Nyköping

Nyköping, a seaport of Sweden, situated on a bay of the Baltic, 62 miles SW. of Stockholm (100 miles by rail), manufactures machinery and cotton. The castle, now ruined, ranked in point of strength next to those of Stockholm and Calmar. King Waldemar was imprisoned here after his dethronement in 1288, till his death in 1302. Eric and Waldemar, brothers of King Birger, were left in 1317 to perish of hunger in a dungeon, the keys of which the king threw into the sea. In horror of this deed the people seized the castle and demolished it. In 1719 the town was taken and dismantled by the Russians. Pop. (1890) 5978.