Where to Stay in Hallstahammar, Västmanland County

The Strömsholms kanal runs through the middle of Hallstahammar, and the town grew up with it. Locks step the waterway down through the centre, once floating iron and goods between the mining country and Mälaren, and the mills and metalworks that lined the canal made the town a place of forges, wire, and steel. Boats now pass for pleasure.

The locks still work by hand.

The Strömsholms kanal is the chief sight. Its hand-worked locks step down through the centre in a stone staircase, and the quays and lock-keeper's cottages beside them survive as a working relic of the trade that once floated iron between the mining country and Mälaren. Two parish churches, Sankt Lars kyrka and Svedvi kyrka, stand among the older settlements that the works later drew together.

Hallstarena gathers the town for sport and events. South of the centre lie the palace and stud at Strömsholm.

Hallstahammar was shaped by iron and water. Forges and ironworks rose along the Kolbäcksån in early modern times, using the falling water to drive hammers and bellows, and the works drew a settlement to the riverbanks. Water did the work.

The Strömsholms kanal changed everything. It was cut to carry iron and goods between the inland mines and Mälaren, and the canal turned a cluster of mills into a working industrial town. The nineteenth century brought steel and wire.

Larger works took over, the town grew around the mills and the locks, and Hallstahammar became known for metal products that travelled far beyond the county. Industry set the rhythm of life. The mills ran for generations.

As the canal's cargo trade faded it found a second life with pleasure boats, while downstream the royal estate at Strömsholm kept its palace and its centuries-old tradition of horses.

Hallstahammar lies in the western part of Västmanland County, in central Sweden, on the Kolbäcksån between Västerås and the western shore of Mälaren. The river and the Strömsholms kanal run south through the municipality toward the lake, threading a low country of farm fields and woods, and the canal's locks mark the fall of the water. The land is gentle and flat.

Water runs through the heart of it.

Hallstahammar has a humid continental climate typical of the Mälaren valley. Winters are cold, with snow and frost and a canal that freezes over, while summers are mild and fairly bright, warm enough for swimming and for the boats that fill the locks from late spring through early autumn. Spring is slow.

Autumn turns grey and wet.

Main roads and a railway link Hallstahammar to Västerås in the east and Köping to the south-west, tying it into the corridor that runs west from Stockholm along the Mälaren valley. The drive to Västerås is short. The Strömsholms kanal offers a slower way through by boat.

Buses connect the town to its neighbours.