What to see and do in Motala? Motala likes to call itself the capital of the Göta Canal, and that description is not entirely wrong. Here you can see the Göta Canal's second largest lock staircase, cycle along the canal or hang out in the charming little guest harbour.
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Motala
When the Göta Canal was built, 1810-1832, many small communities grew up along the canal. In Motala, Baltzar von Platen set up a mechanical workshop, AB Motala Verkstad, in 1822, which meant that a mill town emerged. Today there are still industries here, while the town flourishes as a tourist destination in the summer.
Motala is located in Östergötland, on the Göta Canal and Motala Stream, between lakes Vättern and Boren.
What can you do in Motala?
So, what can you see and do in Motala? This gem is a very nice town with a lot to offer. Here are our top tips on what to see and do in Motala.
1. checking out the Borenshult locks
Borenshult's locks in Motala are the canal's second largest lock staircase (after Berg's locks) with five interconnected locks. The lock staircase is also the steepest in the canal, with a 15 metre difference in height between Lake Boren and the canal. When we arrived in town, we drove straight here, and we immediately started looking at the locks.
Among other things, we watched the passenger boat Kung Sverker lock up. With this boat you can make day cruises between Motala and Borensberg. Fascinating to watch the locks!
Right next to Borenshult's locks there is a caravan park. There are six sites with electricity, and a number of other sites without electricity. We hadn't been able to get electricity since we left Stockholm and were more or less desperate to charge all sorts of things (read: caravan battery, electric bikes, drones), so we grabbed one of the electric sites faster than we could. The price is 200 SEK/day and includes a toilet. We celebrated the access to electricity with soft ice cream!
2. Visit Motala Industrial Museum
While the electric bikes were charging, we took a walk to Gamla Motala Verkstadsområde, which is within walking distance of the locks. Here you meet a pretty cool industrial environment, from the time known as the "cradle of the Swedish engineering industry".
The museum is quite simple in its design, simply displaying different products produced by Motala Verkstad. At the same time, it is fascinating to see the incredible variety of objects: everything from trains and boats to torpedoes, workshop machines, stoves and cash registers. The visit was definitely worth the 50 SEK we thought.
3. Coffee at Café Mallboden
On the other side of the canal from the Industrial Museum is Café Mallboden. Several people have told us that this café has fantastic waffles. Since we just ate a soft ice cream, there were no waffles for us, but here is a photo of the café anyway. There is also a tiny (4 places), but nice parking space for motorhomes.
4. Walk or cycle along the Göta Canal
After charging the electric bikes, we went on a longer ride along the canal, towards the guest harbour and the city centre. It is fantastic to cycle here, and the water was really shiny.
6. Make a stop at the Von Platen's tomb
After a while we arrived at the grave of Baltzar von Platen. He chose this grave site himself, and his children are also buried here. At the grave, you can dial a phone number and get a 3 minute guided tour by phone. An easy way to get some history!
7. Hang out in Motala harbour
We cycled on to the guest harbour, which turned out to be really nice. Here are several small boats and bobbing at the piers and on the other side of the water you see a large caravan park, the caravan park at Södra strand.
The harbour also has several restaurants and cafés, and we took the opportunity to have a beer here. Meanwhile, you can take the opportunity to look at all the vintage cars spinning around.
8. See cars at the Motormuseum
The guest harbour also houses the Motala Motor Museum, with Sweden's largest collection of old cars. We first thought of looking in here, but then the sun finally looked out and beer and beach visits attracted more. We will visit the motor museum next time we come to Motala!
9. Sunbathing and swimming at Varamo beach
We cycled on to Vararamobaden beach, which is the largest inland beach in the Nordic countries. The beach is several kilometres long and shallow, with really fine-grained sand. A fantastic beach!
More to see in the neighbourhood
Motala municipality also includes Borensberg, with one of the Göta Canal's two hand-cranked locks and beautiful canalside environments. Just south of Motala you will also find Vadstena, which is both cosy and full of history, and to the south of it you will find Alvastra monastery ruins. It's also not too far to get to the beautiful neighbourhood of Askersund. Even more tips can be found below.
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More tips for things to do in Motala?
It was a nice visit to the capital of the Göta Canal! Have you been here? Do you have any more tips on what to see and do in Motala?
