Nyköping

History

The area bears traces of settlers since around 2000 BC. In the early medieval age, around 1000 AD, Nyköping was a capital of one of the many Swedish petty kingdoms. In the 13th century, construction on the Nyköping Fortress begun; the following century it became the strongest fortress in the country. The coat of arms probably depicts the fortress, or one of its towers. In 1317, the Nyköping Banquet took place, a renowned episode in Sweden's history, when King Birger of Sweden captured his two brothers as revenge for earlier sufferings and had them imprisoned without food until they starved to death (See Nyköpings gästabud). The earliest known charter dates from 1444, making it one of the now defunct Cities in Sweden. In the 16th century, Nyköping became the seat of Duke Charles, who later became Charles IX of Sweden. With the status of a Royal residential seat, Nyköping was at its peak of development. In 1665 large parts of the city including the fortress were damaged in a fire. The same thing happened again in 1719 when Russian troops invaded the city. It was then rebuilt with its current street plan. Nyköping was industrialized relatively early compared to the rest of Sweden. In the early 19th century, textile industry was established, and the population soon rose as Nyköping's industry grew. In 1879, C.A. Wedholms mejerikärlsfabrik was founded, starting to produce milk churns. Wedholms still has activity in Nyköping and is a milk cooling tank manufacturer. Nyköping was the town where Nordiska Kompaniet had its furniture factory. The business created a spin-off named ANA, which licence-built American and English cars, as Plymouth, De Soto, Hillman and Sunbeam. The company was later purchased by Saab Automobile and led to SAAB becoming the largest employer in the…

Geography

Nyköping lies about south-west of the capital Stockholm along the Baltic Sea. It is roughly north-east of Norrköping, both cities being accessible by highway-divided motorway. It is also about south of Eskilstuna; the largest settlement of the county. The northern areas of the city is on exactly the same parallel of 58° 46' N as Canadian "polar bear capital of the world" Churchill, demonstrating how warm the climate is in comparison in spite of its northerly latitude. The southern edge of the municipality also straddles the same parallel as the northernmost point of mainland Scotland at Thurso – that has a much more narrower range of temperature. The southern edge of the municipality is the southernmost point of Svealand, the middle of Sweden's traditional three crown lands that once formed the country. The city is located at a few miles more southerly latitude than the country's northernmost west coast town of Strömstad. The line of 17°E goes through Nyköping, thus the city is eight minutes ahead in solar time of the GMT +1 line that Sweden follows for its time zone. Nyköping is the exodus of a small river named Nyköpingsån (Nyköping River), which runs through the city centre, dividing the city into a natural eastern and western part. Due to the narrowness of the river, there are a full seven crossings available for automobile traffic, one of them being for the E4. For pedestrians and bikers, an additional seven bridges are available, and in addition to that there is also one bridge for train traffic. All automobile bridges except E4 also carry pedestrian sidewalks, which means transport is seldom made longer than the actual distance. There is also a small pedestrian bridge in an unpopulated nature reserve called Hållet that is very close to the E4 route. The…

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  17,992
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  14,750
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  13,822
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,974
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,682
• Great Spotted Woodpecker

  Dendrocopos major (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,048
• Eurasian Siskin

  Spinus spinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,980
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,964

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2005-05-12
  6 km E of Dalarö, Sweden