in 1700. You can find Stora torget in the city center, and it is the oldest square in Linköping. Here you can see Carl Mille’s fountain sculpture Folkungabrunnen, a statue with Folke Filbyter from 1927. To the south on Stora torget you can see the city’s former town hall and the Central Palace, which was built in Art Nouveau style in 1907, and today you can experience contemporary art in Art Gallery Passagen.
On the eastern side of the square is the Stora Hotellet from 1852. If you continue east along Storgatan you come to Linköping’s modern center and to Church of St Lars/Sankt Lars Kyrka, which was originally consecrated in the 12th century. The church had to be rebuilt after the fire in 1700, while the appearance of the current church dates from 1801, when the nave was expanded.
You can see Linköping’s three most famous buildings next to each other to the west of Stora torget. One of them is the City Hall, which was built in neo-Gothic style as a cathedral school in 1864. Today, the old school is the city’s town hall. Next to the town hall is Linköping Castle, whose history dates back to the 12th century, and parts of the original building have been preserved in the castle’s western wing.
Today, Linköping Castle serves as the official residence and representation of the governor, who is the representative of the Swedish government in the county. In part of the buildings, you can visit Linköping’s Castle and Cathedral Museum, where you can learn about the castle’s 900-year development from bishopric to royal palace in an interesting digital format of building history. You can also learn a lot about Linköping’s history at the museum, for example about the Battle of Stångebro and the bloodbath in 1600.
Next to the castle is the Linköping Cathedral on the site where the first wooden church was built in Linköping’s earliest history. In the 12th century, a stone church was built, which was smaller than the current one, but already in the 13th century it was expanded, and later in the same century the cathedral reached its current length of 110 meters. In the 15th century, several Gothic chapels were constructed, and craftsmen from England and Germany decorated the interior of the cathedral.
The church is large and has several sights, such as the altarpieces. At the cathedral you can also see the Consistory House, which was built in 1827-1830. The house serves as the administration of the seat of Linköping, and from the house you can walk west along Hunnebergsgatan It is a street with some wooden houses from the 18th century in one of Linköping’s old streets. If you continue west, you can make a stroll to Gamla Linköping, which is an open-air museum with historical environments from the city and the countryside, and to the Air Force Museum Linköping, which tells the story of the Swedish air force.
Stora Torget is the central square in Linköping and has been the city’s most important trading and meeting place since the Middle Ages. The square was created in connection with the city’s zoning in the 13th century, when Linköping developed into an ecclesiastical and administrative center around the cathedral and the bishop’s castle. In the Middle Ages, the city’s town hall and several merchant houses faced the square, and markets, judgments and ceremonies were held here. After the fire in 1700, the square was expanded and rearranged in accordance with the urban planning principles of the time, and it was surrounded by brick buildings in the classicist style during the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the 19th century, Stora Torget was developed into the city’s modern center. The town hall, the post office and the city’s largest hotels were located here, and the square was laid out with paving, fountains and gas lighting. In the 1850s, regular market trading was formalized, and the square became a traffic hub for the connections between the city’s main streets; Storgatan, Ågatan and Klostergatan. The surrounding buildings from the period, including the Centralpalatset and Stora Hotellet, today form a unified architectural whole with neo-Renaissance and Art Nouveau facades.
The Stora Hotellet to the east was built in 1852–1853 as Linköping’s first proper city hotel, and it is one of the oldest preserved hotels in Sweden that still functions in its original function. The initiative came from the city’s merchant bourgeoisie, who wanted to create a modern accommodation facility at Stora Torget. The building was designed by architect Johan Fredrik Åbom, who was one of Sweden’s leading architects in the classicist and early historicist styles. The hotel became the center of the city’s social life with meetings, balls, concerts and official dinners. The hotel’s restaurant and banquet hall became a gathering point for Linköping’s bourgeoisie, and for a period the place was used as a lodge for religious orders and business associations.
To the southwest is the Centralpalatset, which was built in 1890–1891 as a business and office building for the businessman C.A. Wettergren. The building was designed by architect Axel Lindegren and is a masterpiece of local neo-Renaissance architecture from the late 19th century. It was constructed as a combined business and residential building with shops on the ground floor, offices on the first floor and apartments above. The facade was built with sandstone and plaster details and has distinctive gables and ornamentation inspired by the Italian Renaissance.
Storgatan is Linköping’s oldest and most important street axis, extending from Stora Torget in the city center to the west and east to the former suburban areas. It originated in the Middle Ages as the main thoroughfare through the early city centre, leading directly from the cathedral and castle in the west to the bridge over the Stångån in the east. The street was already the city’s most important commercial street in the 13th century and was laid out in the 17th century as part of the planned urban system with straight streets and rectangular blocks. After the fire in 1700, Storgatan was rebuilt in a wider form, and both stone and wooden houses were built along it.
