Orsa () is a locality and the seat of

Orsa Municipality Orsa Municipality () is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Dalarna County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Orsa, Sweden, Orsa. Orsa is one of a few municipalities in Sweden which has not been amalgamated, but retai ...

Dalarna County Dalarna County () is a county or '' län'' in central Sweden (Svealand). It borders on the counties of Uppsala, Jämtland, Gävleborg, Västmanland, Örebro and Värmland. It also borders on the Norwegian counties of Hedmark and Trøndelag to ...

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 5,308 inhabitants (2010). It is located in the northern part of lake Siljan, about north of the town Mora. Inlandsbanan and

European route E45 European route E45 connects Norway and Italy, through Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Austria. With a length of about , it is the longest north–south European route (some east–west routes are longer). The route passes through Alta ...

run through the town and the railroad Bollnäs-Orsa connects.

Nature

The southern parts of Orsa are characterized by the

Siljan Ring The Siljan Ring () is a prehistoric impact structure in Dalarna, central Sweden. It is one of the 15 largest known impact structures on Earth and the largest in Europe, with a diameter of about . The impact that created the Siljan Ring occurred ...

, a ring of lakes and rivers in northern Dalarna formed by the major meteorite strike 365 million years ago. In central Orsa, at the outflow of river Oreälven a sand bank has been built up, enjoyed by thousands of tourists and residents of Orsa. The large forests begin just north of the town of Orsa, with the sparsely populated Orsa Finnmark being the most notable, and to which many

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

to emigrated during the 17th century.

Notable places

* Orsa Spelmän, (Orsa folklore musicians) which

Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamm ...

from

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

used to play with. * Skattungbyn a small village with a view over the river Oreälven. * Orsayran (The Orsa Dizzying) a summer music festival, each Wednesday in July. * Orsa slipstensmuseum a museum of the making of the famous grindstones of Orsa, located in Mässbacken. * Helvetesfallet and Storstupet, waterfalls in river Ämån north of Orsa * Orsa Grönklitt. A wilderness center with wilderness activities, bear and animal park during the summer and a ski resort during the winter.

Orsamål dialect

About 500 people speak the Orsamål dialect, a dialect of Dalecarlian, also called

Old Swedish Old Swedish ( Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1375 unti ...

in Minnesota.

Climate

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Orsa is twinned with: *

Aalborg Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

References

Municipal seats of Dalarna County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Orsa Municipality {{Dalarna-geo-stub fi:Orsan kunta