Norrköpings Stadsmuseum

Norrköpings Stadsmuseum is operated by the municipality of Norrköping and is located in a former factory within the historical industrial landscape on the river Motala Ström. Flanked by various temporary exhibitions, five detailed permanent exhibitions in Norrköping's city museum present the different stages of the cultural and historical development of the city and its surroundings.

Permanent exhibitions in Norrköpings Stadsmuseum

The permanent exhibition takes the visitor back to the early history of Norrköping. It tells about the important Iron Age trading place Herrebro and the importance of the Hällristningar in Himmelstalund, which is one of the most significant rock carvings in Europe. The Bronze Age way of life is told on the basis of a model and the remains found during the excavation of a Bronze Age village consisting of about 40 buildings. A 7,000-year-old skeleton of a seal found during construction work, which still contains the harpoon of a Stone Age hunter, provides evidence that the sea at that time still reached up to the present urban area.

Four lifelike and historically dressed wax figures represent the period of the city's history from the Viking Age to the Swedish Great Power era. The first is the wealthy Viking woman Torfrid, who had a rune stone set for one of her sons in the 10th century, followed by Mayor Gudbjörn, who witnessed the granting of city rights in the early 14th century. Then Duke Johan, who built Johannisborg Castle at the beginning of the 17th century and finally Adrianne de Geer, wife of the busy factory owner Louis de Geer, who led Norrköping to its first industrial heyday in the 17th century.

Another exhibition presents over 30 different historical handicraft trades and at the same time the largest collection of historical tools in Sweden. It is laid out like a small street, where workshops and shops are lined up with tools and typical products. Through shop windows you can see the workshops of farriers, wagon-makers, coopers, tailors, shoemakers, confectioners and hatters, to name just a few.

Next to it is a fully furnished colonial goods shop from the turn of the century. The shelves filled with goods in historical packaging, metal billboards on the walls and heavy counters with countless drawers realistically imitate the shopping experience of earlier times in a mixture of smells of freshly ground coffee, spices and soap.

Norrköpings Stadsmuseum also has a machine room with historical and mostly working spinning and weaving machines. The exhibition recalls the heyday of the textile industry in Norrköping from the 19th century to the 1960s, when around 70 percent of all Swedish textile products were produced there and earned the city the nickname "Sweden's Manchester". The exhibition also shows the difficult living and working conditions of the mainly female workers in the old textile factories.

More information about the city museum of Norrköping

The city museum also has a well-stocked museum shop. In addition to decorative items and typical souvenirs and travel souvenirs, the range includes various textile products such as towels and tablecloths, which are produced exclusively for the museum. In addition, there are various jewellery items, some of which are based on motifs from the historical rock carvings, various products of local craftsmen and lots of books on design, regional archaeology and cultural history.

The museum extends over several floors, which can be reached by stairs as well as by elevators. Smaller differences in height are equipped with fixed ramps for wheelchairs. Wheelchair accessible toilets are available. Disabled parking spaces are available in the entrance area. Visiting the museum is free of charge all year round. With the exception of assistance dogs, pets are not allowed in the museum.