Västerås is a city that was once one of the main Viking castles. On its outskirts, there are ship-shaped barrows where, according to legends, the Swew king Bröt-Anund is buried.
At the beginning of the 11th century, Västerås was Sweden's second largest city. Today, the Anundshög is a reminder of this period - stone formations arranged in the shape of ships that have fired the imagination of archaeologists and treasure hunters for years.
In the center of Västerås, there is no shortage of attractions in the form of numerous monuments. The most valuable of them is the St. Mary's Cathedral, the construction of which began in the 13th century. Its present-day appearance is the result of reconstruction after a fire in the 17th century, and the interior hides, among others, the tomb of King Erik XIV and an early Baroque altar in the form of a triptych.
The Kyrkbacken district has a pleasant atmosphere with preserved 17th century wooden houses. They survived the city's only great fire in 1714 and today they form one of the most beautiful historic wooden buildings in Sweden.
