Where to stay in Katrineholm
Most visitors stay in the town centre, the grid of streets around the station where the shops, the bus stand, and the main choice of hotels all sit within an easy walk of the platforms. It suits anyone arriving by train who wants to drop a bag and reach the shops and restaurants on foot. The centre is compact and flat.
Rooms fill in the bandy season, when teams and supporters come for matches at Backavallen, so book ahead if your visit falls on a fixture weekend in the depths of winter. Out toward the lakes and farmland that ring the town, guesthouses and self-catering cabins put you in the open country within a short drive of the centre, a calm base for families and anyone touring Södermanland by car. The countryside spreads wide here.
Choose the centre for the train. Pick the lakeside for the quiet, and you trade the hum of the junction for still water, pine woods, and long views across the fields of central Sweden.
Things to do in Katrineholm
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Museums & Galleries
- Dufweholms herrgård — working life museum
- Katrineholms hembygdsmuseum
Churches & Religious Sites
- Katrineholms kyrka Heritage-listed
- Nävertorps kyrka Heritage-listed
- Sandbäckskyrkan Heritage-listed
- Mariakyrkan
Stadiums & Sports
- Backavallen
- Woodyhallen
- Duveholmshallen — Sports center
About Katrineholm
What is Katrineholm known for?
Katrineholm is known as a railway junction. The town grew where the main line between Stockholm and Göteborg met the route south, and for generations the station has been the busy heart of the place, sending trains out across central Sweden in every direction. Sport runs deep here too.
The arena at Backavallen and a cluster of indoor halls have made the town a centre for bandy and other games, drawing crowds from across the surrounding district through the long winters.
What are the main landmarks in Katrineholm?
Katrineholms kyrka rises near the centre of town, its tower a familiar marker for travellers stepping off a train at the nearby station. Sport gives the town its other landmarks, above all the open arena at Backavallen and the indoor halls of Woodyhallen and Duveholmshallen, where the district gathers for matches through the winter. Churches dot the surrounding parishes.
Mariakyrkan, Sandbäckskyrkan, and Nävertorps kyrka each anchor their own quarter, while the lakes and farmland beyond the streets give the town its wider setting in central Sweden.
What is the history of Katrineholm?
Katrineholm is a creation of the railway. The surrounding parishes go back to the Middle Ages, but the town itself took shape only in the nineteenth century, when the Western Main Line between Stockholm and Göteborg was driven across Södermanland and a junction was laid out on the open farmland here. A village grew by the tracks.
Workshops, shops, and lodging houses followed the railwaymen, and within a generation a busy little town had gathered around the crossing of the lines. The junction made the town's fortune. Katrineholm became a place where goods and travellers changed trains, and industry, schools, and offices clustered around the rail.
It grew into one of the larger towns of the county. Made the seat of its own municipality, it settled into a steady role as a centre for work, sport, and services across the western part of Södermanland, still defined by the lines that first called it into being.
Where is Katrineholm?
Katrineholm lies in the north-western part of Södermanland County, in central Sweden, on the gently rolling farmland that fills the western reaches of the province. Lakes are scattered across the district, their wooded shores breaking up the open fields, and low forested ridges roll away on every side toward the wider lake country of the region. The land here is flat and worked.
Farms spread all around. Forest closes in beyond the fields.
What is the climate of Katrineholm?
Katrineholm has a temperate climate, typical of the inland plains of central Sweden. Winters are cold and reliably snowy, with the lakes around the town freezing over for matches and skating and frost lying across the open farmland on the still, clear nights of midwinter. Summers are mild and green.
The long days draw people outdoors. Autumn comes gently, with mist over the lakes and the fields turning gold before the first hard frosts arrive.
How do you get to Katrineholm?
Katrineholm sits on the main railway between Stockholm and Göteborg, and frequent trains stop here, making rail by far the easiest way to reach the town from either of the big cities. The station stands right in the centre, within a short walk of the shops and hotels. Local buses fan out across the district from the same square.
Drivers reach it on the regional roads that cross the plain. The country lanes run on toward the lakes.