Mölndal () is the seat and administrative centre of

Mölndal Municipality Mölndal Municipality (, semi-officially ) is a municipality in Västra Götaland in western Sweden, just south of Gothenburg. Its seat is located in Mölndal, which lies within the Gothenburg urban area, and the whole municipality is part of ...

and a part of the

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

urban area on the west coast of

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 ...

. About 40,000 of the municipality's 60,000 inhabitants live in Mölndal proper.

Geography

Mölndal is located on the western main line railway between

and

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

and the European highways E6/ E20 run through the area from north to south. Mölndal is served by the Gothenburg tramway system.

History

The name of the city derives from two words; ''Möln'', which is a short form for Möllor, an old word for mills, and the word ''dal'', which is the Swedish word for

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

. Mölndal is the "Valley of mills". The narrow but high and long

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s in Kvarnbyn gave the necessary power to all the

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

s that together with the

windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...

s on the hills gave birth to the early

industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...

of Mölndal.

Industry

Aerial photo of Gothenburg 2013-10-27 192

Mölndal is best known for its high concentration of companies in life sciences.

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () (AZ) is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, UK. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includi ...

has one of its global research centres here with more than 3,100 employees. Several other companies in areas of research such as

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

biomedicine Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

, and

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

are also located here. The proximity to the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

and to

Chalmers University of Technology Chalmers University of Technology (, commonly referred to as Chalmers) is a private university, private research university located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Chalmers focuses on engineering and science, but more broadly it also conducts research ...

- with their technology parks - has supported development of other sectors, such as

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

technology and

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

. Two national research institutes, IFP SICOMP AB and IVF Industrial Research and Development Corporation, are also located in Mölndal.

Mölndalsfallen

Mölndalsfallen (Mölndal falls) has been a big part of the Mölndal industries, which got their power from the falls to make cotton, paper and oil.

Sports

The following sports clubs are located in Mölndal: * Fässbergs IF * Balltorps FF * IF Mölndal Hockey * Jitex BK * Dalen/Krokslätts FF * Kvarnby Basket The town is also home to the Hills Golf Club.

European Cooperation

* Mölndal is a member city of Eurotowns network

Notable people

* Per Andersson (actor), comedian *

Avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

, Swedish heavy metal band * Oscar Dronjak, guitarist and founder of the Swedish heavy metal band

HammerFall HammerFall is a Swedish power metal band from Gothenburg. The band was formed in 1993 by ex- Ceremonial Oath guitarist Oscar Dronjak. They have released thirteen studio albums. History Early days (1993–1996) HammerFall was formed when g ...

* Anders Frisk, football (soccer) referee * Björn Goop, horse driver and trainer (trotting) *

Ulla Jacobsson Ulla Jacobsson (23 May 1929 – 20 August 1982) was a Swedish actress. She had the lead role in ''One Summer of Happiness'' (1951) and played the only female speaking role in the film ''Zulu (1964 film), Zulu'' (1964). Early life Jacobsson w ...

, actor * Erica Johansson, long jumper *

Anna Kjellbin Anna Linnea Christina Kjellbin (born 16 March 1994) is a Swedish ice hockey defenceman for the Toronto Sceptres of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and a member of Sweden women's national ice hockey team. The thirteenth longest-tenur ...

, ice hockey player * Mats Levén, metal singer * Claes Malmberg, actor and stand-up comedian * Annelie Pompe, world record holder in variable weights freediving * Hasse Thomsen, Boxer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molndal Municipal seats of Västra Götaland County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Mölndal Municipality Metropolitan Gothenburg