About Norrköping

Right in the city centre, Motala ström rushes past waterfalls, bridges and the grand old mill buildings that once made Norrköping known as Sweden’s Manchester. Visit Norrköping ranks the area alongside Visby’s medieval town wall and Stockholm’s Gamla Stan as a document of its time. Today the former factories house museums, a concert hall, a university campus and companies, which makes it the perfect place to see how industrial heritage meets new technology.

Central Norrköping, along Motala ström

Free to explore all year round

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Two museums side by side in the heart of the Industrial Landscape, and a third a short walk away. Arbetets museum, the Museum of Work, is housed in the iconic Strykjärnet building from 1917 and collects stories from working life and everyday life rather than objects. Norrköpings stadsmuseum, in former textile factories by the river, takes you from prehistory to the era when the city was known as Sweden’s Manchester, and you can still hear the weaving machines. The City Museum was named Museum of the Year in 2021. At the top of Drottninggatan, Norrköpings konstmuseum holds one of Sweden’s finest collections of modernism and contemporary art, with works by Isaac Grünewald and Sigrid Hjertén, international prints by Dürer and Rembrandt, and a sculpture park next door.

Laxholmen, Holmbrogränden 2 and Kristinaplatsen 6, Norrköping

Arbetets museum City Museum Art Museum

Linköping University’s Campus Norrköping is built into the old textile mills along Motala ström, in the middle of the Industrial Landscape. Students and researchers in fields such as media technology, visualization and organic electronics now work in buildings where cloth was once woven. Together with Norrköping Science Park and Visualiseringscenter C, the campus shows how the city has turned its industrial past into a hub for research and innovation.

Along Motala ström, central Norrköping

Part of Linköping University

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Often called the heart of Norrköping, Knäppingsborg is a historic quarter between the pedestrian street and Strömmen. Its buildings date back to the 1700s and once housed a mill and a snuff factory. Today you will find small speciality shops, delis, cafés, restaurants and bars around three squares, each with its own character. Legend has it that the name comes from a Viking fortress built here by the Dane Knäppe.

Skolgatan 1B, Norrköping

Shops, cafés, restaurants and bars

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Norrköping has more rock carvings within its city limits than any other city in the world, with over 7,000 carvings spread across several sites along Motala ström. The largest is Himmelstalund, with more than 1,700 carvings, one of Scandinavia’s largest concentrated rock carving sites. The carvings date from the Bronze Age and show ships, people and animals, among other motifs.

Himmelstalund, western Norrköping

More than 1,700 carvings at one site

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Visualiseringscenter C is a digital science centre with interactive exhibitions, a dome, a restaurant and a shop. The highlight is the dome, where you lean back in reclining seats and watch films and interactive 3D shows on a curved screen that covers almost your whole field of view, with 360° image and sound. The centre is a collaboration between Linköping University, the City of Norrköping, Norrköping Science Park and RISE.

Kungsgatan 54, Norrköping

Free admission to all exhibitions

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