Where to Stay in Enköping, Uppsala County

Enköping is the town of parks. Its many public gardens, laid out and tended with unusual care, have given it a national name and draw garden lovers from across the country to the planted borders and green spaces that ring the centre. The town is also an old market place.

Standing near the head of Lake Mälaren with fast roads and rails to Stockholm and Uppsala, it has long traded on its central position, and the medieval church of Vårfrukyrkan still marks the heart of one of Sweden's oldest towns.

Vårfrukyrkan rises over the centre, the great medieval brick church that has watched the town for centuries. The parks are landmarks in themselves. Around the old streets stand Enakyrkan and the small Sankt Lars kyrka, the remains of the Franciscan friary that once held the town, the Enköpings museum with its local collections, and the planted gardens for which the place is best known across Sweden.

The Försvarets historiska telesamlingar, a museum of military signals history, fills out the picture for those drawn to the technical past.

The town is ancient. Enköping grew near the head of Lake Mälaren as a market and trading place, and it ranks among the oldest towns in Sweden, gathering through the medieval centuries the brick church of Vårfrukyrkan, a Franciscan friary, and a busy market that served the rich farming country of the surrounding plain. Its central position on the waterways made it a meeting point for trade.

Fire and change reshaped the centre. Like many Swedish towns, Enköping lost much of its old timber fabric to fires over the centuries and rebuilt itself anew, while the friary fell at the Reformation and left only fragments behind. The modern age brought rails and parks.

The railway tied the town firmly to Stockholm and Uppsala and drew industry to it, and across the twentieth century a celebrated programme of public gardens gave Enköping the national name it carries still, turning an old market town on the plain into a destination for those who come to walk among the flowers.

Enköping lies in the south-western part of Uppsala County, on the open farming plain that runs back from the northern shore of Lake Mälaren. The town sits inland of the lake. Around it spread broad fields, low ridges, and patches of forest, with the inlets of Mälaren reaching toward it from the south and the larger cities of Uppsala to the north-east and Stockholm to the south-east both within easy reach.

The setting is flat, fertile, and central.

Enköping has a temperate climate typical of the Mälaren region. Winters are cold, with frost and snow over the plain through the dark months, though the broad waters of the lake nearby temper the deepest cold of the inland interior. Summers are mild and bright.

The long northern days warm the fields and gardens, bringing the parks to their peak across the brightest weeks and drawing the season's busiest crowds, while spring and autumn turn changeable and often grey. Rain falls fairly evenly through the year.

Enköping sits on the railway between Stockholm and the west, with trains stopping in the town through the day. Drivers reach it by the E18 motorway that runs across the plain between Stockholm and Örebro. The rail and road links are quick.

Uppsala lies a short way to the north-east and Stockholm to the south-east, both easy by car or train, while the airports around the capital serve as the main gateways for visitors arriving from further afield.