Vänern is a lake in the counties of Västra Götaland, Värmland in southwestern Sweden. It is the largest lake in the European Union and Sweden and the third largest in Europe. The topography of the lake is the result of the uplift of the land surface after the melting of the glacier at the end of the last ice age. The lake fills a tectonic depression deepened by glaciers and bounded in places by faults and subsidence. It covers an area of 5650 km². It is 140 km long and approximately 80 km wide. It´s on average 27 m deep and reaches a maximum depth of 106 m. Its volume is 153 km³, making it the largest reservoir of drinking water in the European Union. The catchment area is 41 182 km². It lies at an altitude of 44 m.
Etymology
The name of the lake (Væni in 12th-century transcriptions, Lacus Wener in documents from 932) is believed to derive from the Old Swedish vænir, which is related to the words vån ‚hope‘ and vän ‚trustworthy‘, ‚beautiful‘. Another possibility is that vænir is related to the old Noan name on the Göta River, Van ‚hope‘.
Geography
Lake Vänern lies between the counties (listed clockwise) of Dalsland, Värmland and Västergötland. On its shores lie the municipalities of Åmål, Säffle, Grums, Karlstad, Skoghall, Kristinehamn, Gullspång, Mariestad, Lidköping and Vänersborg. The other three municipalities have a shoreline along Lake Vänern without having a settlement on it. They are Götene, Grästorp and Mellerud. Historically, Lake Vänern was divided between three counties, but since 1997 and the merger of the counties of West Götaland, Värmland and Västra Götaland, there are two counties between which the lake is divided.
The average depth of the lake is 27 metres and the maximum depth is 106 metres. Lake Vänern is divided into western and eastern parts by the archipelago between Kållandsö in the south and Värmlandsnäs in the north. The western part of the lake is called Dalbosjön and the eastern part Värmlandssjön.
Lake Vänern is part of the Göta älv – Vänern – Göta Canal waterway and is most closely connected to the North Sea/Skager Basin in Göteborg via Göta älv on the south-west side and to Lake Vättern in Karlsborg via the Göta Canal.