Facts about Motala
- Municipality: Motala municipality
- County: County of Östergötland
- Population: Approximately 43 000
- Attractions: Borenhult locks and Von Platen's grave.
- Activities: Industrial Museum, Motor Museum, Varamo Baths and more.
- Parking spaces: South beach car park, car park at Borenshult locks, car park at café Mallboden and car parks at Motala Vätterfiskeklubb.
- Camping: Varamobadens campsite and others.
- Read more: You can find more information on the city's official portal page.
facts about Borenshult locks in Motala, Sweden
- Baptismal name: The five locks of memory (probably the memory of Baltzar von Platen).
- Year of construction: 1823-1825
- Drop height: 15.3 metres
- Technical facts: A lock staircase with five linked locks. The lock gates are hydraulically operated and were electrified in 1969-1970.
History of Motala
- Past tense: The oldest archaeological finds are over 11,000 years old, dating from just after the retreat of the ice sheet from the area.
- 1288: King Magnus Ladulås bequeathed a farm in the area, with associated fishing, to the councillor and lawyer Knut Matsson in Närke.
- Middle Ages: There were three villages in the area. South of Strömmen was Motala Södra By, on the north side was Motala Norra By and to the west was Bispmotala, where the church was located. The other two villages had farms, mills and fishing.
16th to 18th century
- 1552: Gustav Vasa established a royal estate at Motala Södra By. The king's bailiff with riders and archers were housed here.
- 1567/1568: Kungsgården and neighbouring buildings were burned down by the Danes.
19th to 20th century
- 1810-1832: The Göta Canal was built, resulting in several small communities growing up along the canal.
- 1822: Baltzar von Platen established a mechanical workshop, AB Motala Verkstad, which led to the development of a mill town.
- 1823: The town became a free town, at the suggestion of Mr von Platen.
- 1830s: More than 500 people lived in the area around the workshop and 75 in the town centre.
- 1863: The town became a köping municipality.
- 1873: The town was expanded with the Mjölby-Hallsberg railway.
- 1881: The town was granted city rights.
- 1925: The company Radiotjänst was founded and two years later the Motala broadcasting station went into operation. Motala became the main station for Swedish broadcasting and the call sign "Stockholm-Motala" was used for radio transmissions.
Finding Motala
- Car: Motala is located between Lake Vättern and Lake Boren. Road 50 leads into the town from the north and south. If you come from Linköping, take road 34.
You might also like:
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Things to do in Norrköping - 16 attractions and experiences
Alvastra monastery ruins - and the Smoke Stone in Smoke
Things to do in Mariestad - 10 tips for the pearl of Lake Vänern
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Matts Torebring says:
Motala is really a nice summer town. In the dark season, however, it is rather dull. Countless are all visits over the years, at Södra Hamnens Ställplats. Since we never enter a service house nowadays, because we have large water tanks & electricity, we think the same here as in Borensberg, the price is too high for 40 m2 to just park on.
When I see all your nice pictures, I realise that we missed visiting several places. We will have to change that.
18 July 2020 - 8:07
Helena says:
I imagine it's a bit different in autumn or winter... Now we had great summer weather!
18 July 2020 - 10:08
Bara brittiskt says:
Love Varamon. I hope it doesn't change too much when Lalandia opens. At the Motor Museum they have used my father's picture of Erlander and Hyland in one of the TV sets. A fun museum with many celebrity cars.
18 July 2020 - 10:53
Christina says:
So fantastic fun to follow you on the götakanal journey. You really don't need a boat to experience the canal, it's just as good and maybe better with a camper van ??? ☀️ Thank you for all the wonderful photos, so many beautiful views. You are both good photographers, or who takes the most photos? ?
18 July 2020 - 8:21
Helena says:
Glad to hear that you enjoy following our journey Christina! And thank you! It is mostly me (Helena) who takes photos. Peter supplements with drone photos, photos of me (of course) and film. The films take a little longer to edit, so we will show them later. Then we will show them both on the blog and on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/freedomtravel
18 July 2020 - 10:11
Minett says:
Now I have learnt something new about the canal, again. I had no idea that you could make a phone call from Platen's grave and get a guided tour. I come from Motala and go there a couple of times a year. But I associate Platen's grave with the assembly point at the gymnasium in high school. We had to run a small loop around the canal. I have swum in the canal countless times.
