Theater people stand around with spears and swords

The Nyköping banquet

The great event of the Middle Ages in Nyköping was the banquet held here in 1317.

The great banquet was held here in 1317, when King Birger had his brothers Erik and Valdemar imprisoned after a power struggle that had lasted for years. Tradition has it that the king threw the key to the dungeon into the river, where a boy fished it out by chance in the late 19 th century – that is, if it is the same key.

Today, one of Sweden’s biggest summer dramatic performances take place at
the castle every summer in July, in memory of this event.

The key is today a symbol for Nyköping and can be bought as a souvernier.