Orsa

For articles with similar titles, see ORSA, Orsha

Orsa
Orsa church
Orsa
Coordinates: 61°07′N 14°37′E / 61.117°N 14.617°E / 61.117; 14.617Coordinates: 61°07′N 14°37′E / 61.117°N 14.617°E / 61.117; 14.617
Country	Sweden
Province	Dalarna
County	Dalarna County
Municipality	Orsa Municipality
Area[1]
- Total	12.57 km2 (4.9 sq mi)
Population (2005-12-31)[1]
- Total	5,278
- Density	420/km2 (1,087.8/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Orsa is a locality and the seat of Orsa Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden, with 5,278 inhabitants in 2005.^[1] It is located in the northern part of lake Siljan, about 15 kilometers north of the town Mora. Inlandsbanan and European route E45 runs through the town and the railroad Bollnäs-Orsa connects.

Nature

The southern parts of Orsa are characterized by "Siljansringen", the ring of lakes and rivers i northern Dalarna formed by the big meteorite strike 365 million years ago. In central Orsa, at the ouflow of river Oreälven a sand bank has been built up, in these days enjoyed by thousands of visitors and the inhabitants of Orsa. The big forests starts just north of the town of Orsa, with the sparsely populated Orsa finnmark, where many finns emigrated to during the 17th century. Orsa has a lot of really great sights with milewide view over the culture landscape, the mountains and the water.

Worth seeing

• Orsa Camping, founded 1932, with its wonderful sand beach that are located at the Orsa Lake.
• Orsa spelmän, (Orsa folk lore musicians) which Benny Andersson from Abba use to play with.
• Finding your roots, many people migrated to the United States from Orsa, most commonly to Minnesota.
• Skattungbyn a small village with an undescribeable view over the river Oreälven.
• Orsayran (The Orsa Dizzying) a summer festival, with a lot of music, each wednesday in july.
• Orsa slipstensmuseum a museum of the making of the famous grindstones of Orsa, located in Mässbacken.
• Helvetesfallet and Storstupet nice waterfalls in river Ämån 20 km north of Orsa
• Orsa Grönklitt. A wilderness center with wilderness activities, bear- and animal park during the summer and a wonderful ski resort during the winter.
• Orsa Bear Park. One of the worlds biggest bear parks. It contains Scandinavian brown bear, Kamtjatka bear, Polar World with the Polar bear, Leopard center and Tiger Mountain with the Siberian Tigers. Rovdjurscentrum (The Predator Center) is a nice museum at the entrance of the bear park.

Orsamål dialect

About 500 people speak the orsamål dialect, an old scandinavian language, which is a variant of dalecarlian also called Old Swedish in Minnesota, USA.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Tätorternas landareal, folkmängd och invånare per km² 2000 och 2005" (in Swedish) (xls). Statistics Sweden. http://www.scb.se/statistik/MI/MI0810/2005A01B/T%c3%a4torternami0810tab1.xls. Retrieved 2009-05-09.