Finspång () is a locality and the seat of

Finspång Municipality Finspång Municipality () is a municipality in Östergötland County in Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Finspång, with some 21 654 (30 September 2024), inhabitants. Nature The municipality refers to itself as Sweden's most lake-den ...

Östergötland County Östergötland County () 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 the northeast. It also has a ...

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 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 during th ...

and cannon balls was chartered. The industry was to continue for 300 years under supervision of the Walloon/ Dutch family De Geer. 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), and around it industries and an

orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

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 manufacturer BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years. History Locate ...

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, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also m ...

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

. Today the two main industrial areas are those of

Siemens Energy Siemens Energy AG is a German publicly-traded energy corporation formed through the spin-off of the former Gas and Power division of Siemens, and it includes full ownership of Siemens Gamesa. Christian Bruch is the CEO, and the former CEO of S ...

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 Munic ...

''). 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 and ...

, Musician *

Tony Särkkä Tony Särkkä (15 December 1972 – 8 February 2017), who went by the stage name It, was a Swedish multi-instrumentalist who played in many black metal bands. He played guitar, drums and bass guitar as well as doing vocals. He was joined by Jim B ...

, Musician * Pär Arvidsson, Swimmer * Bengt Baron, Swimmer *

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, academic leader *

Charles De Geer Charles De Geer (30 January 1720 – 7 March 1778) was an entomology, entomologist, industrialist, civil servant and book collecting, book collector. He is sometimes referred to as Charles the Entomologist, to distinguish him from other relati ...

born 1720, noted naturalist, entomologist, industrialist and civil servant * Artur Svennson, athlete

Sports

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

Twinnings

Joutsa Joutsa is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is located in the provinces of Finland, province of Western Finland and is part of the Central Finland regions of Finland, region. Jyväskylä is located about north of the Jouts ...

, Finland

References

External links

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