Linköping

Linköping, a city of Sweden, the seat of a bishop, and chief town of the district (län) of Östergötland. Pop. (1900) 14,552. It is situated in a fertile plain 142 m. by rail S.W. of Stockholm, and communicates with Lake Roxen (½ m. to the north) and the Göta and Kinda canals by means of the navigable Stångå. The cathedral (1150-1499), a Romanesque building with a beautiful south portal and a Gothic choir, is, next to the cathedral of Upsala, the largest church in Sweden. It contains an altarpiece by Martin Heemskerck (d. 1574), which is said to have been bought by John II. for twelve hundred measures of wheat. In the church of St Lars are some paintings by Per Horberg (1746-1816), the Swedish peasant artist. Other buildings of note are the massive episcopal palace (1470-1500), afterwards a royal palace, and the old gymnasium founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1627, which contains the valuable library of old books and manuscripts belonging to the diocese and state college, and collection of coins and antiquities. There is also the Östergötland Museum, with an art collection. The town has manufactures of tobacco, cloth and hosiery. It is the headquarters of the second army division.

Linköping early became a place of mark, and was already a bishop’s see in 1082. It was at a council held in the town in 1153 that the payment of Peter’s pence was agreed to at the instigation of Nicholas Breakspeare, afterwards Adrian IV. The coronation of Birger Jarlsson Valdemar took place in the cathedral in 1251; and in the reign of Gustavus Vasa several important diets were held in the town. At Stångåbro (Stångå Bridge), close by, an obelisk (1898) commemorates the battle of Stångåbro (1598), when Duke Charles (Protestant) defeated the Roman Catholic Sigismund. A circle of stones in the Iron Market of Linköping marks the spot where Sigismund’s adherents were beheaded in 1600.