Örnsköldsvik Municipality

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

**Örnsköldsvik Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Municipality and seat Map outlining the municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Örnsköldsvik
	63° 17′ N 18° 44′ E
	County	Västernorrland County
	Province	Ångermanland
	Area Rank	6,421 km² 14th of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	54,945 39th of 290
	Population density	8.5/km²

Örnsköldsvik Municipality (pronounced Earn'sholds'veek) is a Swedish municipality in Västernorrland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is in the town Örnsköldsvik with circa 25,000 inhabitants. Other municipal towns include Husum, Bjästa and Bredbyn.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Population Distribution (2004)
4 Transportation
5 Education
6 Recreation and sports
7 Notable natives
8 Sister cities
9 Trivia
10 See also
11 External links

[edit] Geography

The city is situated near the northern end of the "High Coast", which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is located around 100 km south of Umeå and 550 km north of Stockholm. The area is dominated by forest, but it also contains minor areas of agriculture.

[edit] History

The town square Stora Torget in central Örnsköldsvik.

There are traces of human activity in the area from as early as 7000-8000 years ago.

The name comes from Governor Per Abraham Örnsköld (1762-1769).

Örnsköldsvik was founded as a market town (a köping) in 1842 and became a city in 1894. As a city, the most important business was trade and heavy industry. In the surrounding villages (now incorporated parts of the city itself) two major industrial ventures raised: MoDo as a pulp, paper, lodging combinate and Hägglunds as a heavy industrial company. Even today the ancestors of these two companies are of huge importance for the city. M-Real (ex-MoDo) is running one of Europe's largest pulp mills in the town Husum, 30 km north of Örnsköldsvik City, while Hägglunds is split into several companies, including Land Systems Hägglunds, a subsidiary of BAE Systems.

[edit] Population Distribution (2004)

The municipality of Örnsköldsvik is built up from a number of parishes, within which are towns and villages. The population is distributed as follows:

Parish (Town) Number of Citizens

Örnsköldsvik 9,041
Arnäs 7,695
Anundsjö 4,184
- Bredbyn 1,229
- Mellansel na
Skorped 661
Sidensjö 1,191
Nätra 5,331
- Bjästa 1,722
- Köpmanholmen 1,239
Själevad 18,869
- Domsjö
- Gullänget
- Sund
- Gene
Mo 1,311
Grundsunda 3,235
Gideå 1,248
Björna 1,658
Trehörningsjö 526

Total 55,950

[edit] Transportation

Main road transportations are provided by the European route E4. The Örnsköldsvik Airport provides daily flights to and from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport courtesy of SAS, and also charter flights to Turkey courtesy of Pegasus Airlines. Railway transportation will in the future be provided by high-speed railway Botniabanan, which is currently under construction. There's also a harbor, where cargo ships load and unload timber and other merchandise.

[edit] Education

In Örnsköldsvik there are at present local branches of two universities, Mid Sweden University and Umeå University.

[edit] Recreation and sports

Due to the mountainous surroundings, hiking and exploring the scenery of the High Coast is popular in the area. In the wintertime, skiing is popular. Both cross-country skiing, alpine skiing and even ski jumping is practiced almost in the downtown area. Since Örnsköldsvik is a coastal town, there are also beaches near town, as well as campsites. There's also an indoor water park called Paradisbadet, with one of the longest water slides in Europe.

Sports is also popular, the main spectator sport in town is ice hockey, with the local team MODO Hockey in Elitserien, the main league for ice hockey in Sweden. The local football teams aren't quite as succesful, but still pretty popular, on the men's side especially the teams Friska Viljor FC from central Örnsköldsvik and Anundsjö IF from Bredbyn outside of town, and women's Själevads IK. A couple floorball teams from town have also had some success.

[edit] Notable natives

Örnsköldsvik is the birthplace of many world-famous ice hockey players, including Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund, Niklas Sundström, and the twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Samuel Påhlsson, also an ice hockey player, lived there for a long time but was born in Ånge. Many stars from hockey's previous generation, including Anders Hedberg, Thomas Gradin, and Anders Kallur were also either Örnsköldsvik natives (Hedberg) and/or played in the town for the MoDo Hockey club.

Malin Moström, captain and key player in the Sweden women's national football team is also a native of Örnsköldsvik.

Magdalena Forsberg, cross country skier and biathlete.

Hans Hedberg, sculptor known for his gigantic ceramic fruit.

Märta Norberg, outstanding cross country skier in the end of the 1940:s and beginning of 1950:s.

Thomas Hammarberg, diplomat and human rights activist.

[edit] Sister cities

Örnsköldsvik's sister cities are:

[edit] Trivia

The asteroid 6795 Örnsköldsvik, found in 1993 by Swedish astronomers at the European Southern Observatory, was named after the city.
The name Örnsköldsvik is sometimes unofficially translated into English as Eagleshieldsbay.
Markus Näslund, and twin brothers Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin are all from Örnsköldsvik Municipality and play for the Vancouver Canucks, a Vancouver based Ice Hockey team.
Was mentioned in television show The Wonder Years (Episode 85 - Double Double Date), when exchange student Inga said she was from Örnsköldsvik.