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Åmål Municipality is located in Västra Götaland County, in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Åmål with 9,300 inhabitants.
Geography The town Åmål is located in a bay of the lake Vänern, the largest lake in Sweden, at some 50 meter above sea level, and is considered a scenic location. The municipality has a small archipelago with some 30 islands located south of the town Åmål. It is called Tösse skärgård and is nature reserve. Many of the islands are grown with woods, but a few are used for farming. They are inhabited by several different birds, including heron, osprey, mallard, goldeneye, goosander, the black-throated diver and hobby in the bays; on the cobs are colonies of herring gull, seagull and the common tern; while on the fir covered islands are capercaillie, woodpeckers and other birds. In older times, fishing was an important industry, as apparent on the coat of arms that have been used at least since the 19th century. Wood industry was also of importance. History Åmål was founded in the 17th century, and became one of the now defunct Cities of Sweden already in 1646, and the only city in the historical province of Dalsland. Its location close to the borders of the Denmark-Norway alliance made it suffer in the ensuing centuries. First in 1645 when it was almost completely demolished, furthermore in 1676 and 1679; and the last time in 1788 when it was conquered by the Danes who held it for a short while. After the last severe fire in 1901, whereby 1,000 people became homeless, it was rebuilt with wider streets and larger houses. Notability The movie Fucking Åmål (released in English as Show Me Love) is set there (but was actually shot in Trollhättan) and depicts it as a relatively boring and "normal" town. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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