Linköping

Linköping may take its name from the Lionga thing, the assembly that medieval law made the most important in Östergötland; the ending "-köping" means a market town. Its importance came from the church. A diocese existed here by about 1082, second only to Skara in the Sweden of the day, and a stone basilica stood on the cathedral site by around 1120. The great Gothic cathedral grew around it over the following centuries, King Valdemar was crowned there in 1251, and a cathedral school can be traced from 1266. Its successor, Katedralskolan, founded in 1627, is the third-oldest gymnasium in Sweden.

The town's most dramatic moment came at the end of the 16th century. In September 1598 Duke Charles defeated his nephew, the Catholic King Sigismund, at the battle of Stångebro, by the town's main bridge. On 20 March 1600, five nobles who had sided with Sigismund or opposed Charles were beheaded on the main square, the Linköping Bloodbath, and a parliament meeting in the town that year effectively made Charles king.

For three centuries afterwards Linköping remained a small cathedral and county town. That changed in 1937, when the Saab aircraft company was formed and the city began a period of rapid growth. Linköping University was established in the 1960s, and the area around the main square was replanned in the same decade, with many old houses destroyed and some moved to Gamla Linköping. In 2022 archaeologists found a rare Viking grave in the city that appears to mark the shift from paganism to Christianity.

Linköping's identity rests on three things: the cathedral, the aircraft and the students. The 107-metre tower of the Domkyrkan rises over the low centre, and the cathedral, the castle and the old school buildings on the hill still form the town's ceremonial heart. Saab gave the city the nickname "the flight city", and the Malmen airbase just outside it is home to the air force's flying school. Linköping University, founded in 1969, fills the city with young people, and Sweden's first website was started by students here in 1993.

The cultural calendar includes the Linköping Symphony Orchestra, the Östergötland Music Days in summer, a student orchestra festival in May every other year and the Linköping University Male Voice Choir. NärCon, held twice a year, is the largest gaming and anime convention in Scandinavia, and the theatrical heavy metal band Ghost comes from the city. Gamla Linköping is both a museum and a living neighbourhood, where people in period clothes work in the old buildings.

Sport is followed closely. Linköping HC plays ice hockey at the Saab Arena, Linköpings FC women's football team has won the Swedish Cup, and Linköping Innebandy is the world's largest floorball club. The city also hosted the World Orienteering Championships in 1968 and has long ties to speedway. Norrköping, its neighbour on the plain, lies roughly 40 km to the east.

Around 167,000 people lived in Linköping Municipality as of 2023, and just under 120,000 in the built-up area, Sweden's eighth-largest. The share of residents with a foreign background rose from about 11 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent in 2019, with the largest groups from Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Saab is one of the biggest employers, building the Gripen fighter, and the city has a strong information technology sector, with headquarters of firms such as IFS, Sectra and Cambio Healthcare Systems. The university and its hospital are also based in the city. The military airfield just outside the city has kept buildings low, which gives the centre its small-town feel.

Daily rhythms follow the university year. Students cycle between Ryd, Valla and the centre, and the city has been recognised for its cycling. Shopping is split between the central malls and the large retail area at Tornby to the north. The city set itself the goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2025, and in 2019 it began testing self-driving buses on a short route around the campus.

Linköping's food is everyday Swedish rather than a cuisine of its own. Husmanskost, traditional Swedish home cooking, is built on local ingredients such as pork, fish, potatoes, root vegetables, cabbage and berries, and includes pea soup, rotmos med fläsk (mashed root vegetables with pork), salmon in many forms and herring, most often pickled. Meatballs come with brown cream sauce and tart lingonberry jam, and lingonberry jam is the classic way to freshen heavy meat dishes.

Lunch is the main meal out for many people. Restaurants across the city offer a set lunch on weekdays, and many also serve a limited Saturday shopping lunch, a cheaper way to try a place than dinner. The city's restaurants also reflect its mixed population, with Thai, Indian and other Asian kitchens around the centre and near the station.

Fika, the coffee break with a pastry, is an institution, and Swedish bakeries make a wide range of buns, cakes and biscuits to go with it. The cafés around Stora torget and in the central streets serve it, as do old-fashioned konditori. In Gamla Linköping a chocolate shop sells locally made chocolate and sweets, and in summer queues form at a small ice-cream bar in the centre.