Värnamo historically known as Wernamo, is a town in Jönköping County in the south of Sweden. It is situated on the river Lagan just north of the lake Vidöstern. It is the seat of Värnamo Municipality and has 19,741 inhabitants as of 31 December 2019. The name comes from old Swedish värn (sconce) and mo (sandy flat land).
Economy
DS Smith is the largest private employer with 275 employees and Värnamo Municipality is the largest public employer with 3,575 employees as of November 2019. The largest companies based in Värnamo by number of employees (including outside Värnamo) are Liljedahl Group AB, Bufab AB, Sandahlsbolagen Sweden AB and DS Smith Packaging Sweden AB.
Culture
Apladalen is a nature park and an open-air museum located in the center of Värnamo. It has some preserved buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries, a handicraft shop, a café and a large playground. There are also live animals, such as sheep, goats, rabbits and hens. In Apladalen you can also find a statue of the lovers Per and Kersi, a fictional couple who met at the market in Värnamo and fell in love.
Attractions
Gummifabriken (“Rubber factory”) is a former rubber factory that has been renovated and rebuilt. It contains the local library, Madame Brasserie & Café, an auditorium with 393 seats, Campus Värnamo, Teknikcenter, a cinema with three screens, Science Park (a business incubator), Skärteknikcentrum (“Cutting technology centre”), Värnamo Näringsliv and a business centre.
Zivan and Zorka Tomic opened Pizzeria Chaplin in 1979, as the first pizzeria in Värnamo. The interior, furniture and garden are all designed and built by Zivan. In 2004 Tanja Tomic won the European Pizza Championship in Marbella, Spain with her self-composed pizza Santa Lucia.
Infrastructure
Transport
The closest airport, Hagshult Airbase, is located 13 kilometers north of Värnamo. It is used by the Swedish Armed Forces and Värnamo flying club.[17][18] The closest public airports are Växjö/Kronoberg Airport (51 km) followed by Jönköping Airport (63 km).
Värnamo is situated on the junction between the Halmstad–Nässjö railway line and the Coast-to-Coast Line (Gothenburg–Kalmar).
City and regional bus traffic is operated by Jönköping County. Värnamo is located just north west of the junction between the European route E4 and the national road 27.
Healthcare
Värnamo sjukhus is one of three hospitals in Jönköping County with an Emergency department. There is one private and 2 public clinics. These are Unicare Apladalens vårdcentral, Vråens vårdcentral and Väster vårdcentral, which is located in the hospital.
Education
There are seven schools for Primary and lower secondary education in Värnamo. These are: Rörstorpsskolan for preschool class to 3rd grade; Enehagens skola, Mossleskolan and Trälleborgsskolan for preschool class to 5th grade; Exposkolan for 4th to 6th grade and Apladalsskolan and Gröndalsskolan for 6th to 9th grade. The oldest school is Enehagens skola which has been active since 1907 and the newest school is Exposkolan, which opened in 2019.
There was previously a charter school for grades six to nine operated by Prolympia, which focused on sport. It was closed down in 2010 because of a lack of students.
There is one school for upper secondary education called Finnvedens gymnasium. It offers 11 of the 18 national program of which in 2020 the most popular were Social Science (23%), Business Management and Economics (16%), Technology (13%), Natural Science (8%), and Vehicle and Transport (8%).
When Finnvedens gymnasium opened in 1969 no students nor any teachers were allowed to participate in the opening ceremony which costed 25,000 SEK. This was seen as unfair by the student council, who also thought it was too expensive. The student council therefore organized their own, cheaper ceremony outside before the official ceremony. This attracted national news coverage and one of the invitees, Olof Palme, then Minister for Education, who became the Swedish prime minister a month later, spoke to the students.
There is Folk high school in Värnamo called Värnamo Folkhögskola, which has been active since 1876. It is governed by Jönköping County and offers primary, secondary and tertiary education. Among courses offered are youth worker, social educator and courses in textile. It offers boarding and has exchanges with a folk high school in Zambia and one in the UK.
Campus Värnamo offers tertiary level education and is governed by the municipal executive board of Värnamo. It offers technical and engineering courses in 3D computer graphics and printing, polymer engineering and web development as well as courses for paraprofessional educator and preschool teacher. It also runs Teknikcenter (“Technical center”), which organizes technical activities for children and teenagers and educates teachers in technology. Its purpose is to increase interest in technology in the region.
