Grästorp

Life in Skaraborg Municipalities Grästorp

Grästorp’s municipality is a residential community with a rural pulse. It’s beautifully located south of Lake Vänern in the heart of Västra Götaland. Our municipality is open and welcomes every individual, company and organization we encounter. Welcome to Grästorp!

Number of residents: 5,563
Towns: Grästorp
Neighboring municipalities: Vara, Essunga, Lidköping, Trollhättan and Vänersborg
Price per square meter (single family/town house): SEK 14,552
Number of companies: 949
Major industries: Green industries, agricultural machinery, handicrafts and service companies
Employers: Dataväxt, Axima, Linjemontage, Nisotech, Sonnys Maskiner, Mäjens Glass and others
Popular places to visit: Forshall nature park, Mäjen’s ice cream, Hunneberg, Rest Area Viggen, Särestad’s Rural Museum, Grästorp’s haunted house

Living here

Living in Grästorp’s municipality

Grästorp’s municipality is a residential community with a rural pulse. It’s beautifully located south of Lake Vänern in the heart of Västra Götaland. There are good connections to nearby towns by train, bus and the excellent road network. Today, around 5,700 residents live here and the municipality has a clear ambition to grow.

Because many people want to move to the country, and many are interested in Grästorp’s pleasant and safe housing environment, we’re creating new housing opportunities. Right now, the Brännebacka Västra subdivision is under construction, which will become a natural extension of the town. The area, which is close to nature and with short distances to schools, sports and services, is planned to include a variety of housing types. People will live sustainably here with modern housing solutions, green electricity and their own garden plots. We’re also planning apartments in the city center, more residential areas that are close to nature and we encourage the construction of new homes in rural areas. Today, almost half of Grästorp’s population lives in our thriving rural areas.

Grästorp is known for its thriving associations with almost 100 of them. With a wide choice of leisure activities and recreational areas close by, Grästorp is an attractive municipality for all ages. Activities include an 18-hole golf course, ice rink, indoor swimming pool, riding center, soccer fields; sports, tennis and padel halls, martial arts, archery and handgun shooting ranges, and much more for the active family. Our cultural arts center hosts many activities all year round, as well as major annual events such as our fantastic festival of lights.

Where is Grästorp? The municipality is strategically located to the far west of Skaraborg, close to several larger towns. Trollhättan is 30 minutes away by car, and you can reach Vänersborg by train in 20 minutes. Lidköping is 25 minutes away, and Gothenburg just over one hour. This means many people commute to and from the municipality, and our excellent roads and train and bus connections make this easy.

Grästorp2. — Distances from Grästorp to a selection of other places

History

Grästorp’s municipality is a flourishing, go-ahead rural municipality in the middle of the fertile Västgöta Plains, close to the shores of Lake Vänern and Hunneberg’s beautiful hiking trails. It’s home to around 5,700 people. Around half of the residents live in the town of Grästorp, and the rest in the surrounding countryside.

Grästorp was and still is a town in Tengene parish. Following the municipal reform of 1862, the town became part of Tengene rural municipality. In 1900, Grästorp became a market town when it broke away from the rural municipality. In 1952, it became part of Grästorp’s rural municipality, which was reformed in 1971 as Grästorp’s municipality with Grästorp as its regional center.

Historically, the municipality was based around farming, and there’s still a strong link to agriculture and small-scale enterprises. Local food has long been a focus area, for example, a farmer’s market came early here and the first Swedish REKO network began here in 2016.

Moving here

Moving to Grästorp

Grästorp’s municipality has a clear ambition to grow the number of residents, and we’re seeing an increase in newcomers. We are clearly focused on being a good, active and safe municipality for our residents. It’s important for us that growth be sustainable, so that the community, schools and care continue to maintain their high quality. We’re pleased with the increasing interest in moving here and right now we’re making major efforts in planning new housing areas and business lots. Grästorp is growing and extends a welcome to you!

