Arvika

Arvika
Central Arvika in June 2004
Arvika
Coordinates: 59°39′15″N 12°35′29″E / 59.65417°N 12.59139°E / 59.65417; 12.59139Coordinates: 59°39′15″N 12°35′29″E / 59.65417°N 12.59139°E / 59.65417; 12.59139
Country	Sweden
Province	Värmland
County	Värmland County
Municipality	Arvika Municipality
Established	1911
Area
• Total	10.62 km2 (4.10 sq mi)
Elevation	58 m (190 ft)
Population (31 December 2010)
• Total	14,244
• Density	1,341/km2 (3,470/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	671 xx
Area code(s)	(+46) 570
Website	Official website

Arvika is a locality and the seat of Arvika Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden with 14,244 inhabitants in 2010.

The town of Arvika is situated at Kyrkviken, a bay of Glafsfjorden, Sweden's only inland fjord, a remnant of the time following the last ice age (once a fjord of the Ancylus Lake).

The area is hilly with the tallest hill Storkasberget close to the town centre.

Arvika and its surroundings have excellent water infrastructure. In fact, Arvika has the innermost harbour in the whole of Sweden. Through a system of canals, lake Vänern can be reached, and from there the Göta Canal allows further passage to Gothenburg and Sweden's west coast.

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 This attempt was unsuccessful, and the town privileges were repealed in 1821 and the town was instead given the status of köping (township) and renamed Arvika.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.

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 coffemachine factory.