The southeast

The town’s first defensive fort was built after a band of German merchants settled here in the thirteenth century, attracted by rich iron ore deposits. It was enlarged in the fourteenth century by King Magnus Eriksson, who lived here; Gustav Vasa’s son Karl IX added fortifications and then, following in the footsteps of Vasa’s other sons, turned it into a splendid Renaissance castle, raising all the walls to the height of the medieval towers and plastering them in cream-coloured stucco. When the Danes were no longer a threat, the town lost its importance, and Örebro Castle fell into disuse and subsequently became a storehouse and a jail. In the old prison on the fourth floor, you can see words scratched into the walls by Russian prisoners of war. Another room was used to hold suspected witches and was well furnished by King Karl as a torture chamber; at the time, fear of witchcraft was reaching fever pitch, and over four hundred women lost their heads here having survived attempts to drown them in the nearby river. Naturally, the castle is said to be riddled with ghosts, ranging from that of King Magnus Eriksson’s wife Blanche (also known as Blanka in Swedish and said to be in torment for having murdered her son) to Engelbrekt, who had his head lopped off two years after he stormed the castle in 1434 and led a riot on behalf of farmers oppressed by harsh taxes.

The fairytale exterior you see today is the result of renovation in the 1890s. Influenced by contemporary National Romanticism, the architects carefully restored the castle to reflect both medieval and Renaissance grandeur. The same cannot be said for the interior, where the valiant guides face a real challenge: there’s no original furniture left, and many of the rooms are used for conferences, hence the emphasis on the building being a “living castle”. Among the few features of interest are some fine doors and floors, dating from as recently as the 1920s, the inlays depicting historical events at Örebro; and, in the main state room, a large family portrait of Karl XI and his family, their eyes all popping out as a result of using arsenic to whiten their faces.

Just a few hundred metres south of the castle, St Nicolai kyrka, at the top of the very oblong Stortorget, dates from 1260. Extensive restoration in the 1860s robbed it of most of its medieval character, though recent renovations have tried to undo the damage. It was here in 1810 that the relatively unknown figure of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, Napoleon’s marshal, was elected successor to the Swedish throne. The descendants of the new King Karl Johan, who never spoke a word of Swedish, are the current royal family. Engelbrekt was also supposed to be buried here after his execution, but when his coffin was exhumed in the eighteenth century, it was empty, and his bones have never been recovered.

Immediately behind the castle, the Konsthall has a surprisingly spacious series of galleries, located in a former bank, exhibiting temporary collections of contemporary international art, spread over the ground floor and in the basement in the old vaults.

From the Konsthall, it’s a pleasant stroll east along the waterside Olaigatan, crossing the Svartån River over Hamnbron bridge, to continue east along Kanalvägen to Örebro’s stunning Stadspark, one of the most beautiful town parks in the country. Sunbathing locals flock here to picnic amid the park’s most exceptional feature – the colour-coded border walks, each section bursting with a rainbow of flowers separated by tone.

Norrköping’s north–south central artery, Drottninggatan runs ruler-straight from the train station and crosses Motala ström, the small, rushing river that attracted the Dutch industrialist Louis De Geer (1587–1652) to the town in the early seventeenth century. He was known as the father of Swedish industry, and his paper mill, which still operates today, became the biggest factory in town. Many of Norrköping’s buildings, and the trams, are painted in De Geer’s colour of choice – a tortilla-chip yellow – which has become synonymous with the town.

Just a few steps down from the station, compact Carl Johans Park has 25,000 cacti, formally arranged in thematic patterns and interspersed with brilliantly coloured flowers and palm trees. Glance to the right from here (with the Resecentrum behind you) across Slottsgatan, and you’ll see the splendid 1906 city theatre, with its Art Nouveau curves and double Ionic columns. Over the river, follow the tram lines up cobbled Drottninggatan and turn right into Repslagaregatan for Gamlatorget, overlooked by a charismatic Carl Milles sculpture of Louis De Geer with a bale of cloth slung over his shoulder.

To the west of Gamlatorget lies the modern and stylish riverside DeGeerhallen, a concert hall surrounded by trees and providing a lovely setting for the café, Kråkholmen. It’s worth stepping inside for a moment, as the concert hall’s apparent modernity belies the fact that this was once one of De Geer’s paper factories, though little remains now of its former incarnation.

Tropicarium

The adjacent Tropicarium contains Sweden’s largest collection of tropical plants and animals, spread out over two square kilometres. The interior really is extremely realistic, even featuring a mock-up of an alligator swamp which receives rain and thunderstorms every hour. The most popular attraction is the shark aquarium, with three different species of shark and hundreds of other tropical fish.