Landskrona
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Swedish city Landskrona. For the Czech city Landskron, see Landskron.
| Landskrona | |
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  Landskrona
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country | Sweden |
| Municipality | Landskrona Municipality |
| County | Skåne County |
| Province | Skåne |
| Charter | 15th century |
| Area [1] | |
| - Total | 12.18 km² (4.7 sq mi) |
| Population (2005-12-31)[1] | |
| - Total | 38,780 |
| - Density | 2,354/km² (6,096.8/sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
Landskrona is a city (pop. 28,670 in 2005) in Scania, southernmost Sweden. It is the seat of Landskrona Municipality, Skåne County.
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[edit] History
The city Landskrona was founded at the location of Scania's best natural harbour, as a means of King Eric of Pomerania's anti-Hanseatic policy, intended to compete with Danish towns under Hanseatic control. A Carmelite monastery was founded in 1410, English merchants were granted the privileges in a royal charter in 1412, and the town itself was chartered in 1413. Landskrona was burned by the Hanseatic League in 1428.
The town supported the deposed king Christian II of Denmark (1525), and opposed the Reformation in Denmark (1535), and in both cases found itself among the defeated. The Reformist King Christian III of Denmark abstained however from retaliation, and instead founded a castle to protect the harbour. The castle, built where the monastery had been situated until the Reformation, was completed by 1560.
Around 1591 (the date is unclear) Gassendi reports in his biography of Tycho Brahe that Tycho's pet moose died in Landskrona Castle. The moose, apparently, got drunk on beer and fell down the stairs of the castle, breaking his leg and dying shortly thereafter.
When Scania had been ceded to Sweden in 1658, the good harbour and the strong fort were reasons for plans to make Landskrona a commercial center of the acquired territory with extraordinary privileges for foreign trade. The castle was reinforced by bastions, the area inside the moats extended to 400x400 meters, the castle was considered the strongest and most modern in Scandinavia, but was temporarily lost to the Danes after a comparably short siege July 8-August 2, 1676. The commandant Colonel Hieronymus Lindeberg was consequently sentenced to death for high treason.
Any further plans for Landskrona were however not realized, for various reasons. The continued Swedish-Danish wars favoured Karlskrona, located at a safer distance from Denmark, replacing Landskrona as a naval base, the fortifications were discontinued, and Malmö remained the most important commercial town - despite Malmö lacking a harbour until the late 18th century. The fortifications at Landskrona were expanded considerably between 1747 and 1788, but were condemned in 1822, whereafter the garrison was abolished in 1869. The walls and moats of the fortifications are today a beautiful recreational area, commonly known as the Landskrona Citadel.
[edit] Transport
Since January 2001 Landskrona has a new railway station on the main line between Malmö and Gothenburg along the Swedish west coast. The connection between the new station and the city centre, "The Station Shuttle", is operated with trolleybuses from 27 August 2003. Landskrona is now the only city in Sweden operating trolleybuses.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Tätorternas landareal, folkmängd och invånare per km2 2000 och 2005 (xls) (Swedish). Statistics Sweden. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
[edit] External links
- Landskrona Municipality - Official site
- Landskrona Trolleybus - Pictures from the construction of the trolleybus line (in Swedish)
- Landskrona Posten - Local Newspaper
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Landskrona is one of 134 towns with the historical City status in Sweden. |
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