In the 19th century, Storgatan developed into Linköping’s most important commercial street. Banks, post offices, hotels and pharmacies opened here, and the buildings were given facades in the neoclassical style and later neo-Renaissance architecture. Several of the city’s most striking buildings, such as Stora Hotellet and Sankt Lars kyrka, are located directly on Storgatan, giving the street an architectural context that reflects the city’s growth period from 1850 to 1900. The cobblestone paving and the regular facade lines create a uniform historical streetscape that is still visible despite modernization and several centuries of architectural history.
Sankt Lars kyrka is located in the center of Linköping on Storgatan, and is one of the city’s oldest preserved churches. Its oldest parts date from the 12th century, when the church was built as a parish church for the city’s then village-like settlement. The original building was a Romanesque stone church with a single nave, choir and apse. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the church was expanded, and it was named after Saint Lawrence. The building is an important example of how parish churches in medieval Sweden developed from simple stone churches to more complex city churches.
During the Reformation in the 16th century, Sankt Lars kyrka became part of the newly established Lutheran congregation, and the church took on a more Protestant character in the following centuries. In the 17th century, it was expanded with a new choir and sacristy, and in the 18th century, the tower was given its current design with a copper spire. A thorough renovation was carried out in 1816–1817 under the direction of architect Jonas Lidströmer, adding classicist features and new windows. The restoration in 1959–1960 removed several of the later additions and sought to recreate medieval details.
The church has furnishings that reflect several time periods. The altarpiece from the 1730s was made by Lars Hasselgren, and the pulpit dates from the mid-17th century. The church’s organ is one of the largest in Sweden of its time and was built by the organ builder Pehr Schiörlin in 1797. Today, Sankt Lars serves as the parish church for central Linköping and is often used for concerts and ceremonies.
Linköpings Stadshus is located on Storgatan in the western part of Linköping city center, close to Linköping Cathedral and the city castle. The building was built in 1864-65 and designed by architect Helgo Zettervall, who was at the beginning of his career and later became known for restoring cathedrals in Sweden. The building replaced the previous town hall, which was located on a different site, and was a larger and more modern administrative building for the growing city.
The facade facing Storgatan is imposing and fits in with the large buildings in the surroundings. Inside, the building was originally equipped with a council and session hall, meeting rooms for the city council and offices for the city office, while the basement floor housed the jail and the city bailiff’s offices. In the 1890s and 1920s, the building was modernized with electricity, central heating and updated interiors. Today, the town hall is still used as a session hall and representative building for the municipal administration.
Linköping Castle is the oldest preserved secular building in Sweden and is located directly west of the city’s cathedral. The castle was originally built around 1150 as a bishop’s castle for the Diocese of Linköping, and the oldest part consisted of a simple stone building in Romanesque style. In the 13th century, the complex was expanded into a more fortified complex with a ring wall, towers and chapel, reflecting the bishops’ position of power in medieval Sweden. After the Reformation in the 16th century, the castle was taken over by the crown, and under Gustav Vasa it was rebuilt as a royal residence.
The castle was given its current design in the mid-16th century, when Duke Charles (later Charles IX) had extensive building work carried out. The medieval castle was transformed into a three-winged Renaissance castle with several floors and a rectangular palace courtyard. The thick boulder walls were covered with plastered facades, and the windows were regularly divided according to the new architectural ideals of the time. A striking stair tower facing the courtyard was built, and the interiors were furnished with reception rooms, halls and living quarters. In the 18th century, the castle lost its role as a royal residence, and the building was instead used as official residences and offices for the diocese.
In the 20th century, the castle underwent several restorations to preserve its historical structure. During work in the 1930s, the original Renaissance details were uncovered, and several of the facade’s window frames and cornices were recreated. The most recent major renovation was completed in 1999-2000, at the same time as the establishment of the Linköping Castle and Cathedral Museum, which today occupies parts of the north wing and the basement floors. The museum documents both the castle’s own architectural history and the ecclesiastical life in the Linköping diocese, and visitors can see preserved vaulted rooms from the Middle Ages, royal chambers from the 16th century, and archaeological finds from the area.
