Upplands Väsby Municipality (
Upplands Väsby kommun) is a
municipalityThe municipalities of Sweden are the local government entities of Sweden. The current 290 municipalities are organized into 21 counties...
in
Stockholm CountyStockholm County is a county or län on the Baltic sea coast of Sweden. It borders the counties of Uppsala and Södermanland. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. Stockholm County is divided by the historic provinces of Uppland and Södermanland...
in east central
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
. Its seat is located in the town of
Upplands VäsbyUpplands Väsby is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 35,977 inhabitants in 2005. it is also partly located in Sollentuna Municipality.-Overview:...
, with a population of 35,977 (2005).
The municipality was created in connection with the municipal reform of 1952, when the rural municipalities
Ed,
Fresta and
Hammarby were amalgamated. It got its name from a settlement which had evolved around the railway station.
The name Väsby can be attested (as
Vesby) from the 13th century.
Upplands Väsby Municipality (
Upplands Väsby kommun) is a
municipalityThe municipalities of Sweden are the local government entities of Sweden. The current 290 municipalities are organized into 21 counties...
in
Stockholm CountyStockholm County is a county or län on the Baltic sea coast of Sweden. It borders the counties of Uppsala and Södermanland. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm is the capital of Sweden. Stockholm County is divided by the historic provinces of Uppland and Södermanland...
in east central
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
. Its seat is located in the town of
Upplands VäsbyUpplands Väsby is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 35,977 inhabitants in 2005. it is also partly located in Sollentuna Municipality.-Overview:...
, with a population of 35,977 (2005).
The municipality was created in connection with the municipal reform of 1952, when the rural municipalities
Ed,
Fresta and
Hammarby were amalgamated. It got its name from a settlement which had evolved around the railway station.
The name Väsby can be attested (as
Vesby) from the 13th century. The
prefixA prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of Semitic languages, a prefix is called a preformative, as they can alter the form of the words to which they are fixed.Examples of prefixes:...
"Upplands" came to be used by the post station in 1919 as a means of separating it from other Väsbys in the country. The municipality was then named "Upplands-Väsby" for a time, but the dash has now been removed.
Upplands Väsby is located in between
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
and the large
airportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
Arlanda, and the main line railroad goes through the municipality. It is now an important link to the new "Upptåget", enabling change between "Upptåget", a new train service going north to Arlanda,
UppsalaUppsala is the capital of Uppsala County and the fourth largest city of Sweden with 144,839 inhabitants....
, and all the way to
GävleGävle ['jɛ:vlə] is a city, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County in Sweden. It has 68,700 inhabitants in 2005. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , as it received its charter in 1446 by Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
, and
Stockholm commuter railStockholm Commuter Rail is the commuter rail system in Stockholm County, Sweden. The system is an important part of the public transport in Stockholm, and is controlled by Stockholm Transport; the trains are operated under contract by Stockholmståg, part of the national railway SJ. The tracks are...
.
Geography
The land is covered with good soil, forests, and
moraineA moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past ice age. This debris may have been plucked off the valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...
. The western part border to a creek of the lake
MälarenLake Mälaren is the third-largest lake in Sweden, after Lakes Vänern and Vättern. Its area is 1,140 km² and its greatest depth is 64 m. The lake drains, from southwest to northeast, into the Baltic Sea through Södertälje kanal, Hammarbyslussen, Karl Johanslussen and Norrström...
(not visible on the map) , which also marks the border to the municipality
Upplands-BroUpplands-Bro Municipality is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Kungsängen....
. There are also other water areas, such as streams and small lakes, in the municipality. One of them is the small river Väsbyån, flowing through Väsby, in which the uncommon fish
aspThe Asp is a European freshwater fish of the Cyprinid family. It is protected by the of the Bern Convention of endangered species and habitats . Asps are also on the IUCN Red List of endangered species....
swims.
History
Located in the province of
UpplandUppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
the municipality holds remains from the
Stone AgeThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground...
. Runestones and axes from the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
have also been found. The number of rune inscriptions in the municipality amounts to 76.
When Väsby Centrum, a shopping centre that currently houses some 60 stores, was built in Väsby in 1972 the population grew markedly. The mall is currently undergoing a large increase; 20 new stores will have opened by spring 2007, bringing the mall's total up to 80 stores.
External links
- Upplands Väsby Municipality - Official site
- Väsby Centrum (in Swedish
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
)