Vadstena - History

History

Above all, the city of Vadstena is noted for two important artefacts of Swedish history. It was in Vadstena, in 1350, that Saint Bridget of Sweden founded the first monastery of her Bridgettine Order, and Vadstena Castle is one of Sweden’s best-preserved castles from the era of Gustav Vasa in the 16th century. Today the surviving buildings of the monastery are occupied by a hotel, the Vadstena Klosterhotel, and the castle houses the provincial archives and a museum of 16th and 17th century furniture, portraits and paintings.

Since the 16th century, Vadstena has been the location of a hospital. Earlier in history, it mainly housed mental patients. Today, some of the oldest buildings present the Vadstena Hospital Museum.

Vadstena also preserves elements of more recent history in the museum of the Vadstena-Fågelsta narrow gauge railway (Wadstena Fogelsta Järnväg). This 891 mm (or three Swedish feet)-gauge railway was once part of a large network of narrow-gauge railways in Östergötland constructed in the latter part of the 19th century.

The buildings in the city centre date mainly from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The old town is well preserved and the streets have not changed much over the centuries. The Town Hall is Sweden's oldest, dating back to the early 15th century. Notable is the main street (Storgatan) where all the shops are gathered, like they would have been during the Middle Age.