Kumla 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

Kumla Municipality Kumla Municipality (''Kumla kommun'') is a municipality in Örebro County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Kumla. The present municipality was formed during the latest nationwide local government reform in Sweden, with the a ...

Örebro County Örebro County ( sv, Örebro län) is a county or '' län'' in central Sweden. It borders the counties of Västra Götaland, Värmland, Dalarna, Västmanland, Södermanland and Östergötland. It is frequently culturally divided into the hilly ...

, Sweden with a population of 21,640 as of 2018.

Geography

Kumla is situated roughly 15

kilometres The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ...

south of neighbouring city

Örebro Örebro ( , ) is the sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...

, and is connected to its much larger neighbour with train and bus commuting. Kumla is unusual in terms of municipality seats in Svealand in that there is no connection to any kind of waterway in the centre of the town. However, three of the four biggest lakes in the country are within an hour's drive from the town. It is also an unusually flat town, since it is situated in the middle of the so-called Närke Plain. There is also a very agrarian landscape surrounding Kumla.

Transport

Kumla is linked with several roads, including the highway E20 that is passing just west of the locality. The E20 is the fastest route to both Gothenburg and Stockholm, which Kumla is situated relatively close to the middle between the two largest Swedish cities. E20 passes Örebro as well, but there are several routes which go to the larger neighbour city from Kumla. The roads 51 (from Norrköping) and 52 (from

Nyköping Nyköping () is a locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County. Including Arnö, the locality on the southern shore of th ...

) also pass through Kumla. Kumla also has a train station on the Stockholm-Gothenburg route driven by SJ.

History

Traditionally Kumla was known as a shoemaker town with a history back to the first half of the 19th century. This history is memorialized in Kumla's Shoe Industry Museum, with a small-scale production of shoes. Kumla got the title of a city in 1942, but is since 1971 the seat of the larger

Today

Today the industry is dominated by the manufacturing of

jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and ente ...

at and communication systems at an

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

industry. The name Kumla is renowned for its

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

("the Kumla Institution", or ''Kumlaanstalten'', commonly known as 'The Bunker'), which is the largest prison in the country. Opened in 1965, it can currently allow 333 male inmates, with a similarly large staff, and is designated for "difficult" inmates and for those at the start of a life-term sentence. It is one of three Swedish prisons housing the most notorious and dangerous inmates. File:Kumla view cirka 1920.jpg, In 1920, Kumla was still a small town File:Kent Karlsson Absit Omen.JPG, "Absit Omen" artwork by Swedish artist Kent Karlsson placed on the permanent exhibition "Konst på hög" in Kumla File:Richard Brixel Karyatid.JPG, "Karyatid" by Richard Brixel, at the same exhibition

Notable people

Marcus Ericsson Marcus Thorbjörn Ericsson (; born 2 September 1990) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He competes in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 8 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing and is the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner. Ericsson previously ...

(1990–), Racing driver,

2022 Indy 500 The 2022 Indianapolis 500 (branded as the 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge for sponsorship reasons) was a 500-mile (804.7 km, 200 lap) race in the 2022 IndyCar Series, held on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at the India ...

winner *

Fredrik Ekblom Fredrik Ekblom (born 6 October 1970) is a Swedish race car driver from Kumla. After an early career in single-seaters he switched to touring car racing where he won multiple titles in his native Swedish Touring Car Championship and later in th ...

(1970–), racing driver *

Håkan Nesser Håkan Nesser (born 21 February 1950) is a Swedish author and teacher who has written a number of successful novels, mostly but not only crime fiction. He has won Best Swedish Crime Novel Award three times, and his novel ''Carambole'' won the pre ...

(1950–), author * Peter Stormare (1953–), actor, born in Kumla but grew up in

Arbrå Arbrå () is the second largest locality in Bollnäs Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 2,215 inhabitants in 2010. Points of interest * Arbråmasten, a 331 metres tall guyed TV mast. Notable people * Gösta "Snoddas" Nordgren, sin ...

References

{{authority control Populated places in Örebro County Populated places in Kumla Municipality Municipal seats of Örebro County Swedish municipal seats