Mälaren Valley

Mälaren Valley
Lake Mälaren and the central parts of the Mälaren Valley.

The Mälaren Valley (Swedish: Mälardalen), occasionally referred to as Stockholm-Mälaren Region (Stockholm-Mälaren regionen), is the easternmost part of Svealand, the catchment area of Lake Mälaren and the surrounding municipalities. The term is often used interchangeably for the extended capital region of Sweden as Stockholm is located at the lake's eastern end, at its outlet in the Baltic Sea.

Contents

Extent and characteristics

The Mälaren Valley, which never has been defined as an official region, has throughout Swedish history instead been shared by several provincesUppland, Södermanland, Västmanland, and Närke — and, in modern times, by several countiesStockholm, Uppsala, Södermanland, Örebro, and Västmanland. In most cases, the Lake Hjälmaren region is included into the Mälaren Valley Region, if nothing else, for historical and cultural reasons.

Red cottages characteristic for the Mälaren Valley.

Notwithstanding this, most people in Sweden will have a clear notion of what characterises the Mälaren Valley, while few of them will be able to define what those characteristics are more precisely. Arguably, this is because the region is not only homogeneous and has been so for many centuries, but also have had a tremendous influence on shared Swedish history and therefore never had to define its symbols or accentuate its distinctive features. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries when modern Swedish nationalism evolved, traits conceived as typical Swedish were more often than not characteristics of the Mälaren Valley. For example, the Falu red cottage with white corners, often iterated as a traditional Swedish building style, is common in the Mälaren Valley, but would stand out on the Swedish west coast. Similarly, what is referred to as Standard Swedish is often difficult to distinguish from dialects spoken around Lake Mälaren. One of the distinctive features of the region is its many large mansions — one of the finest surviving examples, the World Heritage Site Engelsberg Ironworks in the north-west corner of the region, is thought of as representative for Sweden in general.[1]

Population

County Area¹ Population Density²
Stockholm County 6,519.27 1,964,805 301.38
Uppsala County 8,209 324,420 39.52
Örebro County 8,545.57 276,707 32.38
Södermanland County 6,102.34 266,541 43.68
Västmanland County 5,146 249,615 48.51
Total 34,520.27 3,082,088 89.28
  1. km²
  2. Population per km²

Larger cities outside Greater Stockholm include Uppsala (population: 124,036), Västerås (102,548), Örebro (95,354), Södertälje (59,342) and Eskilstuna (57,867). As of June 30 2008 almost 3.1 million people lived in this region, which may also be confined to a much smaller geographical area around Stockholm and Mälaren proper.

Notes

  1. ^ Flygare

References

  • Flygare, Iréne (1997) (in Swedish). Mälaren runt. Utbildningsförlaget Brevskolan. pp. 6–11. ISBN 91-574-4829-9. 

See also

External links

Coordinates: 59°30′N 16°45′E / 59.5°N 16.75°E / 59.5; 16.75


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mälaren — at dusk Location Sweden Coordinates …   Wikipedia

  • Hovgården — Infobox World Heritage Site WHS = Birka and Hovgården infoboxwidth= 250px State Party = SWE Type = Cultural Criteria = iii, iv ID = 555 Region = Europe and North America Year = 1993 Session = 17thHovgården is an archaeological site on the Lake… …   Wikipedia

  • Bergslagen — Map of Bergslagen Bergslagen (Swedish for Mountain s Law [1]) is a historically, culturally, and linguistically distinct[citation needed] mining dist …   Wikipedia

  • Björkö, Ekerö — Björkö (Swedish for Birch Island ) is an island in Lake Mälaren in eastern central Sweden. It is mostly famous for housing the excavation site Birka populated c. 750 975 CE, together with Hovgården on Adelsö declared a World Heritage Site in 1993 …   Wikipedia

  • Megalopolis (city type) — Northeast Megalopolis, Taiheiyō Belt A megalopolis (sometimes called a megapolis or megaregion) is typically defined as a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas. The term was used by Oswald Spengler in his 1918 book, The Decline of the West …   Wikipedia

  • Digital terrestrial television — List of digital television broadcast standards DVB standards (Europe) DVB S (satellite) DVB S2 DVB T (terrestrial) DVB T2 DVB C …   Wikipedia

  • Runestone — A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century but most of them date from the late Viking Age, and it lasted… …   Wikipedia

  • Standard Swedish — ( standardsvenska ) denotes Swedish as a spoken and written standard language. While Swedish as a written language is uniform and standardized, the spoken standard may vary considerably from region to region. Several prestige dialects have… …   Wikipedia

  • Grobiņa — Latvian Cities name=Grobiņa Coa=Grobina gerb.png Caption= citysince=1695 location n1=56 n2=32 e1=21 e2=11 othernames= Grobin; Grebin; Söborg; de. Seeburg; de. Seleburg Mayor=Jānis Neimanis nrofmembers=9 District=Liepāja area=5.12 Water= Rural=… …   Wikipedia

  • Stockholm County Museum — ( sv. Stockholms läns museum) is a museum covering the history of Stockholm County in central eastern Sweden except central Stockholm (which is covered by the Stockholm City Museum and the Museum of Medieval Stockholm).The museum is serving the… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”