Vaggeryd Municipality

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

**Vaggeryd Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Vaggeryd in midth Jönköping County Map outlining the municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms Image:Vaggeryd City Arms.jpg
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Vaggeryd
	{{{locationReadable}}}
	County	Jönköping County
	Province	Smalandia
	Area Rank	830 km² 123rd of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	12,660 x of 290
	Population density	15/km²

Vaggeryd Municipality is a municipality in Jönköping County, in southern Sweden where the town Vaggeryd (4,500) is seat.

The church in Vaggeryd was constructed in 1694-1695 in wood, in the place of an older medieval church. It has gotten additional constructions in 1720, and a renovation in the 1890's.

The large nature reserve Stora Mosse stretches in this municipality and the adjacent Gnosjö Municipality; it total it covers some 100 square kilometres (39 mile²) whereof 77 km² has been marked as nature reserve. A lot of the ground is boggy grounds and swamps which makes it important for different kinds of birds and other animals. It is easily accessible by car, guided tours are regularly conducted, and the total walking road adds up to 50 km.

In the area, iron has been processed since the Iron Age. It continued into the middle ages, and was very important for the inhabitants well into the 19th century.

In the municipality is also the horse track Vaggerydstravet located, with full rights for betting. A good supply of the natural resources: iron, wood and water, and good communications with largers cities around the province made Vaggeryd a centre for many industries of various kind. A chair manufacturer established itself in the small town of Hagsfors in the 1863, producing the Windsor chair that since has become a standard furniture in Sweden and soon found a market in England.

More wood and carpentry industry sprung out during the 19th century. Manufacturing of different travelling ekipages was important, and transportations and communication with other parts of the province were important, and so the wheel came to symbolize the thinking of the municipality. It is manifested in the coat of arms.

Other industries related to the resources are paper manufacturing and pulp mills. While nowadays, tourism makes up an important part of its industry.

Recently, the "Vaggeryd model" has been thought up by some locals and has since been adapted by some 30 other municipalities of Sweden. Its purpose is to created bridges between industries. ^[1]