Where to Stay in Sala, Västmanland County

Silver made Sala. For centuries the mine here was among the most valuable possessions of the Swedish crown, its deep shafts yielding silver that helped fund kings and wars, and the town grew around that single, glittering source of wealth. The mine is now a museum.

Visitors descend into the cool, dark workings.

Sala silvergruva draws visitors underground into shafts that once made the town rich, with guided descents and a system of ponds and canals built to drive the pumps. Kristina kyrka anchors the centre. The Aguélimuseet shows art in the town where its namesake painter was born, a small and contemplative collection set among the old streets.

Sala's history is the history of its silver. Mining in these hills goes back to the late Middle Ages, and by the sixteenth century the works had become the crown's treasure chest, so vital that the king guarded its secrets and steered its output to pay for the affairs of state. Miners came from far away.

The shafts went deep. A rough settlement spread near the workings. In 1624 the king granted the town its privileges and laid out a new plan a little away from the mine, giving Sala the regular streets and central square it still keeps.

Wealth built the early town. The silver slowly thinned. As yields fell over the following centuries the town turned to farming, trade, and later industry, yet the mine remained its emblem and, in the end, its chief draw for visitors.

The deep workings outlasted the boom.

Sala lies in the northern part of Västmanland County, in eastern Sweden, north of the county seat at Västerås. Farmland and forest surround the town, and to the south the old mine's lakes and canals form a green belt of water meadows and ponds engineered long ago to serve the shafts. The land is gently rolling.

Streams feed the old system.

Sala has a humid continental climate typical of the eastern interior, with a clear swing between the seasons. Winters are cold and snowy, with frost that holds for weeks and lakes that freeze hard, while summers are mild and often bright, warm enough for the fields to ripen and the woods to fill with berries. Spring comes late.

Autumn turns crisp.

Sala is a railway junction, where lines from Stockholm and the Mälaren towns meet routes running north and west into the mining country. Trains call at the central station. Roads link the town to Västerås and the surrounding countryside.

The mine lies a short way south of the centre.