Country Sweden Seat Tumba ISO 3166 code SE Capital Tumba | County Stockholm County Time zone CET (UTC+1) Municipal code 0127 Province Södermanland | |
Points of interest Hågelby gård, Tullinge flygfält, Norsborgs Herrgård, Nässkansen, Sveriges högsta flaggstång | ||
Botkyrka Municipality (Botkyrka kommun) is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden, not far from the capital Stockholm. Its seat is located in the town of Tumba.
Contents
Map of Botkyrka, Sweden
In 1971 Grödinge was merged with Botkyrka and in 1974 Salem was added. The Salem part was already in 1983 split off again and a new Salem Municipality was formed.
History
The municipality is named after Saint Botvid, a Christian missionary during the 12th century. Saint Botvid is shown on the seal and coat of arms of Botkyrka Municipality, where he carries an axe and a fish. Another remnant of Botkyrka's Christian medieval history is the Botkyrka church, made of stone.
Botkyrka, particularly Northern Botkyrka, has one of the highest percentages of first and second generation immigrants in Sweden. 56.4% the population has at least one parent born in another country. This gives the municipality a multi-cultural atmosphere with for example a big Syriac Orthodox Church in Hallunda and a mosque in Fittja.
Politically the municipality is primarily Social Democratic, that has governed Botkyrka for a long period except 3 years in the early 1990th. However, with less seats the party now governs together with The Green Party, and The Left Party. There have also been several local parties. For a long period a local party called Botkyrkapartiet (The Botkyrka Party) has held several seats. A party was also active from mid 1980th to mid 1990th with only one purpose - to prevent the exploitation of the small airfield, F18, in Tullinge to become a commercial airport in the 1980s. In the election 2010 a local party for the area of Tullinge got 6 seats on the agenda of separating Tullinge from Botkyrka as a separate municipality.
Botkyrka has two local, weekly, newspapers called "Mitt i Botkyrka"(Middle of Botkyrka) and "Södra Sidan"(South side). They are delivered free of charge to all households.
The Swedish hip hop group The Latin Kings raps about life in Botkyrka in several of their songs.
Localities
The northern and eastern parts of the municipality are in the contiguous Stockholm urban area. Tumba forms a locality (tätort) of its own (which partly is in Salem Municipality). Vårsta is in the central part. The southern half of the municipality is mostly rural.
Public transportation
Botkyrka is served by the Stockholm public transport system. Stockholm metro has four and Stockholm commuter rail two stations within the municipality. There is also an extensive SL bus network.
Companies
Botkyrka is a municipal with several world-famous companies.
Notably, Lars Magnus Ericsson who founded the LM Ericsson company (now known as Ericsson) also had properties in Botkyrka, including Hågelby gård which today is used for conferences and as an excursion place with gardens, animals, stone age village and more.
Districts
Sports
The following sports clubs are located in Botkyrka: