Mariefred is a locality situated in

Strängnäs Municipality Strängnäs Municipality (''Strängnäs kommun'') is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Södermanland County in eastern Sweden, located by Lake Mälaren. Its seat is located in the city status in Sweden, city of Strängnäs. The present ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

with 3,726 inhabitants in 2010. The name is derived from that of the former Carthusian monastery here,

Mariefred Charterhouse Mariefred Charterhouse, sometimes referred to as Gripsholm Charterhouse ( sv, Mariefreds kloster, la, Monasterium Pacis Mariae or ''Pax Mariae''), was a Carthusian monastery, or charterhouse, in the present town of Mariefred in Södermanland, S ...

, and means "Peace of Mary" (the former name was Gripsholm). It lies roughly 50 kilometres west of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Mariefred, despite its small population, is for historical reasons often still referred to as a ''city''.

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( sv, Statistiska centralbyrån ; SCB) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsib ...

, however, only counts localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants as cities. Gripsholm Castle is located in the town. Adjacent to the castle is the nature reserve and deer park Gripsholms hjorthage. The old barn of Gripsholm Castle was a centre for fine arts printmaking, ''Grafikens Hus'' ("House of Graphics"). The East Södermanland Railway has a railway museum here with one of the finest collections of 600 mm narrow-gauge passenger railcars anywhere. Kurt Tucholsky is buried in the town cemetery.

Notable natives

Swedish pop and jazz singer

Lisa Ekdahl Lisa Ekdahl (born 29 July 1971 in Hägersten, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish popular music singer and songwriter. She has so far released 10 albums, most of them in Swedish but some entirely in English. Her voice has been described as "child-lik ...

was raised in Mariefred. Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren has a summer home in Mariefred, Kalkudden. Mikael Samuelsson, a former professional ice hockey player in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, was born in Mariefred. Samuelsson is a member of the exclusive Triple Gold Club, having won the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, and World Championship.

References

Populated places in Södermanland County Populated places in Strängnäs Municipality Populated lakeshore places in Sweden {{Södermanland-geo-stub