Our vision is to be an open, welcoming municipality for all. So why should you move to Grästorp? There’s the opportunity to choose between a house or an apartment in town or in the countryside. We’re busy working to be a really good residential municipality and one of our focus areas is hosting.

People seeking building lots in Grästorp’s municipality must join a line. The line controls the order in which people can buy the municipality’s vacant lots from those who have registered an interest in selling. There are also opportunities to find lots and homes in our beautiful countryside. There are checklists on the municipal web page along with supporting information.

Renting a home (in Swedish)

Homes for sale (Hemnet, in Swedish)

Vacant lots (in Swedish)

Rural living (in Swedish)

Jobs

Working in Grästorp

We welcome the future, we welcome change, we welcome you. Grästorp’s municipality is a major employer with many opportunities and a wide range of occupations to choose from for people seeking jobs in the municipal organization.

There are also many companies to work for. Grästorp’s extraordinarily close-knit business community enjoys a fantastic business climate, and many companies are constantly recruiting.

Major employers include the local retail trade, Linjemontage AB, Axima AB, Ahsell Sverige AB, Åse Viste Sparbank, Dataväxt and handicraft and service companies. The community is bubbling with entrepreneurial spirit, and in addition to the major employers there are also many small, agreeable companies to work for.

Education

Schools in Grästorp

Grästorp has a preschool, elementary school, special education elementary school and an after-school center. High school education and adult education are provided in partnership with other principals.

Preschools

Grästorp has two municipal preschools and a parent cooperative.

The Äventyret preschool is our newest school and is centrally located close to our other schools.

The Ambjörnsgården preschool’s educational methods are inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach with three age-homogeneous groups.

Asphagen’s preschool is a parent cooperative just outside of town; being close to nature and the farming environment, it serves locally produced, home-cooked food.

Schools, grades 1–9

Lunnevi school serves grades 1–3. It also has an after-school center. Grades 7–9 attend the nearby Nya Central school. There’s also an after-school center, youth activities and a school of the arts.

High schools

Grästorp does not have a high school. Students study in neighboring municipalities such as Trollhättan, Lidköping and Vara, to which there are excellent connections.

Adult education

Grästorp’s municipality offers adult education via Campus Västra Skaraborg.

Childcare (in Swedish)

Schools, grades 1–9 and after-school centers (in Swedish)

Adult education (in Swedish)

Leisure

Things to do in Grästorp

Grästorp not only offers a peaceful environment and beautiful nature, but also opportunities for adventures and fun experiences. There’s everything from farm shop tours, flea markets, auctions and cultural events to guided wilderness tours on Hunneberg table rock or various types of sports.

We have almost 30 shops in the city center where you can find most everything you need, as well as the great drive and commitment shown by our businesses and the whole community.

Culture

Grästorp’s rich cultural life has much to offer! They include Grästorp’s concert hall and cinema, a well-attended cultural arts center with a library and café, several cultural associations and agricultural arts school that offers music, song and theater. Today, the former Oscar’s school houses the local cultural history museum, and Särestad’s rural history museum with its old interiors and agricultural machines can be found a little way outside of Grästorp.

Leisure

A few years ago, Grästorp was nominated as the most favorable municipality in Sweden for associations. Sports clubs and thriving associations are the lifeblood of a community – there are a lot to choose from and they’re easy to try. Major clubs include Grästorp’s IK (ice hockey), IK Gauthiod (soccer) and Ekarna’s Golf Club. Sporting activities include an indoor swimming pool, riding center, floorball, tennis and padel halls, martial arts, archery and handgun shooting ranges, and much more for the active family.

There’s something for everyone in Grästorp. In addition to the sports activities, there are unique experiences such as our haunted house, exciting escape rooms and the completely refurbished indoor pool. Lake Vänern offers birdwatching and swimming from sandy beaches. Narrow country roads provide great opportunities for enjoyable bike rides, and Hunneberg offers hiking trails and other experiences. There are playgrounds and sledding slopes in the town center, and the municipality has the express goal of adapting city planning to focus on children.

