Torsby Municipality

Infobox_Kommun2
fullname=Torsby kommun


county=Värmland County
province=Värmland
capital=Torsby


arearank=22nd
area=4,385.17
arealand=4,188.65
populationrank=172nd
population=12,946
densityrank=263rd
populationdensity=3.1
website=http://www.torsby.se/
footnotes=Area & population from SCB as of December 31, 2006

Torsby Municipality ("Torsby kommun") is a municipality in Värmland County in west central Sweden, bordering Norway. Its seat is located in the town of Torsby.

The name "Torsby" means Thor's village.

The present municipality consists of eight original local government entities (as of 1863). In 1952 they were grouped into four larger units and in 1974 they were all united.

There are lots of Finnish heritage in Torsby Municipality.

Transportation

Torsby is the end station on the Fryksdal branchline from Karlstad via Kil. There is a small airport with scheduled flights to Stockholm, whilst the nearest international airport is Gardermoen in Norway. The 1,690 km long road, "E45", passes through the municipality.

port

Sven-Göran Eriksson and Marcus Berg have their roots in Torsby.

The municipality has a number of skiing centres for both alpine skiing (Hovfjället and Branäs) and cross-country skiing (Mattila and Långberget). A cross-country ski tunnel, which is also the world's longest, opened on June 16, 2006.

Stjerneskolan, a senior high school, specializes in cross-country skiing and biathlon. The most famous former pupil is Gunde Svan. Carl Johan Bergman, who was born in Ekshärad, also studied there for a year.

External links

* [http://www.torsby.se Torsby Municipality] - Official site
* [http://www.branas.se Branäs alpine skiing]