Söderköping

Söderköping is a locality and the seat of Söderköping Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 6,992 inhabitants in 2010. Söderköping is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a town. Statistics Sweden, however, only counts localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants as towns. Söderköping is about 15 km southeast of the city of Norrköping.

== History == thumb|left|The St. Lawrence's Church, Söderköping|Church of St. Lawrence is one of two remaining medieval churches in Söderköping, and was the venue for two royal coronations during the [[Middle Ages.]] Sigismund III Vasa became king of both Sweden and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in a personal union upon his election to the Swedish throne in 1592 amidst much controversy and religious strife. The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation were in full swing and at odds everywhere in Europe in the day. Subsequently, in 1593, he signed an agreement to guarantee religious freedom to the Protestant majority of Sweden and to pacify the Protestant concerns overall by all sects and the religion-generated unrest in the country settled down for a time once the agreement was in place, but it came to rise refreshed and stronger in 1594 because of Sigismund's actions.