Norrköping

Norrköping grew at the mouth of the Motala ström, where its rapids powered mills and salmon filled the river. Its name appears in 1283 when Queen Sophia donated fishing rights to Skänninge monastery. A town charter survives from 1384, and the harbour connected the market with the Baltic through Bråviken.

The Northern Seven Years' War brought fire to the southern town; John III rebuilt it and laid out its streets. Under Gustavus Adolphus an arms industry was established in 1618, and the entrepreneur Louis De Geer helped develop textile production. By his death in 1652 Norrköping had become Sweden's second-largest town. Fire struck again in 1655, and Russian forces burned the town in 1719. Rebuilt in the eighteenth century, it gained sugar refineries and a theatre; the Riksdag met here in 1769, and Gustav IV Adolf was crowned in St Olaf's Church in 1800.