ETR // Stage 18 // Trollhättan - Värnamo

58°17'08.7"N 12°17'08.0"E
58.285755, 12.285566
Trollhättan - Värnamo
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Distance

Trollhättan - Värnamo
Radius 100 km
216 km

Highlights

Trollhättan
Canal Museum
Höljebacka Fire Museum
The Doll Museum
Allingsås
Gräfsnäs Slottsruin
Caroli church, Borås
Store Mosse National Park
Historical City of Värnamo

Trollhättan culture & heritage

Whether you are arriving in Trollhättan or waking up there, you'll find a wide range of museums and other places to visit before you continue your journey.

Immerse yourself in the exciting history of the area at the Canal Museum, or visit Höljebacka Fire Museum for a collection of fire vehicles and equipment from the 1940's to the 1970's - in a museum built like a 1950's fire station. Check out the Doll Museum, also.

When you're finished with all the museums, culture, history and hertage, enjoy a nice cold beer or two and some good food at one of the many nice restaurants lining the waterside in Trollhättan.

Allingsås - The Capital of Fika

Alingsås is known for its 26 cafes and is often called "The Capital of Fika". Alingsås received its Royal Charter in 1619, which makes it older than Västra Götaland's largest city Gothenburg. In April 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of 2,500-year-old Bronze Age ornaments which can be related with a woman of high status. Some of the necklaces, chains and pins, discovered by chance by the cartographer Tomas Karlsson, are very well preserved.

Gräfsnäs Slottsruin is a castle ruin located by the lake Anten just outside Alingsås. It burned to the ground in 1634, 1734 and again in 1834, and In 1911 the castle was restored by Västergötland-Göteborgs Järnvägs AB, and since 1930 has been cared for by Alingsås Municipality. Alingsås museum was founded in 1928, and contains memorial collections of photographs and the municipal archives, as well as hosting several exhibitions.

Alingsås has a rich cultural life, and hosts a few different cultural events throughout the year. In October, Lights in Alingsås is held for one month, where several European lighting designers get to light up selected sections of the city. They engage about 65 international architecture students to help with production, and together they have one week to create the vision of the lightning designers. Over the years the festival become very popular internationally, and visitors can either walk the tour by themselves or in guided groups. Since 2000, the project is a cooperation between Alingsås Kommun (Council) and the Professional Lighting Designers' Association.

Borås and The Atomic Clock

In it's early history, Borås was a town with a vast number of smiths, and today, it holds the Swedish record for the number of established mail-order firms. The city has been ravaged by fires four times - in 1681, 1727, 1822 and 1827. The Caroli church is the oldest of Borås's buildings, and has withstood all of the fires.

There are quite a few international firms and concerns based in Borås, for example, Swedac and Ericsson which has a large manufacturing plant here. Worldwide clothing retailer H&M have their worldwide Online office here, also. Outside the city in the industrial park of Viared, there are many companies specializing in logistics.

Industries in Borås have close collaboration with the University College of Borås as well as the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, the largest technical research institute in the country, both of which are located in Borås. SP is also the home of the official Swedish Kilogram-weight and the atomic clock that sets the national time.

Photos

Dave O'Byrne
European Touring Route AS

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Store Mosse National Park

Situated in Småland in southern Sweden, Store Mosse is located in the municipalities of Vaggeryd, Gnosjö and Värnamo, and covers 100 km² of these regions. 77 km² was designated as a National Park in 1983, and road 151 between Värnamo and Gnosjö cuts right through the National Park.

Store Mosse is southern Sweden’s most original biotope, and a designated nature reserve set in a marsh landscape. Home to many different types of animals and plantlife, moose, birdlife, you can traverse this region using the network of walkways through the bogs.

Most of Store Mosse consists of Sphagnum moss, but there are also pine forests as well as fens and spruce forests. Forested sand dunes, called "rocknar" form a system of islands and ridges criss crossing the open mire. The layer of peat in the raised bog itself has been built up over a period of at least 8,000 years, and largely consists of plant remains from various sphagnum mosses.

A brief history of Värnamo

Värnamo can trace its history back to a village in the Medieval Age, with the first written mention of it in the 13th century. Värnamo came to be the centre of Östbo Härad, an archaic form of judicial district and a center of trade and commerce. When Värnamo became a köping in 1659 it was given formal rights to host markets, under the jurisdiction of the city of Jönköping. The surrounding dense forests and industrial water power seeded the regional furniture industry and forges run by water power. The Swedish railroad network further enhanced its industrial life, leading to the local population increasing to a point where it attained city status in 1920, and went on to become one of the Historical Cities of Sweden.

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