Linkoping - Vreta Kloster's Cloister

Vreta Cloister (Kloster) near Linkoping, at Berg

And the Church at the Monastery (Nunnery?)

Kings Inside

Vreta Cloister, outside Church, Berg, Linkoping, Sweden

The old arbors and orchards still bear blossoms, and fruit.

Cloister and Garden area, Vreta Kloster, Linkoping, Berg, Sweden

Apple tree, Vreta Kloster Garden, Linkoping, Berg, Sweden

Vreta is one of the oldest monasteries in Sweden, founded by King Inge I and Queen Helena in about 1100.  See ://christianization.hist.cam.ac.uk/regions/sweden/sweden-eccl-org.html

Raised garden walls, ancient tree, Vreta Kloster, Linkoping, Berg, Sweden

Oldest fruit tree, Vreta Kloster

That is the church guide getting a nice sour apple from one of the trees believed to be from Reformation time, would you believe, centuries old and still bearing. One stalwart branch out there. Tasty, but pucker sour.

Model, Vreta Kloster before the Reformation, farm, church, community 

The Church at Vreta Kloster was obviously remodeled at some point.  See the difference in the square steeple on the model, and the newer steeple at top.

Contemplative and herb garden, Vreta Kloster

Medieval sub-ground baptismal area pool, Vreta Kloster (protected by glass enclosure)

This below-ground level areas is a Baptisterium.  Many carvings in Scandinavia and Northern Germanyshow persons being baptized in the nude. Perhaps the low level of the pool offered some privacy, although the representatons are not of persons descending steps. Germany Road Ways, Altarpiece, Church at Enger, Baptism

Baptisterium, Stone steps descending, baptismal pool, Medieval Vreta Kloster

Medieval Baptisterium

Preserved submersion pool, Baptisterium, Vreta Kloster (Baptismal).  Medieval

Medieval baptism pools, below ground, are often undiscovered.

Graveyard, countryside view, Vreta Kloster

Graffiti has also been found on/in buildings at Vreta, now in museums, see ://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2007/05/medieval_monastic_graffitti_1.php

Linkoping. Berg: Burials at Vreta Kloster, Vreta Abbey

Accounts of rulers before the area was converted to Christianity vary. One geneological recreation from the 16th Century put Swedish kings back to Magog son of Jephtha in Old Testament times, see ://wapedia.mobi/en/Monarch_of_Sweden/.  Records improve after the Church arrived, but remain in the dark about pre-Christian rulers, House of Yngling, or House of Munso, or House of Uppsala.  Most that are documented begin with the Kalmar Union 1397-1523.  Rulers are not collected in one place for burial. Two for the older ones seem to be most prominent:  Varnhem Abbey (a ruin of the first structure; and a later cloister) that we did not see; and, here, Vreta Abbey, Vreta Kloster.

Varnhem Klosterkyrch, Cloister Church:  Kings Eric (two of them) and Canute are buried there.

Vreta Kloster Kyrch, Burials of Medieval Royalty, Sweden

Vreta Klosterkyrch, Cloister Church.  Kings Inge the Elder and Inge the Younger are our interest, with speculative surname roots including the -ing floating about (none demonstrable, but all entertaining).

Inge the Elder founded Vreta Abbey sometime between 1099 when the Pope who ordered it began his reign,  and 1105 when King Inge the Elder died.  He and his Queen Helena, and their sons Princes Ragnvald and Sune; and Inge the Younger and his Queen Uhlvild are buried there, so we were told, so we went. Then we found that Inge the Elder is supposed to be at Varnhem, see ://wapedia.mobi/en/Monarch_of_Sweden. Dark inside, hard to tell and we didn't know the issue. This, then, must be Inge the Younger. Have to find our notes.

Burial, King Inge the Younger (sadly, in the dark), Vreta Kloster, Sweden

This is an attempt in the dark to get the inscription.  See the full image by someone else at ://wapedia.mobi/en/File:IngiYoungerSwedenGrave.jpg/  We tracked the cracks and words and compared.  Match! Discount!

