Värnamo Municipality

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**Värnamo Municipality (*Kommun*)**
Image:Svcmap jonkoping.png Jönköping County in Sweden; Värnamo in the south Image:Jönköping County.png Map outlining municipalities of Sweden	Coat of arms Image:Värnamo City Arms.png
	Municipal facts
	Seat	Värnamo:
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	County	Jönköping County
	Province	Småland
	Area Rank	1,223 km² 79th of 290
	Population Rank (2005)	32,464 x of 290
	Density	26.5/km²

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

Värnamo Municipality (pron. Varnamoo) is a municipality in Jönköping County, in southern Sweden where the town Värnamo (pop. 17,500) is seat. In modern times, Värnamo credits itself by a friendly attitude towards refugees and immigrants. ^[1]

Värnamo 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 River Lagan, a river that for large parts is difficult to travel through. As there are were also smaller streams to the south and west of this location, it was considered something of a safeguard, leading to its name being Värn , which means safeguard, and mo which is a geographical location reference of some kind. It came to be the centre of the Östbo hundred, and a seat of merchancy; and was given formal rights as such when it became a köping in 1659, 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 independant köping in 1859. 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 ^[2], and making it significant enough to be granted a charter 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.