Värnamo

Story

Värnamo is a locality and the seat of Värnamo Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden, with 18,696 inhabitants in 2010.HistoryVärnamo traces its history back to a village in the medieval age; the first written mention of it stems from the 13th century. It came into existence as a village to the eastern side of a fordable place over the Lagan, a river that for large parts is difficult to travel by. As there are also smaller streams to the south and west of this location, it was considered something of a safeguard, leading to its name being amalgamated from the two Swedish words värn, which means safeguard, and mo which is a geographical location reference describing the kind of land on which the town is situated. The word mo actually means that the soil consists of fine sand, sometimes making the land surrounding the river bog or barren.Värnamo came to be the centre of Östbo Härad, an archaic form of judicial district, and thus a seat of trade and commerce. When Värnamo became a köping in 1659 it was given formal rights to host markets, falling under the jurisdiction of the city of Jönköping.The town of Värnamo was insignificant for a long time, but with the Swedish population growth and industrialization in the 19th century it expanded, becoming an independent köping in 1859. Dense forests and industrial water power spurned the furniture industry and forges run by water power. The Swedish railroad nets spurred to enhance its industrial life, leading to a population increasing from 1,141 people in 1910 to 3,664 in 1920, and making it significant enough to get the title of a city on November 1, 1920, whereby it became one of the now only historical Cities of Sweden. The chosen city arms depicts the traditional location by the Lagan.