Köpingsvik is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

situated in

Borgholm Municipality Borgholm Municipality (''Borgholms kommun'') is a municipality in Kalmar County, south-eastern Sweden, constituting the northern half of the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. The municipal seat is located in the city of Borgholm. Notable histor ...

Kalmar County Kalmar County () is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Kronoberg, Jönköping, Blekinge and Östergötland. To the east in the Baltic Sea is the island Gotland. The counties are mainly administrative units. Geo ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

with 599 inhabitants in 2010. It is located about east of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Borgholm on the island

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

. Köpingsvik is known as a tourist center, offering large and modern

camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more nat ...

sites. Nearby are the historic sites of

Borgholm Castle Borgholm Castle ( sv, Borgholms slott) in Borgholm, Sweden, is today only a ruin of the fortress that was first built in the second half of the 13th century and rebuilt many times in later centuries. It is linked to Halltorp estate, to the sou ...

and

Halltorps Estate Halltorp was one of the earliest manor on the island of Öland, Sweden, dating from the 11th century AD. In early documents it is known as Hauldtorp, and it is cited as one of the early Viking era settlements of Öland. From early times it has ...

. Köping (historically) was an important

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

port of what is today's

, covering an area of approximately , almost four times larger than the similar site on the island of Björkö near

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. Köping was in operation from the 7th to the 13th century. It was also an important center of early

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in Sweden. Remains of an unfinished, massive 12th century

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

long have been excavated as well as the largest collection of the so-called '' eskilstunakistor'', 75 pieces. During the last ten years there have been several small excavations which have confirmed the earlier findings and the importance of the site. Note that these findings are almost unknown to public in Sweden and the ruling view is that little site on Björkö is Sweden's "oldest town". Köping faded away around 1200, and Kalmar took over as the most important harbour town in south-eastern Sweden. Köping is claimed by some amateur historians and historians as a possible alternative to Björkö for the location of the old

viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

village Birka in SvíÞjóð (the ancient name for Sweden). Birka is mentioned in

Vita Ansgari The ''Vita Ansgarii'', also known as the ''Vita Anskarii'', is the hagiography of saint Ansgar, written by Rimbert, his successor as archbishop in the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. The ''Vita'' is an important source not only in detailing Ansgar ...

and the work of

Adam of Bremen Adam of Bremen ( la, Adamus Bremensis; german: Adam von Bremen) (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle ''Gesta ...

. He states that Birka is situated directly north of Jomsborg and directly opposite to Kurland and at the same distance between them. This theory has not been widely accepted.

References

External links

Köpingsvik.se
- Facts about Köpingsvik, Öland {{DEFAULTSORT:Kopingsvik Populated places in Borgholm Municipality