Alvastra Monastery ruin

Alvastra monastery was founded in 1143 by French monks who belonged to the powerful Cistercian order. From Clairvaux in France to Swedish Östergötland, the monks brought with them modern methods of administration, technology and construction.

During the Middle Ages, the area around Alvastra was an area that had great significance for the rise of the Swedish kingdom. Here lived the powerful Sverkerätten with Sverker the elder, known as the king of the Eastern Goths and later became the ruler of the Swedes. We don't know for sure, but there are many indications that it was thanks to the Sverkerätten that Alvastra monastery was built.

For nearly 400 years, Alvastra monastery flourished. But with the Reformation, the monastery was dissolved and the land ownership was transferred to the crown. Alvastra's property became Alvastra's royal estate. The material in the monastery buildings themselves came to interest various builders and was used, among other things, to build Vadstena Castle and for Per Brahe's buildings by Lake Vättern. Since 1898, the monastery ruins have been restored and conserved in several rounds.

Saint Birgitta in Alvastra Kloster

St. Bridget (1303-1373) is one of Europe's patron saints and one of the most interesting and significant figures of the Middle Ages. She is world-renowned for her apparitions, for the monastic order she founded and for her long pilgrimages. She set off for Spain, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Rome. But it was in Alvastra monastery outside Vadstena that she received many of her most famous revelations, and it was there that she felt called to be "Christ's bride and mouthpiece".