It’s perhaps hard to imagine when you look at present days Strängnäs, but in early medieval times the city was Sweden’s most significant communication hub.
At that time Lake Mälaren was the country’s most important route for east/west travel. And Strängnäs, right at the middle of the route, was an ideal spot for an overnight stop. In addition, right here the islands of Aspö and Tosterö provided the most time-saving way to cross the lake south to north and vice versa.
In other words, Strängnäs was literally overlooking the junction of the two most important routes in the country. Hardly surprising, then, that this location was considered ideal for a major church building.
The first church on this site was built of wood. We don’t know exactly where it was built, nor exactly when, but we can be sure that it existed in 1120, as it’s mentioned in a letter from that year.
We can also assume that the old church was a significant building, as it was here that eight-year-old Erik Eriksson was crowned king in 1224. He would later become known as Erik den läspe och halte (Erik the Lisping and Lame) – one of the most important of the early kings of Sweden.
Perhaps not surprisingly, nothing of the old wooden church has survived. However, very likely it was situated somewhere close to where the succeeding stone church started to be built in 1270. Some seventy years later, that building looked pretty much like the model you see in the glass stand in front of you. Since then, the current cathedral has gradually been built around the old one.
If you’d been where you are now 800 years ago, you’d be in one of the corners of the old church. But in imagining that, please ignore the baptismal chapel to the left, and the cathedral library at the top of the stairs, both of which were built much later, in the 15th century.