The small town of Eksjo, in the highlands of southern Sweden, is the country’s most genuine wooden town. It has a long military tradition. This was border country until the seventeenth century and Eksjo was burned down by its own people in conjunction with a Danish retreat. In the 1560s Erik XIV drew up a new town plan for Eksjo, which largely remains today. The Old Town escaped the fire and its buildings remain intact and have been sympathetically renovated.

About 13 kilometres east of Eksjo, the Skurugata Nature Reserve encompasses an impressive canyon in porphyritic rock 800 metres long and 35 metres deep. From Eksjo to the neighbouring town of Nassjo is just over 20 kilometres. Nassjo owes its existence to the coming of the railway in the 1860s. At that time the village had 57 inhabitants; today it has nearly 30,000 and the railway companies Statens Jarnvagar and Banverket are still the main employers. Sights in Nassjo include the Railway Museum and Hembygdsparken with its collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings.