Stångån is a small river in southern Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, 185 km long and with a drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 of 2440 km². It flows from the highlands of eastern Småland

Småland

' is a historical province in southern Sweden.Småland borders Blekinge, Scania or Skåne, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means Small Lands. . The latinized form Smolandia has been used in other languages...

 in the south to lake Roxen

Roxen

Roxen is a medium-sized lake in south central Sweden, east of lake Vättern, part of the waterpath Motala ström and the Göta Canal. South of lake Roxen is the city Linköping....

 in the north.

It passes through Vimmerby

Vimmerby

- External links :* - Official site* - Theme Park...

, Kisa

Kisa (town)

Kisa is a locality and the seat of Kinda Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 3,697 inhabitants in 2005.Actress Karin Inger Monica Nilsson, who featured Pippi Longstocking from the book of Astrid Lindgren in the 1970s, was born here....

, and Linköping

Linköping

Linköping is a city in southern middle Sweden, with 104 232 inhabitants in 2010. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality with 146 736 inhabitants and the capital of Östergötland County...

. A great deal of the river is extended to a canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

, Kinda kanal. A railway takes the same course as the river.

Stångån passes through the deciduous forests of one of Sweden's main cultural areas, featuring several great manor house

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

s of the nobility

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

.