Östergötland (; English

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

: East Gothland) is one of the traditional

provinces of Sweden The 25 provinces of Sweden () are historical, geographical and cultural regions. They have no administrative function, but retain their own cultural identities, dialects and folklore. Several were administrative subdivisions until 1634, when t ...

(''landskap'' in Swedish) in the south of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It borders

Småland Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

Närke Närke () is a Swedish traditional province, or ''landskap'', situated in Svealand in south central Sweden. It is bordered by Västmanland to the north, Södermanland to the east, Östergötland to the southeast, Västergötland to the sou ...

Södermanland Södermanland ( ), locally Sörmland, sometimes referred to under its Latinisation of names, Latinized form Sudermannia or Sudermania, is a Provinces of Sweden, historical province (or ) on the south eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Österg� ...

and the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. In older English literature, the Latinized version ''Ostrogothia'' is also used. The corresponding administrative county,

Östergötland County Östergötland County () 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 northeast. It also has a ...

, covers the entire province and parts of neighbouring provinces.

Heraldry

From 1560, Östergötland was represented with two separate coats-of-arms seals until 1884, when the current one was granted. The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is represented with a ducal coronet. Blazon: " gules a

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

with

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

wings, tail and tongue rampant or armed, beaked, langued and membered azure between four roses argent."

Geography

From west to east, in the middle parts, extends the Östgöta Plain (''Östgötaslätten''). It is largely

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

. In the southern part of the province, the terrain becomes marked by the south Swedish highlands, with hills and countless lakes. The northern parts are also hilly, and are otherwise dominated by forests. Outside the eastern shore of Östergötland lies the Östergötland archipelago, the islands and islets of which cover an area of . The Bråviken bay continues further into the country. Some of the more notable islands are Korsö, Gränsö, Arkö, Djursö, Yxnö, Finnö, Emtö, Fångö and Stora Ålö. Traditionally, the region is divided into two halves, east and west of the river Stångån (Östanstång and Västanstång respectively), which flows from the south into Lake Roxen at Linköping. The eastern part of Göta Canal traverses the province from the

at Mem to Lake

Vättern Vättern ( , ) is the second-largest lake 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 Scandinavia. ...

Motala Motala () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Motala Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with a municipal population of 43,717 inhabitants in 2024. It is the third largest city of Östergötland, following Linköping and N ...

. *Highest mountain: Stenabohöjden, 327 meters (1,073 ft) *Largest lake:

(second-largest lake of Sweden)

Towns

Cities and the year of their now defunct

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

. * Linköping (1287) * Mjölby (1922) *

(1881) *

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

(1384) * Skänninge (approximately 1200) * Söderköping (approximately 1200) *

Vadstena Vadstena () is a locality and the seat of Vadstena Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It bo ...

(approximately 1400) Today, the largest city in the province is Linköping, with Norrköping second. Skänninge is one of the oldest areas but small; Vadstena is also small. Additional towns without a royal charter that have emerged in the 20th century are Finspång and Åtvidaberg.

History

The earliest mention of Östergötland (the Ostrogoths of Scandza) appears in the ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' by the Goth scholar

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

. The traditions of Östergötland date back into the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

, the undocumented

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

, and earlier, when this region had its own laws and kings (see Geatish kings and Wulfings). It is said that the famous Viking warrior

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

may likely have been from what is now the Östergötland region. The region kept its own laws, the ''Östgötalagen'', into the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Östergötland belonged to the Christian heartland of the late Iron Age and early medieval Sweden. The Sverker and Bjälbo dynasties played pivotal roles in the consolidation of Sweden. The province has about 50,000 ancient remains of different kinds. Some 1,749 are, for instance, grave fields. Industry was formerly most significant in the cities of

(industries include

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

), Linköping (where SAAB has aircraft factories where the Gripen fighter is produced), Finspång (metal works), and

(mechanical industries). Since the 13th century, Swedish princes and princesses in some dynasties have been created dukes and duchesses of various provinces. Since 1772, these are only honorary titles. There have been several Dukes and Duchesses of Östergötland. The current duchess is Princess Estelle since her birth in 2012. Local lore from Lake Sommen in southern Östergötland tells that a cow-beast called Urkon or Sommakoa will kill any crowned king that visits the district of Ydre. It was said that the Urkon killed legendary king Frode. As Frode was passing through Ydre, Urkon escaped its lake-cave and attacked him. Frode fled Ydre and thought he was safe but the beast caught and slew him.

