Falköping

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Place in Västergötland, Sweden

title: "Falköping" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["falköping", "municipal-seats-of-västra-götaland-county", "swedish-municipal-seats", "populated-places-in-falköping-municipality", "market-towns-in-sweden"] description: "Place in Västergötland, Sweden" topic_path: "geography/sweden" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falköping" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Place in Västergötland, Sweden ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
official_name	Falköping
image_skyline	Trätorget i Falköping, den 17 juni 2006.JPG
image_caption	Trätorget (17 June 2006)
image_shield	Falköping vapen.svg
pushpin_map	Sweden Västra Götaland#Sweden
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Sweden
subdivision_type3	Municipality
subdivision_name3	Falköping Municipality
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	Västra Götaland County
subdivision_type1	Province
subdivision_name1	Västergötland
established_title	Founded
established_date	1200
area_footnotes
area_total_km2	9.46
population_as_of	31 December 2020
population_footnotes
population_total	17 939
population_density_km2	auto
timezone	CET
utc_offset	+1
timezone_DST	CEST
utc_offset_DST	+2
coordinates
elevation_m	218
blank_name	Climate
blank_info	Dfb
postal_code_type	Postal code
postal_code	521 xx
area_code	(+46) 515
website
::

Falköping () is a locality and the seat of Falköping Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 16,350 inhabitants in 2010.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Sankt_Olofs_kyrka_i_Falköping,_den_17_juni_2006,_bild_2.JPG" caption="Sankt Olofs kyrka, Falköping"] ::

The town of Falköping was first spoken of in the Icelandic Rimbegla (around 1100 A.D.), and is mentioned in the Westrogothic law. It was also an important site of pilgrimage due to its 12th-century church dedicated to Saint Olaf (Sankt Olofs kyrka). The town was heading for a shut-down during the 16th century and was even burnt to the ground by the Danish during the Northern Seven Years' War. However the town survived and was rebuilt.{{cite web|url= http://www.bebyggelseregistret.raa.se/bbr2/anlaggning/visaHistorik.raa?page=historik&visaHistorik=true&anlaggningId=21300000002160 |title= Sankt Olofs Kyrka |publisher= bebyggelseregistret.raa.se |access-date=December 1, 2018}}

Falköping or Falbygden (when meaning the agricultural landscape in which Falköping is located) is widely known for its ancient remains of Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. The town is located between the two plateaus Mösseberg and Ålleberg. The location has been inhabited since the end of the ice age and cultivated by people for the last 6000 years. The oldest find is a form of megalithic tomb called dolmen, dating back to 3400 B.C. There are also 28 passage graves dating back to 3300 B.C.

Also several cists have been found here, they can be traced back to earlier Stone Age (Senneolitikum) 2400–1500 B.C and are believed to be built or inspired by travelers from the countries where this kind of grave was commonly constructed. Falköping is the only town in Europe with this amount of megalithic graves as visible contribution to the town image.

Local industry

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Fontänen_på_Stora_Torget_i_Falköping,_den_17_juni_2006.JPG" caption="'Stora Torget' – the main town square"] ::

Early industry in Falköping was the Victoria Brewery (sv. Victoriabryggeriet) (1856–1953), Haglunds Roller blinds factory (sv. Haglunds rullgardinsfabrik) (1885-) and Forss hat factory (sv. Forss hattfabrik) (1880–). In the early 20th-century (1900–) several companies were established, such as: Alton gold forgery (1928), Falköping dairy factory (sv. Falköpings Mejeri) (1930–), workshop industry Arkivator (sv. verkstadsindustrin Arkivator) (1940–) and the sewing factories Svaréns and Ottossons.

Falköpings Mejeri (Falköping dairy factory) is a co-operative dairy company which supplies milk to grocery stores in western Sweden. The Falbygdens Ost cheese factory supplies cheese to stores throughout Sweden. A "dry port" (sv. torrhamn) has recently been built in connection to the railway, enabling companies in the surrounding area to handle cargo in a more efficient way.

Geography

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Falköpings_stad_1-10000.jpg" caption="Map of Falköping"] ::

The town is located where the Western Main Line () between Stockholm and Gothenburg meets the railline from Nässjö via Jönköping to Falköping. As it takes less than a one-hour train journey to reach both Gothenburg and Jönköping respectively, Falköping makes a good location for commuting.{{cite web|url= http://www.jarnvag.net/banguide/goteborg-stockholm|title= Västra stambanan |publisher= jarnvag.net|access-date=December 1, 2018}}

Notable people

Madelen Janogy (born 1995), footballer
Jan Karlsson (born 1966), Olympic cyclist

Sports and leisure

Association football

Falköping has several football fields.

Clubs include:

Motor Sports

The Falköpings Motorklubb hosts car and motorbike racing at the Motorstadion, about 5 km west of the locality. The Club originally ran a motorcycle speedway team known as Falkarna, who raced in the Swedish Speedway Team Championship. The speedway track held the Continental Speedway final round of the 1952 Individual Speedway World Championship.

Walking routes

There is also an 8 km long pathway around the core of the town called Hälsoslingan (path of health). It is used for running and taking walks together with friends and family.

The folk tale of The Riders of Ålleberg

According to local folklore, whenever the town of Falköping is in danger, the mountain-side of Ålleberg shall fall and reveal a troop of knight-like figures who shall ride out and vanquish the threat. They are known as Ållebergs Ryttare (The Riders of Ålleberg). ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Falköping_from_Mösseberg.jpg" caption="Falköping from [[Mösseberg]], with [[Ålleberg]] in the background"] ::

References

(2021-11-24). "Statistiska tätorter 2020, befolkning, landareal, befolkningstäthet per tätort". [[Statistics Sweden]].
"New Perspectives on the Late Neolithic of South-Western Sweden". Open Archaeology, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 1–35.
Andersson, Ulla. (12 January 2016). "Idrottsanläggningar och hallar". Falköping Municipality.
"About Us".
"HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK".
(22 October 2013). "Hälsoslingan i Falköping". skaraborgsleder.se.
(2006). "Sägenresan: [fantastiska berättelser från Skåne till Lappland]". [[Rabén & Sjögren]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::