It's fun to see pictures of what a tourist captures of the town of Motala, as I don't think of these places as tourist destinations.
18 July 2020 - 8:28
Helena says:
Nice that you come from Motala! And fun that we still managed to show something new 😉 Understand that it is a bit interesting to see your hometown from the tourist's perspective, it becomes something else. Also nice to hear about your experiences from Motala!
18 July 2020 - 10:13
bmlarsreseblogg says:
Motala is one of the towns we for some reason just passed by, a mistake we now realise. For Lars it is best remembered as the start and finish of his 10 Vättern tours!
Such lovely summer pictures!
18 July 2020 - 8:58
Helena says:
We thought it was really nice to make a stop in Motala! Then of course we were lucky with the weather, which always makes it extra nice 🙂.
18 July 2020 - 10:14
Ninnie says:
Haha, we were actually there yesterday!!! Had lunch at the waterfront, where we the motor museum, at 2pm on em. Nice to sit there right by the water and eat in the sun! (although the food was lousy...) But we did not see much more of Motala. Walked up to the square but it was pretty boring we thought, so we moved on. We were on our way home from hiking on Omberg, and stayed at Ombergs Turisthotell for one night. Then we took a trip to Vadstena and Motala before heading home. But Omberg was fantastic! We hiked almost 2 miles on the mountain - wonderful!
18 July 2020 - 9:51
Helena says:
Is it true? What fun! Then we were probably there the day before (is a day behind with the blog posts about ;)). It sounds like you got a wonderful hike at Omberg!!!
18 July 2020 - 10:16
TravelAnna says:
My childhood town! Lived here from when I was about two years old to eighteen! Varamon has been a lot over the years ... I even windsurfed when it happened. 🙂 Staffanstorp is a nice nature reserve very close to the city of Motala. A rich bird life, skating lakes, hiking trails and ski trails can be found here! Basically lived next door to it for most of my childhood.
18 July 2020 - 11:44
TravelAnna says:
Man* would be the word (not "but") 😉.
19 July 2020 - 6:49
TravelAnna says:
Please visit Staffanstorp if you return! 🙂
22 July 2020 - 18:19
Maria/ Magnolia Magis says:
What fun to see everything from above! Varamon is nice and the locks. Ice cream in the harbour is not wrong! ?
18 July 2020 - 13:54
Lena i Wales says:
Stockholm - Motala, they used to say on the radio... I'll say Wales - Motala instead.
Very interesting! Beautiful and historically interesting.
I did not realise that there was so much of interest in Motala, which I had not visited for about 40 years.
Have a nice weekend!
18 July 2020 - 18:21
Helena says:
I'm glad you enjoyed our report. Motala surprised us, nice!
19 July 2020 - 7:49
Anders l says:
Motala municipality has 43,000 inhabitants.1
Motala is a fantastic city.I grew up in Motala and returned to Motala after many years.I intend to stay here.
18 July 2020 - 20:32
Helena says:
Great that you are enjoying Motala Anders! And thanks for the update on the numbers! I now double-checked in several places and I see that what you write is correct. The numbers I found before were not really updated. Thank you again!
18 July 2020 - 20:47
Hasse says:
Sia glass is world class. Motala canal, or like Motala stream, there is something special about the stones, - you know what?
19 July 2020 - 0:59
Helena says:
No, we don't know... Tell us! 🙂
19 July 2020 - 7:50
Lena - gott för själen says:
The small town seems definitely worth visiting. Looks nice and cosy!
Hug Lena
20 July 2020 - 5:43
Ditte says:
Really a nice summer gem of a city. And to go out and explore the surroundings by bike is absolutely perfect. when we drove the canal with our own boat, we had bikes with us and there were many tours. When we took the canal boat, Diana, the focus was on other things.
I recognise much of what you see.
20 July 2020 - 11:03
Åke Svensson says:
The Borenshult lock of memories.
The memories referred to here are of major political events, mainly between 1806 and 1815.
1806 Baltzar von Platen's thesis on the Baltic Sea and West Sea connection. 1808 Russian invasion of Finland, Thomas Telford's inspection. 1809 Men and Government Reform. 1812 Peace of Örebro. 1813 Battle of Leipzig, victory over Denmark, conquest of Norway. 1814 Convention of Moss. 1815 Peace of Paris, sale of the Galapagos Islands.
23 August 2020 - 20:20