Culture

Local accents

Formerly the östgöta ''or'' dialect spectrum were considered true göta dialects, but is nowadays considered being a transition area between true göta dialects and svea dialects. The dialects are still used in rural areas, but in the cities, the Standard Swedish is spoken with a certain Östgöta accent. The accent ''Östgötska'' can be distinguished from Standard Swedish just by accent and pronunciation of vowels and sje- and the- sounds, which makes Östgöta accent an eastern variety of the

Götaland Götaland (; also '' Gothia'', ''Gothland'', ''Gothenland'' or ''Gautland'') is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises ten provinces. Geographically it is located in the south of Sweden, bounded to the north by Svealand, with the deep wo ...

accent. In some parts bordering to

, a variety of the

Svealand Svealand (), or Swealand, is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south-central Sweden and is one of the three historical lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tive ...

accent is spoken.

Sights

LA2 Ostergotlands lansmuseum Raoul Wallenbergs plats

In Östergötland several older churches are still standing and many castles and palaces are open to the public. Ekenäs Castle, one of the best preserved

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

castles in Sweden, has belonged to the families Sture and Banér. Löfstad Castle has its origin in the early 17th century, having belonged to the von Fersen family. Vadstena Castle, built by the Royal Vasa dynasty 1545–1620, is a combined fortress and renaissance castle. Vreta Abbey was the first convent to be established in Sweden, dating from the early 12th century, while Vadstena Abbey was the dominant convent in Medieval Sweden. Notable is also the ruins of the Alvastra Abbey near mountain

Omberg Omberg () is a forested mountain in western Östergötland County in Sweden. Administratively it is split between the municipalities of Ödeshög in the south and Vadstena in the north. It lies between Vättern, Lake Vättern and Tåkern, Lake Tå ...

and Lake

Tåkern Lake Tåkern () is a lake in Östergötland County, Sweden. It is considered one of northern Europe's foremost bird lakes. It is long and wide, with an average depth only . The lake lies around west of Mjölby, bordering in the west to Omberg. ...

. The cathedral in Linköping is the second largest church in Sweden and is very well preserved from the Middle Age. The Göta Canal crosses the province East-West with several locks and the Kinda Canal connects the lakes in the southern parts of the province with the central plains. Övralid Manor was the last home of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

laureate Verner von Heidenstam 1925–40. There are several museums in all parts of the province, for example the Swedish Broadcasting Museum, the open-air museum Old Linköping, Swedish Air Force Museum, Sancta Birgitta Convent Museum, Museum of Work and the Motala Motor Museum. The Rök runestone is one of the most famous runestones, featuring the longest known runic inscription in stone. It can now be seen by the church in Rök (between Mjölby and Ödeshög, close to the E4 and Lake Vättern). It is considered the first piece of written Swedish and thus marks the beginning of the history of Swedish literature. File:Ekenäs slott.jpg, Winter scene at Ekenäs Castle File:Industrilandskapet Norrköping april 2005 2.jpg, Former Industrial landscape in Norrköping File:Ovralid vattern.jpg, Övralid Manor, with view over Lake

File:Söderköpings sluss, Göta kanal, juli 2005.jpg, The Göta Canal at Söderköping File:Tidersrums kyrka.jpg, Tidersrum Church, the oldest wooden church in Sweden File:Vadstena castle Vadstena Sweden.JPG, Vadstena Castle in Vadstena File:Lkpgdomkyrka-ne.jpg, The

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

in Linköping File:Vreta kloster Church view.jpg, Vreta Abbey from the early 12th century

Hundreds

The Hundreds of Sweden were jurisdictional divisions in effect until the early 20th century. * Aska * Bankekind * Boberg * Bråbo * Dal * Finspång Fief * Gullberg * Göstring * Hammarkind * Hanekind * Kinda (formerly part of

) * Lysinge * Memming * Northern Tjust * Northern Vedbo * Skärkind * Valkebo * Vifolka * Ydre (formerly part of

) * Åkerbo * Östkind

Sports

Football in the province is administered by Östergötlands Fotbollförbund (ÖFF).

References

*Nordisk Familjebok, see below

External links

Östergötland Official Tourism Site

from Nordisk Familjebok.
Ekenäs Castle

Löfstad Castle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ostergotland Provinces of Sweden Geats