Mariestad Municipality

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This page deals with both Mariestad Municipality and the urban area (tätort) Mariestad

**Mariestad Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Mariestad in Västra Götaland County Map outlining the municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Mariestad
	{{{locationReadable}}}
	County	Västra Götaland County
	Province	Västergötland
	Area Rank	602 km² 157th of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	23,897 x of 290
	Population density	40/km²

Mariestad Cathedral, 2003

Mariestad Municipality is a Municipality in western Sweden. Its seat is in Mariestad (coor 58°42′N 13°49′E; pop. 20,000 ; area 10 km²). Mariestad was once the seat for the Skaraborg County (deestablished 1998-12-31). Instead it is now part of the cluster called Västra Götaland County which also contains Skaraborg County, Älvsborg County and the provinces Dalsland and Bohuslän.

The city was founded in 1583 by Duke Charles, who later became King Charles IX of Sweden. The city is named after his wife Marie of Pfalz. The coat of arms for Mariestad, an ox stepping out of the water, is said to be what Marie of Pfalz saw by the bay of Tidan in Mariestad when she first arrived there.

Mariestad is one of two Swedish cities with a cathedral whitout a bishop's seat (the other being Kalmar). Mariestad had a bishop during the 17th century, but the diocese was later merged with the Diocese of Skara.

1 Notable natives
2 Industry
3 Geography
4 External links

[edit] Notable natives

Torbern Bergman 1735 - 1784, chemist
Rudolf Kjellén 1864 - 1922 , political scientist
Carl Fridolf Carlsson 1870 - 1924 industrial man

Carlsson was during World War I the owner of Germany's largest ship industry, Schichau.

Charles Emil Löfwenskiöd 1810 - 1888, architect.
Axel Lindahl (1841-1906), pioneering photographer

[edit] Industry

The largest employers are Electrolux home products and Katrinefors bruk a part of Metsä Tissue AB. SCA Packaging AB, RM Perfo AB and Jede AB are other notable companies in Mariestad. Within the IT industry Telia Partner AB and WM-data Infra Solutions AB are the two biggest employers. Just south of Mariestads, in Lugnås you find Nimbus Produktion AB who manufactures Nimbus boats.

[edit] Geography

Mariestad is situated by lake Vänern and is in summertime visited by many tourists. The largest sweet water archipelago of Sweden lies within the municipality, here Torsö and Brommö are the two largest islands. North of the city, in Sjötorp, Göta kanal meets Lake Vänern.