The city is named after St Eskil, the Englishman who became Svealand’s first Christian bishop and built his church on the riverbank along Eskilstunaan at the end of the tenth century. During Sweden’s Age of Greatness in the seventeenth century, Eskilstuna flourished after Karl X Gustav gave master smith Reinhold Rademacher a 20-year monopoly on the manufacture of items such as cannons, knives and scissors.

Rademachergatan still has a few forges kept as they were in the 1650s, where visitors can try their hand at being a blacksmith.

Today’s modern industrial city and centre of learning features more than 200 items of public art, including Carl Milles’s Hand of God in Stadsparken.

Parken Zoo is one of Sweden’s leading zoos, as well as a popular amusement park with a heated outdoor pool. The entrance is guarded by the Phantom, whose Skull Cave is a magnet for youngsters and comic fans alike.