Flodafors is a small village in

Katrineholm Municipality Katrineholm Municipality () is a municipality in Södermanland County in southeast Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Katrineholm. The present municipality was created in 1971, when the ''City of Katrineholm'' (instituted in 1917) was am ...

Södermanland County Södermanland County (, ) is a Counties of Sweden, county or ''län'' on the southeast coast of Sweden. In the local Sörmlandic dialects it is virtually universally shortened and pronounced as Sörmlands län, or simply Sörmland, which is the ...

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 ...

. Flodafors is often called Floda for convenience. Neighbouring villages include Bie and Valla. The village is located on the Western Main Line between

Katrineholm Katrineholm (pronunciation: or ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Katrineholm Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 24,271 inhabitants in 2018. It is located in the inland of Södermanland and is the third largest ur ...

and

Flen Flen () is a locality and the seat of Flen Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 6,229 inhabitants in 2010. Flen evolved as a railway junction and got the title of a city in 1949. Since 1971 it is the seat of the much larger Flen Munici ...

. Floda is well known for Floda Church (''Floda kyrka'').

Floda Church

Floda church is in Katrineholmsbygden parish in the

Diocese of Strängnäs The Diocese of Strängnäs () is a part of the Lutheran Church of Sweden and has its seat in Strängnäs Cathedral in Strängnäs, south of Lake Mälaren. The diocese is made up of the two provinces Närke and Södermanland (except for eastern S ...

of the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden () is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.5 million members at year end 2023, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest List ...

. The church is built of stone and was originally constructed during the 12th century. Some of the paintings in the church date to the 1480s and were made by

Albertus Pictor Albertus Pictor (English, "Albert the Painter"; Immenhusen, c. 1440 – c. 1507), also called Albert Pictor, Albert Målare and Albrekt Pärlstickare (Swedish), is the most famous late medieval Swedish painter, known for his wallpaintings survivi ...

(c. 1440 – c. 1507). Among the church's furnishings are an altar cabinet from 1450, the Renaissance-style pulpit from 1662 and the baptismal font which was donated in 1671. In the 1630s, rebuilding began during which the church was extended and new sacristy was built. The choir was completed in 1666. In 1885–1888, the church was rebuilt into three-edged neo-Gothic brick basilica under the direction of architect Adolf Kjellström (1834-1932). The renovation utilized plans made by architect Axel Herman Hägg (1835-1921). The church's main organ was built for the restoration in 1885 by the organ builder company P.L. Åkerman & Lund (''Åkerman & Lund Orgelbyggeri'') of Stockholm. It was restored during 2006.

Climate

SMHI has had a weather station operating in Floda since 1995. It has a borderline

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Dfb'') with sizeable maritime influence, resulting in mild winter averages for its latitude. Floda is still less influenced by the Baltic Sea than areas to its south such as

Nyköping Nyköping () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Nyköping Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden, with 32,759 inhabitants as of 2017. The city is also the capital of Södermanland County. Including Arnö, the locality on the ...

and

Oxelösund Oxelösund is a locality and the seat of Oxelösund Municipality in Södermanland County, Sweden with 11,488 inhabitants in 2018. It is located less than south from the city centre of its larger neighbour, Nyköping, with the two urban areas form ...

, resulting in harsher winter frosts and larger summer

diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diur ...

than the coastal parts of the county. Although a reading occurred at the station's location measured in a brief existence of a similar station on 20 February 1963, the chart below only records the modern inceptions' extremes. Due to Flodafors being distinctly influenced by being in the interior, it has some of the warmest average afternoon summer temperatures in all of Scandinavia.

Recent events

In 2007, the Social Democrats and the Left Party in Katrineholm Municipality decided to shut down the elementary school in Flodafors. News of closure pulled off a great public protest, led by people in Flodafors. The Floda independent school association formed and has been operating school activities since the fall of 2009, in the old school premises.

References

Other sources

*Robert Bennett; P-O Karlsson (1988) ''Floda kyrka : Oppunda härad, Södermanland'' (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell)

External links

Floda kyrka website
Populated places in Katrineholm Municipality {{Södermanland-geo-stub