Sandviken is a locality and the seat of

Sandviken Municipality Sandviken Municipality () is a municipality in Gävleborg County, in east central Sweden. The seat is the town of Sandviken. The present municipality was created in 1971 through the amalgamation of the City of Sandviken (itself instituted in 19 ...

Gävleborg County Gävleborg County () is a Counties of Sweden, county or ''län'' on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders the counties of Uppsala County, Uppsala, Västmanland County, Västmanland, Dalarna County, Dalarna, Jämtland County, Jämtland and V� ...

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 26,438 inhabitants in 2023. It is situated about 25 km west of

Gävle Gävle ( ; ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 79,004 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the List of cities in Sweden, 13th-most-populated city in Sweden. I ...

and lies approximately 190 km north of Stockholm. The rail journey to Stockholm takes about 1.5 hours and to Arlanda, Sweden's main international airport, around an hour. Sandviken is the home town of the major high-technology Swedish engineering concern

Sandvik Sandvik AB is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational engineering company specializing in products and services for mining, rock excavation, drilling rig, rock drilling, rock processing (crusher, crushing and mechanical screening, scre ...

and the main office of the company was located in Sandviken until January 2012 when it was moved to Stockholm.

Culture and recreation

Sandviken is home to a number of cultural activities: Kulturskolan means "the culture school" (extramural music, dance and drama training), Sandviken Big Band, Sandviken Symphonic Orchestra and many musicians in the region. Sandvikens Art Gallery shows throughout the year various interesting exhibitions. Amongst the many popular tourist attractions in the municipality, the following merit special mention: the attractive old, carefully restored industrial villages in Gysinge and Högbo Bruk with their forges and smithies, handicraft, manor houses and possibilities they offer for outdoor recreation. During the winter months the downhill skiing facilities and the Snowpark at Kungsberget attract many visitors. Sweden's first Mandaean place of worship, or '' mandi'', was consecrated in Sandviken in 2003. Sandviken hosted the 2023 Women World Curling Championship, being the first Swedish city to host it since

in 2004.

History

Sandviken was founded in 1862 in connection with the construction of the Sandvik AB ironworks. In 1900, Sandviken was one of Sweden's three largest ironworks, and had around 2,000 employees.

Sports

Sandvikens AIK have become Swedish bandy champions several times. From the season 2009-10, they play indoors in Göransson Arena. This arena was the Division A venue for the

2017 Bandy World Championship 2017 Bandy World Championship was the 37th Bandy World Championship and was held in Sweden. The games in Division A were played in Göransson Arena in Sandviken, 29 January to 5 February. The games of Division B were played in Slättbergshall ...

. Sandviken also hosts the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, in which the home team in 2017 won for the first time on home ice (and the first time at all ever since 2002). Football clubs located in Sandviken are Sandvikens IF who play in Division 1 Norra and Sandvikens AIK FK who play in Division 3 Södra Norrland. Their Jernvallen stadium was a venue of the

1958 FIFA World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the 6th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first and only FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Br ...

, making Sandviken the northernmost city to host the tournament. Sandviken is the birthplace of footballer Kim Källström and alpine ski racer Sara Hector.

Transportation

There are multiple buses running in Sandviken, the main ones being the 11 (''Säljan''), 13 (''Vallhov-Norrsätra'') and 14 (''Björksätra''). The buses, with the exception of 11, run on a half-hourly traffic schedule on the weekdays, and on an hourly traffic schedule during holidays and weekends. Bus 11 always runs on an hourly traffic schedule. Sandviken used to be connected to Gävle via Route 80 (''riksväg 80''), but has since been replaced with the

European route E16 European route E16 is the designation of a main west–east road through Northern Ireland, Scotland, Norway and Sweden, from Derry to Gävle, via Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, previously by ferry to Bergen, Voss, through the Gudvanga Tunnel and ...

. Route 68 (''riksväg 68'') connects Sandviken with the city of

Örebro Örebro ( ; ) is the seventh-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...

and Gävle, and Route 272 (''länsväg 272''), colloquially known as "Högbovägen", connects Sandviken to the smaller village of Högbo. The city extends to the south along Route 272 until it meets

Storsjön Storsjön (, ) is the fifth largest lake in Sweden, with an area of and a greatest depth of . It is the largest lake in central Sweden, located in the province of Jämtland in modern Jämtland County. From Storsjön runs the river Indalsälven ...

, where the road creates a causeway across the lake. Sandviken airport, although closer to the town of Valbo, serves the air travel needs for Sandviken, as well nearby

References

{{Authority control Municipal seats of Gävleborg County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Sandviken Municipality Gästrikland