Linköping Cathedral

The high bright vaults and a sense of space greet the visitor in one of the Nordic region’s largest cathedrals, but there is also a cozy corner for a moment of stillness, prayer, and candle lighting.

Linköping Cathedral is Sweden’s best-preserved medieval cathedral and there is much to discover here; the Gothic blind arcades with their strange stone figures, Mary spreading her mantle of flowers over us from one of the windows, the Salvation Cord’s beads in the floor… Linköping Cathedral is open to you year-round with opportunities for private devotion, prayers of intercession, as well as a variety of services and concerts.

In the castle next to the church is the Cathedral’s treasury: Linköping’s
Castle & Cathedral Museum with medieval textiles, Vadstena embroideries, silver objects
and much more.

The cathedral has dominated the cityscape for over 800 years. With its 110 m in length and 107 m high tower, it continues to impress.

Already in the 1100s, there was a predecessor here. A Romanesque basilica that was roughly a third the size of the current church building.

In the 1230s, Bishop Bengt of the Folkunga family received papal permission to expand with a transept and a new chancel in the east. Thereafter, the 12th-century nave was demolished, and the construction continued on a larger scale and in Gothic style.

After a break in construction in the 1300s due to the Black Death, the Romanesque chancel was replaced by three bright chapels in late Gothic style.

By the early 1500s, the medieval construction was completed. Above the Nicholas Chapel and Thomas Chapel were two towers. Also, a smaller, so-called roof rider, was above the nave. In the west, there was no tower but instead a magnificent gable with a large rose window.

By the mid-18th century, the magnificent gable was replaced by a tower based on designs by Carl Hårleman. The tower we have today was designed by Helgo Zettervall and was completed in 1886.

Architecturally, Linköping Cathedral is very interesting and well-preserved. The three-aisled hall church in Gothic style shows upon closer study that it reflects a great variety within medieval architecture and styles. The most striking are English features in the form of blind arcades, leaf mascarons, etc. Besides the Englishmen, it is German craftsmen we mostly have to thank for this masterpiece in limestone.

Exactly what the interior of the medieval cathedral looked like, we do not know. There are color residues on stone figures and in blind arcades that show it was richly painted.
In registers, the various altar endowments show that there were over 30 saint altars. Fragments from the painted windows also give an impression of how colorful they appeared. Besides the high altar, sacrament cabinets, and additional altars, there are two medieval furnishings we see today. The magnificent triumphal cross from the 1300s, which sits in the arch over the central altar, and the bronze baptismal font, which is a German work from the 1400s.

After the Reformation in the 1500s, several fires in the church destroyed a large part of its furnishings. On the orders of Johan III, the church was repaired, and the king donated a magnificent triptych from Alkmaar as a new altarpiece. Today, Marten van Heemskerck’s fantastic painting is on the south wall, below the high altar.

The arrangement and furnishings of the church space have changed on several occasions throughout history. Today, one is met by a bright and airy church space, where decorations and furnishings from different eras blend nicely. The medieval crucifix, the baroque’s grand pulpit, Henrik Sørensen’s welcoming altarpiece, Lisa Bauer’s engraved Mary window, and all other artworks show a church space that has lived through history and is still filled with life.

Feel free to visit the Cathedral’s Treasury as well: Linköping’s Castle & Cathedral Museum, housed in the old castle next to the Cathedral.