Any country's accounts of successions of rulers when based largely on oral tradition or conflicting agendas:  what is legend, what is truth.  Read about King Inge the Elder and King Inge the Younger, and find that one may be the nephew of the other, see The History of Sweden by Anders Fryxell, from 1844 (!) at page 179 before and after, at ://books.google.com/books?id=6B4CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=King+Inge+the+Younger+history+sweden&source=bl&ots=t64vHslLvP&sig=199mBuRmbUUdxXLJ5_0hQy6uCfI&hl=en&ei=6dkUTerYNsP48AbRyJipDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Burial, King Inge the Younger, closeup, light shed, Vreta Kloster, Berg, Sweden

Other notables royal and not are there also: Philip of Sweden and Magnus the Younger.  Famous nuns and abbesses: Helena of Sweden, widow of King Canute V (Denmark). And stories of young girls being abducted from there, as power families came and went. Is Helena of Sweden buried with Canute at Varnhem?

Click to enlarge. 

Burial, King Magnus Nilsson, Vreta Kloster Kyrch, Berg (Linkoping) Sweden

Swedish Monarch Lineage, House of Stenkill (Kings Inge Elder and Younger, King Magnus notably)

King Magnus Nilsson, burial description, site at Vreta Cloister Church, Sweden

Burial, Prince Sune, son of King Inge the Elder

Inscription detail, Prince Sune, sone of King Inge the Elder, or other relation? Accounts are inconsistent

Burial, Prince Regnvald, son of King Inge the Elder, Vreta Kloster, Sweden

Prince Regnvald, son of King Inge the Elder, coat of arms closeup, Vreta Kloster, Sweden

Click to enlarge and enjoy the sprightly figures dancing at the top.  Is this a list of notables from the Family Munchenberg?  Munchenberg sounds German. Munchkins?

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Unknown burial, Vreta Kloster, Sweden.  Note the skull and crossbones

Burial, Arvid Borenius, Vicar,  and wife, Vreta Kloswster, Sweden

Linkoping, Vreta Kloster, Berg. Sancta Maria de Vretis.

First, get there.

The Vreta Kloster, Abbey at Linkoping where the old kings are buried, is really in Berg. King Inge, who (according to an undated letter in 1100, the year he also died) founded the monastery with Queen Helena, see ://www.vretaklosterforening.se/Jub/En/historia.html/  With the Reformation in 1527, the Abbey was isolated, and ceased to be a Catholic place when the last nuns died by 1582. Old buildings went to ruin, but were unearthed in the early 20th Century, followed by restorations in 2002-2007.

Try to find the burial place of kings, in pre-Christian polytheist era, and the guidebooks will point you to Linkoping.  Get to Linkoping and where is it?  It is not here. Go to a nice air military and cultural museum instead, mostly WWII, enjoy, and try again for the old kings.

Get lost and follow a sudden bus route toward Linkoping proper again, and find Vreta Kloster instead in the town of Berg. This is one of the oldest monastery sites:  Benedictine, and then Cistercian, or the other way around; dating from 1100 AD.  Guidebook people:  include a short GPS address with your sites. Every hour counts in the later afternoon. If all is locked up, because the official summer season hours expired yesterday, knock at the rectory.

Then, enjoy.  Enjoy the official caretaker, from his house. He was at home when we knocked, and really seemed pleased to show us and unlock the whole thing. Thank you, thank you. Do remember to compensate. I hope we did enough.