The Linköping Castle and Cathedral Museum was established in 2000 and is located in the northern wing of Linköping Castle, and thus in the oldest parts of the original bishop’s castle from the 12th century. The museum was created as a collaboration between the Diocese of Linköping, Östergötland County Museum and the Swedish State Cultural Environment Programme. It is housed in historic rooms with vaulted stone halls that were previously used as the bishop’s storerooms and office buildings. The museum’s purpose is to convey the ecclesiastical and political development in Linköping from the Middle Ages to the present day, focusing on the bishop’s estate, the cathedral chapter and the role of the diocese in the Swedish kingdom.
The exhibitions include archaeological finds, medieval sculptures, frescoes and objects from the cathedral’s inventory. A central element is the reconstructed rooms from Bishop Hans Brask’s 16th-century residence, where visitors can see documents, seals and furniture that reflect the function of ecclesiastical power in the late Middle Ages. An important part of the collection also consists of textiles, altarpieces and church silver, which have been used in the cathedral and surrounding parishes over the centuries. The museum also houses exhibitions about the Linköping massacre of 1600, which was one of the most dramatic events in Swedish Reformation history.
The museum uses the castle environment itself as an exhibition frame, and the architecture has been preserved with visible walls, boulder foundations and Gothic vaults. Modern exhibition lighting and communication installations have been established, but the historical character has been maintained. Today, the museum functions as both a research archive and a visitor center, and it attracts thousands of visitors each year who want to experience the interaction between Linköping’s religious, political and architectural development over almost nine centuries.
Linköping Cathedral is Sweden’s second largest church and one of the most significant Gothic buildings in the country. The current structure began to take shape around 1230, replacing an earlier Romanesque stone church from the 12th century. Construction continued throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, and the cathedral was consecrated in 1527 after the start of the Reformation. The building is 110 meters long and has a 107-meter-high spire, making it a striking element in the city’s skyline. It was built of limestone from the valley around Omberg and Vadstena and has clear features of French and English High Gothic, adapted to Scandinavian conditions.
The interior of the cathedral consists of a high three-aisled room with ribbed vaults and tall pointed arched windows. The choir ends with a polygonal apse, and it is an impressive space to enter. Among the most important pieces of furniture are the late Gothic altarpiece from the 16th century, which was made by Bernt Notke, and the Baroque pulpit from 1706 by the sculptor Lars Hasselgren. In the crypt under the choir are the remains of the oldest stone church, including walls and burial chambers from the 12th century. The church has been the episcopal seat and the center of the diocese’s administration for centuries, and it served as a national symbol in the Catholic and later Lutheran churches.
The cathedral has undergone several major restorations over the centuries. These took place in 1747–1758, 1877–1886 and 1967–1973. The most extensive was led by architect Helgo Zettervall, who added the high spire and reconstructed the facades in the neo-Gothic style. During the restoration in the 1960s, efforts were made to recreate medieval details and remove parts of the 19th century additions. The cathedral is still used for church services, episcopal ordinations and musical events, and it is both religiously and architecturally one of Sweden’s best-preserved monuments from the Middle Ages.
Gamla Linköping is an open-air museum and cultural-historical urban environment that was established in 1946 as a result of Linköping’s urban development and the desire to preserve older urban architecture. When large parts of the old city center were renovated in connection with modernization after World War II, a number of 18th- and 19th-century wooden houses were moved from the center to the area around Valla Gård west of the city center. Here they were rebuilt as a unified district with streets, squares, backyards and gardens, which together form a picture of Linköping as it looked around 1900.
The approximately 90 buildings in Gamla Linköping originate from different parts of the city, and they represent a wide range of typical eastern Swedish urban architecture. The buildings primarily consist of single-family houses and smaller wooden craftsman’s houses, which often have red or ochre facades, white window frames and tiled roofs. Several buildings have been reconstructed with original interiors, shops and workshops such as a shoemaker, bookstore and bakery. The area also contains public buildings such as a school, post office and police station, which together provide a comprehensive picture of the functions of the small town in the early 20th century.
Gamla Linköping functions as both a museum and a living urban environment. Several of the houses are used today by craftsmen, artists and associations, and historical markets, theater performances and harvest festivals are arranged here. The area also includes the Valla open-air recreation area, where there are historic farms, agricultural machinery and nature trails. Gamla Linköping is one of Sweden’s most visited open-air museums and is of great importance for the preservation of the regional cultural environment.
The Linköping Air Force Museum is a museum located west of the center of Linköping, and it is Sweden’s national museum of military aviation. The museum opened in 1984 and is closely linked to the Saab factories and the Swedish Air Force, which has been based in the area since 1912, when Malmen was designated as Sweden’s first military airfield. The building was originally built as a hangar and training facility, but in 2010 the museum underwent a major expansion, adding new exhibition halls and training facilities. The current building complex covers an exhibition area of around 7,000 m².
