Hjo Municipality

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This page deals with both Hjo Municipality and the urban area (tätort) Hjo

**Hjo Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Västra Götaland County in Sweden Hjo Municipality in Västra Götaland County Map outlining municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Hjo
	58° 5′ N 13° 2′ E
	County	Västra Götaland County
	Province	Västra Götaland
	Area Rank	1,498 km² 63rd of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	8,844 x of 290
	Density	17/km²

For the airport with this IATA location identifier, see Hanford Municipal Airport.

Hjo Municipality is a Municipality in far east Västra Götaland County, in western Sweden. Its seat is in Hjo town with about 6,000 inhabitants. The town is renowned as one of few wooden towns in Sweden.

[edit] Geography

Geographically it is situated by the western shore of lake Vättern. The large and fish rich waters have been the main influenced on the industry. the largest rivulet intersecting the municipality from Vättern in the Hjo River. Parts of it have been made a nature reserve. Partly this is due to the salmon (Salmo trutta) and the grayling (Thymullus thymullus) that occur natural in the rivulet, but have had hard times due to dams.

[edit] History

Hjo was known to have had a charter already in 1413, and was an important site for merchandice eastward.

Many wooden towns have suffered fires, but Hjo has been relatively spared, apart from when the church and some adjacent houses burnt down in 1794. The city structure is therefore almost exactly the same as in the medieval times.

It works together with the towns Eksjö and Nora, to develop wooden towns as tourism attraction, under the joint name "Three wooden towns" (Tre Trästäder).