Södermanland County, Sweden — Towns & Travel Guide

Södermanland is known for its castles and water. The county wraps the southern shore of Lake Mälaren with grand estates, the cathedral town of Strängnäs, and the royal castle of Gripsholm at Mariefred, while the Baltic coast frays into a wide archipelago of skerries and bays. Eskilstuna grew on metalwork.

Kolmården holds a famous wildlife park. People know it for manor houses, lakes, and an easy reach from the capital.

Södermanland lies in eastern Sweden, a county of low hills, lakes, and forest set between the great Lake Mälaren in the north and the Baltic in the south-east. The land rolls in a soft patchwork of farm fields, woods, and water, dropping to a long and broken coast where the southern reaches of the Stockholm archipelago scatter into skerries, sounds, and quiet bays along the shore. Mälaren washes its northern edge.

Hjälmaren spreads in the west. The two great lakes frame the county, with the river at Eskilstuna linking them, and a network of smaller lakes and valleys filling the rolling country in between. The province sits just south-west of Stockholm, an easy reach from the capital by road and rail.

Its coast is wide and sheltered. Estates, manor parks, and old market towns dot the lakeshores and the inland valleys across the gentle land.

Södermanland is a land of manors and old churches. The fertile country around Lake Mälaren drew the crown and the nobility for centuries, and the result is one of the richest concentrations of castles, manor estates, and great parks in Sweden, set among medieval churches and rune stones. Strängnäs holds an old cathedral.

The past lies close to the surface here. The county also carries a strong craft and industrial tradition, above all at Eskilstuna, long known as a town of smiths and steel. Folk customs, lake fishing, and the rhythm of the farming year shape the country districts, while the coastal towns like Trosa keep their old wooden charm.

Gripsholm Castle guards a fine art collection. Manor gardens, archipelago life, and a calendar of summer fairs and festivals carry the culture forward across the gentle, water-laced province.

Södermanland is old farming and noble country. Rune stones and medieval churches mark a land settled deep in the Viking age, and the fertile shores of Lake Mälaren later drew the crown and the great noble families to build their castles and estates. The county was formed in the seventeenth century.

Eskilstuna rose as a town of smiths and ironwork, while Nyköping, with its riverside castle, served as a royal seat and the scene of a famous medieval banquet and betrayal. Manors, churches, and old towns carry that long story still.

Södermanland has a mild temperate climate for Sweden. Winters are cold but not severe, softened by the surrounding lakes and the nearness of the Baltic, with snow that comes and goes through the darker months rather than lying deep all season. Summers are warm and bright.

The lakeshores, the coast, and the archipelago draw people out to swim and sail through the long, light days of high summer across the gentle country. Spring and autumn are changeable, with rain off the Baltic.

Södermanland is easy to reach. Fast trains and main roads run south-west from Stockholm to Eskilstuna, Nyköping, and the lake towns through the day, and Stockholm Skavsta airport near Nyköping brings flights into the heart of the county. Stockholm's main airports lie just to the north too.

Trains stop at the lakeside towns. Good roads and the Baltic ferries reach the coast and the archipelago.