Uppsala

Uppsala (ˈɵ̂pːˌsɑːla; archaically spelled Upsala) is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the capital Stockholm it is also the seat of Uppsala Municipality. Since 1164, Uppsala has been the ecclesiastical centre of Sweden, being the seat of the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden. Uppsala is home to Scandinavia's largest cathedral – Uppsala Cathedral, which was the frequent site of the coronation of the Swedish monarch until the late 19th century. Uppsala Castle, built by King Gustav Vasa, served as one of the royal residences of the Swedish monarchs, and was expanded several times over its history, making Uppsala the secondary capital of Sweden during its greatest extent. Today it serves as the residence of the Governor of Uppsala County. Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest centre of higher education in Scandinavia. Among the many scholars associated with the city are Anders Celsius, inventor of the centigrade temperature scale that now bears his name, and Carl Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy. Other Uppsala residents include filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, chemists Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Svante Arrhenius, actress Viveca Lindfors, and singer Malena Ernman. History of Uppsala Uppsala was originally the name of a place a few kilometres north of the current city, now known as Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala). Today's Uppsala was then called Östra Aros (Eastern Aros, to differentiate it from Western Aros). (Old) Uppsala was, according to medieval writer Adam of Bremen, the main pagan centre of Sweden, and the Temple at Uppsala contained magnificent idols of the Norse gods. The Kungsängen plains along the river south of Uppsala have been identified as a possible match for Fyrisvellir, the site of the Battle of Fyrisvellir in the 980s. The present-day Uppsala was at that time a port town of Gamla Uppsala.