Norrköping

The oldest direction for the medieval Royal Route was not via Norrköping, but outside the town over the Eneby Ridge to the royal demesne in Borg. After about the year 1250, the military road from the province of Södermanland to the central part of Östergötland became the official main road. It crossed the Motala Ström river in Norrköping, where the present Gamlabro bridge is situated.

Norrköping was a watermill village at that time, and a market place, and it gained in importance from the late Middle Ages, to reach its highest point in the 19th century in the textile industry era, when it was the second largest city in Sweden. In the 11th century the market moved from Herrebro in the parish of Borg into the town, to today´s “Old Market Place”(Gamla torget).
There are different theories concerning the implications of the prefix “Norr-” (North-) in Norrköping. It probably refers to Tingstad (the hundred court site between the two towns), which makes Norrköping the market north of Tingstad and Söderköping the market south (söder=south) of Tingstad. The kings had to visit the most important hundred courts (ting) on their Royal Route, but we do not know which courts were considered most important.

When the Royal Route had passed through central Norrköping, it proceeded past the modern sports field, which is situated on a pre-Christian cult site, near the Gallows Hill, the stone circle, and the Bronze Age rock-carvings in the southwestern part of the city. The vast Bronze Age rock-carving site at Himmelstalund was an island when the carvings were made.

The route from Norrköping to Linköping followed the track to Söderköping or via Kullerstad to Sand, towards the early hundred court site at Skattna, and then via Ullevi and Kimstad to Norsholm. After that the main road continued north of the present E4 motorway, to the ford/bridge over Stångån at Nykvarn.