Vreta Abbey ruin

At the entrance to the beautiful Berg locks near Vreta Abbey are the ruins of Sweden’s first monastery, founded as a Benedictine nunnery. Today, a ruin and the monastery church Vreta monastery church remain.

In the early 1100s, King Inge the Elder and his wife Helena donated the land at Vreta to a monastery, the first in Sweden. It became a Cistercian nunnery in 1162 and the monastery was dissolved only when the last nuns died in the 1580s. Today, the abbey is surrounded by ruins of the monastery building and the monastery house which was the nuns’ grain store and has now been renovated and is part of the church village’s visitor center.

Vreta Abbey and ruin are located with miles-long views over the Östgöta plain and is a popular tourist destination. Tours are conducted by the association Klosterliv i Vreta. Read more about the association’s tours here.