Boxholm between Lake Sommen, nature reserves and cultural heritage

Boxholm offers a varied landscape for visitors: Lake Sommen’s glittering, legendary inland archipelago landscape meets vast forests, marshes, species-rich rocky meadows and pastures, as well as lakes and waterways for fishing or swimming.

Nature and waterways

Lillån Nature Reserve is located in Boxholm Municipality and serves to protect and enhance particularly valuable aquatic habitats. It has very high natural value and includes valuable and rare terrestrial and aquatic biotopes, as well as several species worthy of protection. These include trout, freshwater pearl mussels, freshwater pearl mussels and otters.

Idebo Nature Reserve provides a habitat for woodpeckers, insects, mosses, lichens and fungi. At the Idebo steamboat landing, there is a car park for five cars and a picnic table. In summer, the steamboat S/S Boxholm II provides a connection to the Idebo steamboat landing and back.

From Björkbacken, a forest path in Idebo Nature Reserve leads on foot towards Bockudden. There is a deep crevice in the rock, surrounded by heights rising up to 80 metres above Lake Sommen. Boxholm’s nature guide presents 50 of the municipality’s finest natural areas with texts, photographs, maps and trail descriptions.

Trails and waterways

In Göstrings urskog Nature Reserve, a two-kilometre marked circular hiking trail leads through the area from the car park. The car park also provides access to a small, equipped barbecue area by Lake Trehörningen. The Östgötaleden trail runs directly through the nature reserve.

The 23.4-kilometre section Boxholm–Blåvik of the Östgötaleden is easy and offers opportunities for swimming along the route. On the Strålsnäs–Bleckenstad section, there is a shelter with a fire pit at Uvberget after approximately four kilometres; Svartån offers a scenic place to rest.

From the Boxholm–Trehörna section of the Östgötaleden, a 650-metre detour leads to the remains of the medieval castle of Mosseboborg. The municipality offers opportunities for paddling on nature-oriented canoe routes and cycling around Lake Sommen. Its maps also show opportunities for paddling on the waterways of Svartån, as well as the Kinda Canal and Stångån.

Culture and history

The Boxholm Industrial Museum is housed in an old mill building from 1777, the oldest building in Boxholm. It conveys the history and development of Boxholm through numerous objects from the ironworks era, films and guided tours.

The cultural heritage of Boxholm Municipality includes more than 800 known archaeological sites with traces from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages dating from around 10,000 BC to 1050 AD, as well as from later periods with links to forestry, ironworks communities and croft settlements. The sites show how people used the landscape, where they lived and how they exploited natural resources.

Churches

The Boxholm pastoral district offers virtual tours and guided tours of its churches, as well as information about their history. Ekeby Church dates from the Middle Ages, possibly the 13th century; its original fieldstone walls of the nave are integrated into the present nave.

Åsbo Church has cross vaults with band and plant motifs in the nave and chancel. The altarpiece in Rinna Church, depicting the Ascension, was painted by Pehr Hörberg.

Malexander Church and cemetery are situated on elevated ground by the shore of Lake Sommen. Rinna Church and cemetery lie between Lake Rinnasjön and the open plain of Rinnaslätten. Blåvik Church and cemetery offer views of the waters of Lake Sommen.

Ekeby Church contains a Romanesque sandstone font from the Arcadius group and a 14th-century triumphal cross.

Getting around

In Bleckenstad, on Road 32, there is a bus connection to Mjölby and Boxholm.

To the overarching travel overview: Östergötland.

More destinations

More places within the same destination:

Ydre, Norrköping, Sanktanna, Ödeshög, Vadstena, Mjölby.