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'Örnsköldsvik' (pronounced Earn'sholds'veek) is a town (pop. 29,000) in Ångermanland, Sweden and is the seat of Örnsköldsvik Municipality, Västernorrlands län. It's situated by the Gulf of Bothnia and the northern boundaries of the High Coast area.

Contents

History

Education

Transportation

Recreation and sports

Notable natives

Sister cities

Trivia

See also

External links

History

The name comes from Governor Per Abraham Örnsköld (1762-1769).
Traces of human activity in the area date back to the Nordic Bronze Age, and there's a reconstructed iron age village called Gene fornby, which is a popular tourist attraction, just outside of town. Örnsköldsvik itself is however a relatively young city, it 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 village of Husum, 30 km north of Örnsköldsvik City, while Hägglunds is split into several companies, including Land Systems Hägglunds, a subsidiary of BAE Systems.

Education

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

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 is also a harbour, where cargo ships load and unload timber and other merchandise.

Recreation and sports

Due to the hilly 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 successful, 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.

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.

Sister cities

Örnsköldsvik's sister cities are:

★ - Äänekoski, Finland

★ - Sigdal, Norway

★ - Hveragerði, Iceland

★ - Brande, Denmark

★ - Tarp, Germany

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''.

See also

★ MODO Hockey

★ 1976 Winter Paralympics

External links

★ Örnsköldsvik - Official site

★ Örnsköldsvik Tourist Information (available in English, German and Swedish)

★ Mid-Sweden University College at Örnsköldsvik

★ Campus Örnsköldsvik at Umeå University

★ Örnsköldsvik airport

★ article ''Örnsköldsvik'' from Nordisk Familjebok (1922).