Vadstena Municipality () is a

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

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 ...

in southeast

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 ...

. Its seat is located in the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

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 ...

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

Motala Municipality Motala Municipality () 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 the adjacent rural ...

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.

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Vadstena Municipality's electoral districts in the

2022 Swedish general election General elections were held in Sweden on 11 September 2022 to elect the 349 members of the Riksdag who in turn elected the Prime Minister of Sweden. Under the constitution, regional and municipal elections were also held on the same day. The pr ...

sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics. In total there were 7,517 residents, including 6,185 Swedish citizens of voting age. 48.1% voted for the left coalition and 51.2% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Nature

Vadstena is situated by 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. ...

, 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, funga, or features of geologic ...

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

lime Lime most 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: Bo ...

-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. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

Tuber geophyte Tubers are a type of enlarged structure that plants use as storage organs for nutrients, derived from stems or roots. Tubers help plants perennate (survive winter or dry months), provide energy and nutrients, and are a means of asexual reprodu ...

(''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 nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

Butterwort ''Pinguicula'', commonly known as 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 they ...

plan

*The ''Kastad kulle torräng'' is a

drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ("little 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 till or groun ...

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. It is a rare and protected plant, and flowers from June to August. pilosa T ...

, 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 Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

br>

Sights

Vadstena Castle Vadstena Castle () 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 approaching from the south. Th ...

Vadstena Abbey 250px, Aerial view The Abbey Pax Mariae (), more commonly referred to as Vadstena Abbey, is situated on Lake Vättern in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockholm and is a monastery of nuns within the Bridgettine Order. It was active from 134 ...

*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 Dalby () is a locality and short-lived (11th century) former Latin Catholic diocese situated in Lund Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 6732 inhabitants in 2019. It is located about 10 km East-southeast of Lund, and about 20 km Eas ...

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 *Ornamental turning *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals tha ...

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

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