Torshälla is a locality situated in Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 7,612 inhabitants in 2010. It is mainly known for steel manufacturing, centered on the Nyby Bruk steel mill, and also for its historic old town centre.Because of its historic town status, from 1317 to 1971, Torshälla is customarily referred to as a stad (town or city) even though it does not have a population of 10,000, which is the limit presently in use defined by Statistics Sweden.Before the local government reform of 1971 Torshälla was an independent municipality. A new proposal to detach Torshälla from Eskilstuna Municipality was turned down in a referendum in 2006.HistoryFoundation and early historyTorshälla is one of the oldest towns in Sweden and received city rights as early as 1317 from King Birger. The oldest part of the town church is from the 12th century; however, the church was likely built on top of, or close to, the site of an earlier Old Norse holy place, where the god Thor was worshipped during the Viking Age.The name Torshälla stems from Þors harg, which means "place for sacrificing to Thor". The town is located at Eskilstunaån's very first rapids upstream of Lake Mälaren, creating a natural trading and reloading site. Several archeological digs have unconvered remains of two (possibly three) "strong houses", that is, small fortresses or castles, the one on Husberget next to the rapids dating from around 1300 AD. The fortification on Husberget was burned to the ground during the late 14th century.
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