The Dominicans and Gustav Vasa

It was here that the city's history began, on Munkholmen where a Dominican monastery stood. The Dominicans are considered one of the leading forces behind the development of Västerås during the Middle Ages. The monastery was also the center for important events in the entire region, where even state-level meetings were held on occasion. The monastery was demolished in connection with the Reformation in the 16th century, but the remains of the foundation walls still exist. Vasaparken was originally a king's garden that Gustav Vasa decided to establish in 1541 to make the city greener. In the castle garden east of the castle, vegetables, barley, and tobacco were to be grown. The park was opened to the public already in the 17th century and was then used for activities such as bowling and other games. In the 1860s, it began to be used as a bourgeois promenade park.

Through a royal decree from 1863, the garden was leased to Västerås city for all eternity. In connection with this, the park was renovated and took on the character of an English park. A statue of Gustav Vasa was erected in the center of the park and simultaneously, the park changed its name from King's Garden to Vasaparken. The statue was the city's first sculpture. The location was chosen for a reason: it was placed where it was believed that the Dominican monastery once stood. A hundred years later, when the foundation stones for the monastery annex were found, it turned out that the statue was in the wrong place. Gustav Vasa remained and continued to look at his castle, which he built in part with bricks from the closed monastery. A history's irony!