The green city

The city is surrounded by parks and green areas, with lovely countryside just round the corner. Rya Åsar for example, which offers over a thousand acres of wild nature and breathtaking views.  A ring of outdoor centres and club houses encircles the city, great starting points for trips to the forest, lakes and recreation areas.

In green Borås you can live centrally and still be close to nature. Several housing estates are just minutes away from forests and countryside.

New life in the city centre

The centre of Borås is getting livelier all the time. Sandwalls Plats, and Knalletorget by the river Viskan are, like Hötorget, places that have been recently revamped and become meeting places with pavement cafes and other attractions.

Stora Torget has become a really special place on Thursday evenings during the summer, when thousands of Borås locals and tourists gather to see artists perform on the large outdoor stage.

Centre for design and commerce

Borås is a trade and textile city. For a few decades in the 1900s it was one of Sweden’s fastest growing towns, thanks to the rapidly expanding textile and clothing industry then. Nowadays Borås has become a centre for textile design, development and commerce. Many well known textile and clothing chains have their head offices in Borås, like Hemtex, Gina Tricot, Svea and 8848 Altitude.

The tradition of trade and textiles continues with mail order and e-commerce, and Borås has become a hub in the Nordic countries for that, with well known businesses like Redcats-Ellos, Cellbes, Haléns and H&M Rowells. Many millions of packages are mailed from Borås every year.

Mail order and e-commerce’s experience of handling the flow of goods has made Borås a centre of excellence in logistics and distribution. Manufacturing and electronics are some of the other major industries in the county. Large companies like Ericsson, Volvo Busses and Parker Hannifin are found here.

Borås’s strategic position is a reason why many companies choose it. Four main routes meet in Borås, including the motorway between Gothenburg and Stockholm, as well as a rail network heading in four directions. The X2000 gets you to Stockholm in just over 3 hours. Landvetter Airport is a half hour drive away.

University and research

Right in the centre the University’s newly built city campus gives an exciting architectural background to the long Allégatan boulevard. The University of Borås has around 12 000 students and courses in economics, computing, technology, textiles, design and library studies, amongst other things. Teacher and health care training is also available. The university is a skills resource for business, as is SP, the Technical Research Institute of Sweden.

Exciting cultural life

Borås has an extensive and exciting cultural life, which apart from sculpture and street art also includes theatres, symphony orchestras and around ten museums.
The Textile Museum shows Europe’s largest collection of textile machinery still in use. Borås Art Gallery has a magnificent collection of 20th century Swedish art, and Borås Museum displays cultural and historical artefacts from the whole of the Sjuhärad area. Borås Stadsteater shows around 200 productions a year on its two stages.  The Åhaga Centre, a former engine repair shed that got a new lease of life after a sympathetic renovation, is home to the Borås Symphony Orchestra

Experiences

A zoo and lots of sport facilities have made the area around Knalleland a sport and adventure hub. There’s a skateboarding arena and an ice rink, as well as facilities for tennis, floorball, curling, gymnastics, boules, and a swimming pool.   There’s a modern football stadium, a sports centre, sports hall and an outdoor pool, all in the same area, integrated with a shopping centre, and with a zoo and campsite as its nearest neighbours.

Distance from Landvetter: 30 mins
Distance from Gothenburg: 45 mins

Municipality of Borås