Vadstena Municipality (''Vadstena kommun'') is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Östergötland County Östergötland County ( sv, Östergötlands län) is a county or ''län'' in southeastern Sweden. It has land borders with the counties of Kalmar to the southeast, Jönköping to the southwest, Örebro to the northwest, and Södermanland to the n ...

in southeast

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 ...

. Its seat is located in 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 ...

Vadstena Vadstena () is a locality and the seat of Vadstena Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden, with 5,613 inhabitants in 2010. From 1974 to 1979 Vadstena was administered as part of Motala Municipality. Despite its small population, Vadstena is ...

. The old ''City of Vadstena'' was during the nationwide local government reform of the 1970s merged into

Motala Municipality Motala Municipality (''Motala kommun'') is a municipality in Östergötland County in southeast Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Motala. In 1971 Motala Municipality was formed by the amalgamation of the ''City of Motala'' with some of t ...

in 1974. This "marriage" was unsuccessful and a "divorce" was soon agreed upon and in 1980 the present municipality was created. It contains, however, 12 original units.

Nature

Vadstena is situated by lake

Vättern Vättern ( , ) is the second largest lake by surface area in Sweden, after Vänern, and the sixth largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden, to the southeast of Vänern, pointing at the tip of ...

, Sweden's second largest lake. Fishing was an important source of food when the town was first founded around the year 1000 AD, and it continued to be dependent on fish and ship merchandise. There are two

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

s in the municipality: *The ''Ombergsliden'', 230,000 m² large, a

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

-rich marsh. It has several notable plants, such as the uncommon

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

Tuber geophyte (''Gymnadenia odoratissima''), and the

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

Butterwort ''Pinguicula'', commonly known as the butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition ...

plan

*The ''Kastad kulle torräng'' is a

drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...

rich on lime, and hosts several plants otherwise not found in the area, such as the

Oxytropis pilosa ''Oxytropis pilosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family and the Faboideae subfamily, found in Central Europe and Eastern Europe as far as Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country ...

, otherwise very sparsely outside of

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

br>

Sights

Vadstena Castle Vadstena Castle ( sv, Vadstena slott) is a former Royal Castle in Vadstena, the province of Östergötland, Sweden. History Vadstena Castle was originally built by King Gustav I in 1545 as a fortress to protect Stockholm from enemies approach ...

Vadstena Abbey The Abbey Pax Mariae ( la, Monasterium sanctarum Mariæ Virgìnis et Brigidæ in Vatzstena), more commonly referred to as Vadstena Abbey, situated on Lake Vättern in the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden, was the motherhouse of the Bridgettine Orde ...

*The Vadstena Hospital area and museum with buildings from the 16th century to the 20th century. *''Herrestad Church'', inaugurated in 1112, which makes it one of the oldest dated stone churches in Sweden (the Holy Cross Church in Dalby, Skåne, Sweden was built "around" 1060). The church tower was constructed around a century later, and is largely unmodified throughout the centuries. *''Rogslösa Church'', from the 13th century, which is especially notable for its

ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic influences. *There are also other interesting medieval churches in the municipality, such as ''Hagebyhöga Church'', ''Väversunda Church'', ''Hov Church'', ''Örberga Church'' and ''Nässja Church''. Most of these were begun on in the 12th century. Vadstena slott, norra sidan, juni 2005.jpg,

Vadstena hospital.JPG, Vadstena Hospital Museum

References

External links

Vadstena Municipality
- Official site
Tidernas Landskap
- For current events {{authority control Municipalities of Östergötland County