The Hospital in Skänninge

Heritage center

Just outside Skänninge on road 50, a large cross can be seen from the road. The cross marks the location where Skänninge hospital used to be. St. Catherine's hospital was the first medical institution in Östergötland and the first hospital in Sweden.

During the early medieval period, Skänninge was a significant town with two monasteries. Pilgrims and merchants traveled there and sometimes brought with them infectious diseases. At the hospital in Skänninge, leprosy patients, or those with leprosy, from western Östergötland and northern Småland were cared for.

By the end of the 1300s, when the worst leprosy epidemics had passed, the hospital began to lose its function. By the mid-1400s, the bishop seized the hospital's tax revenues. With the Reformation in the 1530s, the hospital completely ceased its operations.

The ruins of the hospital church are the only remnants visible above ground. The outer walls of the church, excavated in 1928, are made of grey stone. The church room was likely covered with four brick vaults supported in the middle by a pillar. The entrance was probably in the southwestern corner of the church. During the excavation in 1928, a crucifix in gilded copper dating back to the 13th century was found.

In 2010, an archaeological excavation was done in connection with the construction of Road 50. It turned out that the institution is probably a bit older than previously thought and was established sometime during the last decades of the 12th century. Other findings also suggest that there may have been an even older farm on the site that could date back to the Viking Age.

There is a road leading to the hospital ruins from Biskopsberga, north of Skänninge on Road 990 towards Varv. Parking is available near the ruins.