Falun

Story

Falun is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with close to 100,000 inhabitants.Falun was originally famous for its copper mine, and is today an important service and industrial city even though the mine is closed (since 1992).Faluån is a river, flowing through the city, separating it into two sides. Falu copper mine is located on one of the sides which during many centuries was one of Sweden's main business. This side of the river was usually called "the mining side", where not many plants grew due to the toxic smoke which contaminated the soil. On the other side of the river, where the smoke did not reach, sets a large number of beautiful, large villas, which made this side to be called "the delightful side". The centre of Falun consists of classical pedestrian streets with small shops. in 1998, the city reclaimed the award of "the city centre of the year" in Sweden.The year 2001, the city, the copper mine and mining areas of Falun were added to the list of world heritage sites by the United Nations, which means that the city is worth preserving, as it is considered to be of interest for all of humanity. Dalarna University, with its 18 000 students, has a campus located in Falun - close to the national ski stadium where the ski world championship has taken place a number of times, including the last one in 2015.