Finspång () is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

and the seat of

Finspång Municipality Finspång Municipality (''Finspångs kommun'') is a municipality in Östergötland County in Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Finspång, with some 13,000 inhabitants. Nature The municipality refers to itself as Sweden's most lake-dens ...

Östergötland County Östergötland County ( sv, Östergötlands län) is a county or ''län'' in southeastern Sweden. It has land borders with the counties of Kalmar to the southeast, Jönköping to the southwest, Örebro to the northwest, and Södermanland to t ...

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 countries, Nordic c ...

with 12,440 inhabitants in 2010.

Overview

Finspång is a traditional industrial town. The first industries were established in 1580 when a Royal factory for

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

and cannon balls was chartered. The industry was to continue for 300 years under supervision of the Walloon/

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

family

De Geer The De Geer family (also: De Geer van Jutphaas and De Geer van Oudegein) is a prominent industrial family of Walloon origin that belongs to the Swedish and Dutch nobility. History The name derives from the town of Geer near Liège (in presen ...

. Anders Qvarfordt was employed by Count Louis de Geer. His assignment was "to lodge and feed the Count de Geers Vallon blacksmiths". Finspång Castle was built by

Louis De Geer (1622–1695) Louis De Geer may refer to: People: *Louis De Geer (1587–1652) Louis De Geer (17 November 1587 – 19 June 1652) was a Walloon-Swedish entrepreneur, banker, industrialist and slave trader, who was part of the prominent De Geer family. A pion ...

, and around it industries and an

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

developed into the town of Finspång. In the late 19th century

Bofors AB Bofors ( , , ) is a former Swedish arms manufacturer which today is part of the British arms concern BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years. History Located ...

steel works, which initially supplied forgings and castings to the factory, started to expand into the weapons business. With

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( , ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize, though he al ...

's help, by the 1911 AB Bofors-Gullspång had outcompeted, bought and closed down its competitor. When in 1913 a turbine plant

STAL STAL (Svenska Turbinfabriks AB Ljungström; "Swedish Turbine Manufacturing Co.") was an industrial company established in 1913 in Finspång, Sweden, by the brothers Birger Ljungström, and Fredrik Ljungström, developing the Ljungström turbine. ...

was founded in the town, both good metalwork facilities and skilled labor were available. In 1916 the company became a subsidiary of

ASEA ''Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget'' (English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company; Swedish abbreviation: ASEA) was a Swedish industrial company. History ASEA was founded in 1883 by Ludvig Fredholm in Västerås a ...

. Today the two main industrial areas are those of Siemens Energy turbines and metal processing. Administratively Finspång remained part of the rural municipality ''Risinge'' until 1942, when it was made a market town (''

köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word ''kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Municip ...

''). Since 1971 it is the seat of the enlarged

Notable people

Dan Swanö Dan-Erland Swanö (born 10 March 1973), also known as Dan "The Man" Swanö, is a Swedish musician and record producer who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band Nightingale, lately vocalist, keyboardist an ...

* Tony Särkkä *

Pär Arvidsson Pär Arvidsson (born 27 February 1960 in Finspång) is a former butterfly swimmer from Sweden. He won the 100 m butterfly at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, after having set the world record in the same event a couple of months earlier in Aus ...

Bengt Baron Bengt Baron (born 6 March 1962) is a business leader and former backstroke swimmer from Sweden. Baron won the 100 m backstroke at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and was a member of the bronze winning team from Sweden in the 4×100 m f ...

Liselotte Neumann Liselotte Maria "Lotta" Neumann (born 20 May 1966) is a Swedish professional golfer. When she recorded her first LPGA Tour win, by claiming the 1988 U.S. Women's Open title, Neumann also became the first Swedish golfer, male or female, to win a ...

, golfer. Winner of 25 professional golf tournaments *

Bertil Andersson Bertil Andersson is a Swedish college administrator and academic who served as the third president of Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Andersson received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at Umeå University and his PhD and ...

, academic leader *

Charles De Geer Baron Charles de Geer (the family is usually known as De Geer with a capitalized "De" and is pronounced "de yer"); Finspång in Risinge 30 January 1720 – Stockholm 7 March 1778) was a Swedish industrialist and entomologist. Life De Geer, w ...

born 1720, noted naturalist

Sports

The following sports clubs are located in Finspång Municipality: * Sonstorps IK * Finspångs FK * Finspångs SOK

Twinnings

Joutsa Joutsa is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland region. Jyväskylä is located about north of the Joutsa municipality. The municipality has a population of () and cov ...

, Finland

References

External links

Finspångs kommun
- Official site Populated places in Östergötland County Populated places in Finspång Municipality Municipal seats of Östergötland County Swedish municipal seats {{Östergötland-geo-stub