Kalmar was once the third largest city in Sweden, with a strategically-important location on Kalmar Sound - an old trading route. Today, Kalmar has about 58,000 inhabitants, over half of whom live in the city itself. Kalmar is alone in having twice won the "Europa Nostra" award for its well-preserved city centre. There are many worthwhile sights to be seen here, and the city is also an ideal tourist centre, for Öland and the Glass Country, among other places.

The Kalmar region is an ancient seat of culture which dates back to the Stone Age. Its inhabitants have been people with strength, courage and the tenacity typical of Småland. They have been interested in new inventions but have also clung to the old, familiar ways. Excavations in Ljungbyholm, just south of Kalmar, during 1968-69, uncovered relics from about A.D.600 and the Bronze and Stone Ages.

The region has been rich, with high-class agricultural land, forests of leaf and fir trees, and with a great deal of trade, seafaring and fishing. The people of Kalmar have had to fight hard to retain their possessions, since the Danish border lay only a few miles to the south. They were forced to build a strongly-fortified round tower to protect the harbour and its people. This dates roughly from the year 1160. At the same time, work was started on the fortification of the churches around the district, including Hossmo, Hagby, Voxtorp, Kläckeberga and Dörby. The tower in Kalmar formed the core of the future Kalmar Castle, and a ring wall was built around it and the few buildings which stood beside it. Kalmar lay to the west and north-west of the castle, also protected by an encircling, fortified wall.

In 1397, Queen Margareta summoned a meeting of counsellors which was intended to lay the foundation of a united Scandinavia, the so-called Kalmar Union. The idea was good but a united Scandinavia never materialised.

Both town and castle grew during the Middle Ages, and people called Kalmar "The key to the kingdom". This was because the man who ruled from the castle here had control of a large part of the country and had a decisive influence on trade around the Baltic Sea. There were more or less continuous hostilities between the Swedes and the Danes, and the people of Kalmar had very few peaceful moments during the last century of the Middle Ages.

So when Gustav Vasa became King of Sweden, the town was war-damaged, and the castle in a lamentable state. It was here in Kalmar - on Stensö point - that Gustav Vasa came ashore in 1520 after his escape from prison in Denmark. The castle was rebuilt and modernised and was given its present-day appearance, with moat and ramparts. Gustav's sons, Erik and Johan, remodelled the strong fortress into a Renaissance palace in the continental style.

Hostilities between Denmark and Sweden culminated in the so-called Kalmar wars of 1611-1613. The castle and the township around it fell into the hands of the Danes. The people of Kalmar once more had to roll up their sleeves and start to clear the rubble and rebuild their castle and their town. When a great conflagration swept through Kalmar in 1647, the city fathers decided to move the town from beside the castle to the island of Kvarnholmen. The townspeople stubbornly refused to move at first however, but after a while the authorities managed to get them across to Kvarnholmen, and the new town took shape during the 17th and 18th centuries. It had a modern layout, with straight streets on a regular grid plan inside the fortified walls. The burghers then started to build themselves pavilions for summer use where the old town had lain. These houses were usually built like small farms, with a main building, outhouses and barns etc. This quarter too gradually assumed a more town-like appearance, although even today you can see the old, well-preserved houses and sense the atmosphere of the old town.

Kalmar is the only city to have received the Europa Nostra prize twice, for its well-preserved urban environment. The first award was for the remodelling of the old brewery Nordstjärnan in 1985, the second award being for a number of houses on Kvarnholmen.

Kalmar's position makes it an ideal starting point for excursions to Öland and to the Glass Country.