Enköping is a locality and the seat of Enköping Municipality, Uppsala County,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

with 30,000 inhabitants in 2018.

Geography

Enköping is situated near Lake Mälaren, about 78 km west of

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. A comparably large number of Swedish cities are located in the vicinity of Enköping. The municipal slogan is therefore "Sweden's Closest City". This expression was created in 1965 when it was discovered by a local business that within a

radius In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is th ...

of 120 kilometers, one finds 38 Swedish cities and a third of Sweden's population.

History

Near Enköping, there is some of the best preserved rock art from the Bronze Age present in central Sweden. The city of Enköping itself dates its history back to the 13th century but the city itself did not emerge until about 1250. Enköping was then as now situated by the rich farmlands close to lake Mälaren, leading to a wealthy rural population. The city has also always been a major crossroads for commerce, and excellent communications signify the city even today: The Mälar Railline (''Mälarbanan'') and the E18

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

provide ample means of travelling to the nearby major cities of

and

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

. The city has several manufacturing industries, a hospital and the Swedish Armed Forces command and control an army electronic warfare centre Ledningsregementet (''LedR'').

Notable people

* Amelia Andersdotter * Snoh Aalegra, singer * Elin Lanto, singerJeffrey de Hart, 'Crying Fame', in '' Billboard'' dated 20 November 2004, Vol. 116, No. 47, p. 77 * Lars (archbishop) is buried in the monastery there.

Sports

The following sports clubs are located in Enköping: * Enköpings SK * Enköpings RK

Twin towns – sister cities

Enköping is twinned with: * Santa Rosa, Laguna, Philippines

References

External links

Find businesses and places in Enköping
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enkoping Municipal seats of Uppsala County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Uppsala County Populated places in Enköping Municipality Market towns in Sweden