Vreta Kloster, Vreta Abbey Church, Berg, Sweden. Exterior

This is preserved as it was some 900 years ago. We are always surprised at the size of medieval buildings, and these were renovated, but still -- all the nooks and crannies.  Grow like Topsy. Inside, see the uses of the connected nooks. Burials, including the Family Douglas, see below. It pays to lend your aid to other people's wars. See http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Sweden/Oestergoetlands_Laen/Vreta_Kloster-166898/TravelGuide-Vreta_Kloster.html/

There are royal family details still here: a son of a king with behavioral problems, could worship in his own pew. Checking our notes to see which monarch's son was here, out of the way, under the steps at the front, to the side.

Side-lined special pew, Vreta Kloster, for son of monarch, and who had rage disability, or perhaps epilepsy, so he could atttend services.

What is the funnel, on top right back, of this old chest? Was this a "poor box" with a place for coins?

Poor box, perhaps, Vreta Kloster, Berg, near Linkoping, Sweden

Very old wood carving, looks like madonna and child, probably, Vreta Kloster, Berg. The more primitive the carving, the more moving. Is that so?  Who stole the religion of Everyman and made it for the exclusionist fancies instead?

Madonna and Child, Sancta Maria de Vretis perhaps, Carving, Vreta Kloster, Berg, Sweden. May be 11th-12th Centuries

Another carving, Vreta Kloster.

Saint, perhaps Apostle, Carving, Vreta Abbey, Vreta Kloster, Sweden

The paint is still bright on this very old carving of a saint, perhaps an apostle in the Vreta Church.

Whose coat of arms is this?  Need to zoom and research.  To the bottom, the old chandelier.  To the right, the new silver.  Prefer the old. 

Frescoes, walls, Vreta Kloster

Always aim for choir stalls.  There, the people had to rest their bottoms during the long services.  Bum-proppers here as well. Flip them up, as though you are standing at attention, but you are really relaxing back.  Ahhhh.

Choir stall bum-proppers, Vreta Kloster, Berg, Sweden

Now to the burial areas:

Vaults octagonal, ironwork, copper coffins, marble urns. The 1663 burial place of the Douglas Family.  A recently deceased member of the Douglas family, Countess Margareta C.H. Douglas, who died in the United States, will be interred here. See ://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyprogress/obituary.aspx?n=margareta-douglas&pid=142179776/ Still trying to find out how a "Douglas" came to Sweden. Long ago, apparently. Here it is:  Wikipedia says he Count of Skenninge, was a Scots, and a field marshal in the Swedish Army during the 30 Years' War, and Swedish-Polish wars. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Douglas,_Count_of_Skenninge/  He had been elevated to Baron, and Lord of the Horse. What? For the British view of that, see ://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/OfficialRoyalposts/MasteroftheHorse.aspx/

Vreta Abbey, Vreta Kloster, Berg, Sweden. Burial chapel for the Douglas Family

Family crests, Burial vaults for Douglas still? 

This appears to be part of the Douglas Family vault, and there are references elsewhere to the many crests located there.  What is striking:  how effective painted wood carvings are.  More so than plain stone we saw in more southern areas.  Breathtaking, and we don't say that lightly.  And unfaded.

Wood-carved family crest, painted; Vreta Kloster, near Linkoping, Sweden

There is nothing "folk" about wood carving in Sweden. Still looking up whose crest this is.

We always like doors.  Here, broad and squat. But look at the reinforcement at top and bottom for the slats, the iron bolts securing other-side reinforcements, and the huge lock. Then, the very plain surface otherwise.

Bolted door, Vreta Monastery, near Linkoping, Sweden (Vreta Kloster)

Then there is more of the kind of simplicity seen in the door. Here, a simple chapel, and a baptismal font. One huge stone, decorated, on a pedestal. 

This would have been used later, as we understand that baptisms at the early times occurred outside, in outside immersion areas.  Is that so?

Baptismal font, Vreta Kloster, Linkoping (Berg) Sweden

With the most medieval parts off to the side, as burials (see Kings, another post) the main sanctuary has been restored to its more renaissance style.  We like the more primitive.

Pulpit, 1600's, and view, Vreta Kloster, Berg, Sweden (Linkoping)