The museum’s collection consists of more than 300 aircraft and aircraft-related objects, of which around 80 are on permanent display. Among the most significant are the Saab J 29 Tunnan, the Saab 35 Draken, the Saab 37 Viggen and the modern JAS 39 Gripen, all of which were produced in Linköping. One of the museum’s most notable exhibits is a recovered wreckage of the DC-3 aircraft that was shot down over the Baltic Sea in 1952 and raised in 2003. The exhibits also describe the technical and political development of Swedish aviation, including the policy of neutrality during the Cold War.
Jönköping is located at the southern end of Lake Vättern, surrounded by the high slopes of the Vätternbranterna, where several smaller valleys meet. Since the Middle Ages, the city has had a strategic location at the transition between Småland and Västergötland, where both trade routes and military routes intersected. Jönköping is first mentioned in written sources in 1284, when the city was granted market town rights by King Magnus Ladulås, making it one of Sweden’s oldest trading centres. Its location by the lake made it a natural hub for freight and trade between southern Sweden and the interior of the country.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Jönköping grew as one of the most important cities in the region. After several major fires, particularly in 1612 and 1790, the city was repeatedly rebuilt, and the town plan developed a regular street grid, which still characterizes the city centre. During the reign of Charles IX, Jönköping also became an important military stronghold, and Jönköping Castle was built here in the early 17th century as part of the kingdom’s defense system against Denmark.
Örebro is a city in the region of Närke, and it is one of Sweden’s largest. The city is located on the river Svartån, and it originated as a ford, where a bridge was later built. The bridge was eventually called Örebron, and hence the name of the city. Örebro grew and it probably gained privileges in the 13th century. Back then it was a small town, located between today’s Stortorget square and Storbron bridge. In the middle of the 14th century, there was a royal estate here, and at that time Magnus Eriksson built a fortress as a precursor to Örebro Castle.
The city grew around the important bridge over the Svartån, and Örebro flourished when it got the only iron trade in the area, which was significant due to the occurrence of iron ore in Bergslagen. In the 16th century, 600 people lived here, where several royal councils were held, and where Charles IX built a Renaissance castle. With the industrialization of the 19th century, many factories were established in the city, which grew rapidly. The railway arrived here in 1856, and in 1888 the Örebro Canal was opened with its lock.
Stockholm is Sweden’s capital with the nickname Queen of Mälaren, and it’s not for nothing, the city has been given that name. Stockholm is scenic like few other capitals in the world; the lake landscape around Lake Mälaren is to the west, and countless islands and rocky reefs extend towards the Baltic Sea to the east. Stockholm is in the middle, built on many islands itself.
Stockholm’s old town is an island full of fine squares, crooked streets and narrow alleys without any modern buildings. Walking around this district is like a trip to a bygone era, and the Storkyrkan Church and Stockholm’s royal palace are among the sights here.
Linköping, Sweden[/caption]
Overview of Linköping
Linköping is a city in the region of Östergötland, and it is one of Sweden’s largest. The city has been the ecclesiastical center of Östergötland since the 12th century, and the city’s bishop held the first Swedish church meeting in Linköping in 1152 with attendance of King Sverker. King Valdemar Birgersson was crowned in the city’s cathedral in 1251, which emphasized Linköping’s importance. At this time, a cathedral school was also established in the city. In 1598, the Battle of Stångebro was fought at Linköping, and one of the consequences was the so-called Linköping massacre, where five noblemen were executed in the city in 1600.
One hundred years later, Linköping was ravaged by a fire that destroyed most of the city on 29 January 1700. The city’s cathedral and castle were among the buildings that survived the fire, but the rest of the city had to be rebuilt. Later, several regiments were moved to Linköping, which also became the location of SAAB’s military aircraft production from 1937. The company and others brought growth and prosperity to the city.
Today you can enjoy some lovely walks in Linköping, where the street network in the center is still as it was in the Middle Ages, despite the fire in 1700. You can find Stora torget in the city center, and it is the oldest square in Linköping. Here you can see Carl Mille’s fountain sculpture Folkungabrunnen, a statue with Folke Filbyter from 1927. To the south on Stora torget you can see the city’s former town hall and the Central Palace, which was built in Art Nouveau style in 1907, and today you can experience contemporary art in Art Gallery Passagen.
About the Linköping travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
About the travel guide
The Linköping travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Swedish city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
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Read more about Linköping and Sweden
Sweden Travel Guide: https://vamados.com/sweden
City tourism: https://visitlin-koping.se
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