Arvika is a locality and the seat of Arvika Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 14,244 inhabitants in 2010.
History
Ten kilometers west of the city, in Bergs Klätt, there are remnants of a younger Stone Age and Nordic Bronze Age settlements in the form of graves.
The town was a village until 1811 when it was given town privileges by royal charter under the name Oscarsstad in order to improve the economy of the area. This attempt was unsuccessful, and the town privileges were repealed in 1821 and the town was instead given the status of köping (township) and renamed Arvika. The town privileges were reinstated at the founding centennial in 1911, and the name Arvika remained. The city status is now obsolete, but Arvika is since 1971 the seat of the larger Arvika municipality.
The church Mikaelskyrkan is from 1647, and the church in the centre, Trefaldighetskyrkan, is from the same year as the town, 1911.
Industry
Arvika has several heavy industrial production facilities which employ the majority of the population, among these Thermia, Volvo Construction Equipment (Wheel loaders), Arvika Gjuteri (nodular and grey iron foundry) and Coffee Queen, a coffee machine factory.
Culture
Arvika is known for the turn of the century (around 1900) artist commune Rackstad just outside the city. Here, several famous Swedish artists lived and worked, the most well-known probably being Christian Eriksson and Gustaf Fjæstad and his wife Maja Fjæstad. Other talents that lived in Rackstad include Björn Ahlgrensson and Fritz Lindström. Arvika is also home of NHL player Jacob De La Rose, drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 2012.
The Arvika Festival (since 1992) was the biggest annual event in the area, with several international bands visiting the town during three days in July every summer. In recent years such bands as Einstürzende Neubauten, Hot Chip, Robyn, The Knife, Ministry, New Order, Kraftwerk and Franz Ferdinand have performed here. The 2009 festival was headlined by Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Röyksopp and Korn and was the biggest edition of the festival ever.
One of the six university colleges of music in Sweden, Ingesund College of Music, a department of Karlstad University, is situated in Arvika.
Education
In Arvika there are three upper secondary schools, of which two are municipal and one is independent. Education for adults is available at Ingesund Folk High School , Ingesund Academy of Music and Arvika Business Center.
In 1838, Arvika köping applied to establish an educational institution. This application was rejected by the court chapter. 20 years later, on 15 September 1858, Arvika got its own educational institution. For the first eight years, operations were conducted in temporary premises. In 1866, the educational institution got its own building, where the current Solbergagymnasiet still has its operations.
