Vällingby () is a suburban district in Västerort in the western part of Stockholm Municipality, Sweden. History The agricultural land where the modern suburb now stands, has a history stretching some 2,000 years back (i.e. at least twice as old as Stockholm). The people who lived there were known as vaellingar, "those living on the embankment". While it first appears in historical records in 1347 and it is known that two farmyards existed here during the reign of King Gustav Vasa in the 16th century, in the 1922 edition of Nordisk Familjebok the location was still regarded as too insignificant to deserve an article. In 1953 the number of inhabitants barely exceeded 2,000. As part of a wider plan to decentralise the population of Stockholm, this rural land was quickly transformed into the present modern suburb, inaugurated in 1954 in a ceremony attracting some 75,000 people. Vällingby was the first ABC City (ABC-stad) — an acronym for Arbete – Bostad – Centrum, "Labour – Housing – Centre"—a suburb that acted almost like a city, designed to offer its residents everything they needed. High above the modern structure, a rotating V-symbol placed the project on the map, while the shining T-symbol (for tunnelbana, metro) proudly indicated the presence of the newly built Stockholm Metro. Shortly after the inauguration of the modern suburb, the number of inhabitants had reached 25,000. The new suburb was the fruit of plans to exploit the rural areas surrounding Stockholm dating back to the early 20th century. As a direct consequence of real-estate speculations around the turn of the 20th century, centralised municipal city planning was widely accepted as a necessary tool to solve the acute housing shortage and the City of Stockholm bought large areas for the purpose. During the decades preceding the construction of Vällingby, a series of small-scale suburbs had been realised; some more or less exclusive—such as the egnahemsområden ("own-your-own-home areas") at Stocksund and Saltsjöbaden built around 1900; or in the style of the Garden city movement, like in Bromma and Enskede built between the wars; and low blocks of apartments built during the 1940s, like in Traneberg and Abrahamsberg. However, many of these suburbs had turned into dormitory suburbs, a problem thought to be avoided in Vällingby by planning for approximately 10,000 work places for the 20–25,000 inhabitants, while the metro was to provide commercial centre access for some 80,000 people. The