Guide to the historical Söderköping Guide
Audioguide

Historical quarters

The old quarters is the area that still gives a sense of Söderköpings medieval appearance. Here you will find that everything is in a different scale, low wooden houses on small lots with narrow alleys in between. The church that rises mightily over the low buildings and a mill by the creek. Just like it looked a long time ago. Already in the 1000s there was a wooden church here, we have found rune parts, rod cross slabs and a young girl's grave with a huge crucifix, from that time. Current Drothem church dates from the late 1200s thanks to such a medieval triptyc.

1235 Franciscans established a monastery here with the associated abbey. That the monks so early takes a monastery here suggest that Söderköping was a great and important city. The monastery church was a large Gothic brick church. The rest of the monastery lay down towards the creek. The archaeological excavations have found remains of the church nave and chancel, and after several other buildings. Princess Magdalena Karlsdotter, daughter of King Karl Knutsson Bonde learn to be buried in the chancel crypt.

After the Reformation, the monastery was demolished and the area was donated to the hospital which was located on the other side of the creek "Storån". Around the hospital and hospital church was poor homes and the monastery was used as a burial ground for the poor. Few buildings were also on this side of the creek. They were built on the old foundation walls of the monastery. The hospital was shut down in 1786.

The buildings you see today, "hospital cottages" were added during the 17 - and 1800s, still built for those less fortunate. Some houses have probably moved here when excavations for the canal was made and the houses there was demolished in the early 1800s. Some new buildings are interspersed among the elderly.
Here you can find the city's smallest square, Skvallertorget, which has been renevated and now holds on of the citys three art gardens. The houses will be rebranded and the area also got a experiencewalk for children.