Vadstena

The Town

Vadstena is an idyllic little town with cobbled streets and low wooden buildings, beautifully situated on the beach of Lake Vättern. The town grew around the Bridgettine monastery on the grounds of the abbey.

The town remains free of concrete buildings today, extending out in a relatively even circle around the Large Square in accordance with mediaeval town planning, and is ideal to explore on foot.

Vadstena has a rich mediaeval history and practically every building has its own story to tell, the most prominent being the castle and the abbey.

The Castle

It was none other than Gustav Vasa who ordered the castle to be built as a defensive construction in the sixteenth century. He did not spend much time at the castle, although the wedding celebrations following his marriage to Katarina Stenbock were held there. The wedding ceremony itself took place in the Vadstena church.

Today the eastern half of the castle belongs to the Regional Archives, and the western part is open to the public. Some believe the castle to be haunted – guides have heard chains jangling in the cellar and felt ice-cold gusts of wind in the corridors.

The Abbey

Vadstena Abbey was inaugurated in 1384 and was under noble and royal patronage for many years. It became the primary spiritual centre in Sweden and also the country’s largest landowner.

Vadstena Abbey held such a strong position that it survived even after the Reformation began in 1527. As other monasteries were being closed down, Vadstena Abbey continued to accept members with permission from the king.

In 1555 the monks were forced from the abbey by the king to become priests or doctors. Forty years later, in 1595, the nuns were expelled from the convent to Poland. It would not be until 1935 that the Bridgettines would return to Vadstena. They opened a rest home and, 18 years later, the St Bridget convent Pax Mariæ was formed from the Bridgettine convent in Uden, in the Netherlands.