Vadstena (Map code: 8E NO)
The agricultural plain east of Lake V�ttern is famous for its rich soils of clayey till from local limestone bedrock of cambro-silurian age. The area is settled since Stone Age and rich in prehistoric monuments from all ages, romanesque stone churches from 12th century and modern big farms. Through the ages the plain was an agricultural surplus area, since the 19th century the whole plain is intensively used arable land, giving rich harvests in wheat, barley and oil seeds. It is a region of early modernisation in former traditional open-field agriculture. The dissolution of villages and consolidation of farmland was followed by crop rotation and mechanisation in the 19th century. The city of Vadstena was established ab. 1400 AD around the main monastery of St Birgitta�s order, founded towards the end of 14�th century, transforming a donated 13th century royal palace into a cloister following St Birgitta�s divine revelations. After Reformation king Gustaf I built a renaissance castle at Vadstena as a counter-weight to the rich and popular monastic institution which could survive until 1594. Tourism is now the most rapidly growing business in Vadstena with its important cultural heritage and maintained medieval urban character. Earlier the city played a role in trade of cereals to the forestland of Bergslagen with its mining and steel making industries.

Swedish Gazetteer

---

Map Source: Lantmäteriet (Swedish National Landsurvey)

Choose another theme (set of maps):

Search among the map titles: