In contrast to what was believed a century ago, there is no evidence of a special pre-Christian significance of the site. The pagan cultic center of V�rend may have been located at Hov, a village nearby.
Even though the city has been an Episcopal see since the 12th century, it did not get its city charter until 1342, issued by Magnus Eriksson. During the Middle Ages V�xj� did not have many pious institutions. A Franciscan monastery was established in 1485. There was a hospital of the Holy Ghost, first mentioned in 1318. In the 14th century V�xj� got its first school, V�xj� katedralskola, that was much visited. By 1643 it received gymnasium status.
At the beginning of Gustav Eriksson's war of liberation, the peasantry joined forces under the guidance of the union-hostile bishop Ingemar Pedersson, the mountain men and the peasantry of Dalarna, H�lsingland and G�strikland, who urged fidelity to the their leader Gustav Eriksson.
During the Dacke War, a peasant uprising, the city was in the hands of Nils Dacke and his supporters, specially David Santander, from the summer of 1542 until after New Year 1543. The city residents and the clergy seem to have adopted a cautious neutrality, even though common sympathies rested with Dacke.
Several times during the Northern Wars, Scanian Wars and thereafter, the city has been plagued by fire (in 1277, 1516, 1570, 1612, 1658, 1690, 1749, 1753, 1799, 1838 and 1843). After the last fire in 1843, when 1140 citizens were rendered homeless, V�xj� got its current street plan.
The Barbarella nightclub was prominent in southeastern Sweden in the 1970s, attracting a number of major international bands