Events

Grästorp’s biggest event of all is the annual Nossan Festival of Lights. During one week in October, around 20,000 people visit the awesome Forshall promenade when it’s bathed in light and filled with music; there are haunted woods, beautiful views and fun activities.
Other major happenings include the Grästorp Festivities at the end of the summer and various types of musical and cultural events in our excellent Cultural Arts Center on the town square.

Outdoor activities

There are endless opportunities for outdoor activities. Cycling, MTB, orienteering and trail running are popular activities with Grästorp residents. There are beautiful views and a wilderness feel on Hunneberg table rock, one of the mountains that form part of the UNESCO Global Geo Park – Platåbergens geopark.

Hiking trails

Around the community of Grästorp are excellent walking trails and a forest area with jogging trails and an outdoor gym. After the River Nossan come the Forshall and Tengen promenades, and on Hunneberg, half of which is located in Grästorp’s municipality, there’s a great diversity of fantastic hiking trails.

Places of interest

Hunneberg

Myth-shrouded mountain landscape with plenty of moose! At the southern tip of Lake Vänern, the dark silhouettes of the Halleberg and Hunneberg table rocks stand out against the sky above the Västgöta Plains. The mountains have a magnificent nature shrouded in myth that has fascinated visitors throughout the ages. In addition to the fantastic untouched nature, there are the remains of an ancient castle, a deserted croft and old farmlands that speak of the arduous life the early mountain peoples endured.

Halle-Hunneberg is also known as moose mountain. Every year, thousands of Swedish and foreign visitors are attracted to the mountains to see the magnificent kings of the forest, which have a strong bastion here. Hunneberg forms part of the Platåbergen UNESCO Geopark. A geopark is an area whose geology is of international importance – i.e. something that is unique in global terms. A geopark tells us about the links between geology, biology and cultural history and provides an understanding of how to manage our planet and natural resources sustainably. The geopark status is a seal of quality and proof that the natural environments around us are worthy of international attention.

Forshall Nature Park, Grästorp

Need a destination for your Sunday stroll or a place to enjoy a picnic with your family? Then the Forshall Nature Park next to the River Nossan is the perfect spot. There’s a shelter where you can stay dry and brew coffee any time of the year, or grill sausages on one of the barbecues and get down to the water’s edge thanks to the newly built, wheelchair-accessible duck boards.

Forshall is a place whose history is both exciting and checkered. The stone bridge over the river was built at the end of the 19th century, when there was also a mill here. Then there was the Farmol factory, which made paint. But the most spectacular are probably the stories that abound about Zorn, the famous Swedish artist, who is said to have painted beautiful women in these very surroundings.

Mäjens Ice Cream & Meringues, the ice cream farm in Håle, Grästorp

This farm café produces ice cream and meringues from the farm’s eggs. Their entire operation is now down on the farm where they also have their own farm pastry chef, Elin, who bakes everything from bread to sandwiches, cookies, pastries, cakes and delicious chocolate pralines. There’s also a farm shop with a large selection of locally produced food and furnishings.

Mäjens is one of Grästorp’s major tourist attractions, and both locals and tourists visit throughout the year.

Library

The big, excellent library is located in the Cultural Arts Center in the center of Grästorp and has generous opening hours. The library arranges many different activities for all ages.

Outdoor life

Grästorp is no nightlife metropolis. While it has charming cafés and restaurants, the town does not have a throbbing nightlife every weekend. On the other hand, it has excellent connections to surrounding towns. And sometimes, on certain occasions, all of Grästorp gets in a festive mood! During the Grästorp Festivities, the Nossan Festival of Lights or during various events and anniversaries, the entire community livens up. The local farms also organize different types of events and parties.

Food & beverages

Many people in Grästorp eat at the various lunch restaurants, and in the evenings there are also excellent options for eating out or take outs. There’s a farm café and several charming cafés in the town center, and in the summer there are also seasonal restaurants and cafés.