The Matchstick Area in Jönköping

Experience a true cultural gem with a unique, preserved historical building! Here you can find many enthusiasts and creatives who have formed a vibrant cultural centre. The Matchstick Area (Tändsticksområdet) in Jönköping is full of life and has at its heart the Matchstick Museum.

The cobbled streets and 19th-century buildings contain exciting stories. At the Matchstick Museum you can learn all about the matchstick industry in Jönköping. The matchstick area has a wonderful mix of art galleries, shops selling interior design and crafts from local sources, a gaming centre, restaurants and a hotel.

Unique buildings and a sizzling match industry

The Matchstick Area is unique in Sweden and is today the only completely preserved historical environment of industrial buildings from the matchstick industry. The Matchstick Museum is located on the southern shore of Lake Vättern in a beautiful wooden building dating from 1848. Here you will meet both the people and the machines that built up the matchstick industry and developed it into a global company. In the 1970s, matchstick manufacturing in Jönköping closed down and Jönköping municipality took over the area to transform it into the cultural centre it is today.

Space for culture

The Cultural House is a dream for culture buffs. It has several stages, rehearsal rooms, places for dance, theatre, concerts, lectures, open workshops, a recording studio, the Folkets Bio cinema, a flea market and the Nyfiket café (https://kulturhusetjonkoping.se/om-kulturhuset/).

Eat well and stay near lake Vättern

The Matchstick Area has a large number of restaurants and a hotel. Quality Hotel Match, offers exceptional views of lake Vättern. In the well-preserved matchstick factory next door, you'll find the hotel's restaurant, Brasserie NÒR, which serves classic Nordic food with a modern twist.

Don't miss the city's only seafood restaurant, Pescadores, the Idlewild beer café with its own brewed beers, or the Bongo Bar with live music to accompany good food and drink! At Tegel Burgare & Bärs, you can enjoy burgers and beer in the coolest place in town, and at Blackstone Steakhouse Jönköping you can cook your own food on a hot lava stone.

The Dymlingen Artists’ Association and the Association of Printmakers in Jönköping are based in Svavel Art Centre. They hold a dozen exhibitions a year with both local and visiting artists. American artist, Lloyd Tabing exhibits his abstract artwork in the Lloyd Tabing Gallery. His neighbour is the organic grocery store Beehive.

Katrin Bååth's creative space Ateljén sells vintage goods mixed with her own products and hand-picked items from around the world. Friendly Corner is an interior design shop combined with a collective office space. At Ateljé Blivé, you can buy and rent furniture and gadgets that have a design history, and Blankdays offers Swedish-designed clothing. Gameffect is a gaming centre for those who like e-sports and computer games.

Exciting digital tour

Find out more about the famous matchstick industry that put Jönköping on the world map. In this digital tour, you can learn about the history behind each part of the industry by visiting the outside of each building. Start the tour here External link, opens in new window.

A magical journey

The history of the Matchstick Area is not just about the matchstick industry, but about the whole of Jönköping and its journey into the present day. Read the story with the help of signs that are up in the Matchstick Area or take a walking map and a leaflet at one of the municipality's InfoPoints or at the Matchstick Museum.

How to get here