Ystad

Coat of Arms Ystad Sweden

Ystad is a locality and the seat of Ystad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 17,286 inhabitants in 2005.

History
Ystad was mentioned for the first time in 1244. A Franciscan Convent, Gråbrödraklostret, was founded in 1267. Ystad joined the Hanseatic League in the 14th century. The charter of 1599 gave the town the right to export oxen. Ystad, together with all of Scania, was transferred from Denmark to Sweden, following the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. At that time it had a population of about 1,600. In 1850 it had reached 5,000. By 1866 Ystad gained a railway connection, and it was established as a garrison town in the 1890s and the population exceeded 10,000. After World War II ferry lines to Poland and the Danish island Bornholm were opened.

Today
Some of the main industries of the town are trade, handicraft and tourism. It is considered one of the best preserved cities in the Scania province, and few cities in Sweden can measure up to its old picturesque houses and street network.

The town has two large medieval churches: The Church of Saint Peter (also known as Klostret) and the Church of the Virgin Mary (Mariakyrkan), both highly influenced by the gothic Hansa architecture that can be seen in churches around the Baltic Sea, for instance in Helsingborg, Malmö and Rostock.

Ystad is known internationally as the setting for many of the novels of Henning Mankell, featuring fictional Ystad police inspector Kurt Wallander.

There are frequent ferries to Bornholm, Denmark and to Świnoujście in Poland. The town has train connections with Malmö, Simrishamn and Copenhagen.

The name
In 1285 the name was written Ystath. It is not fully interpreted, but probably the ‘y’ has something to do with an old word for the yew tree, -stad is town, or rather place. In Danish times before 1658 the spelling was Ysted.

Sports
The most popular sport in Ystad is handball, with two big clubs. Ystads IF is located in the highest Swedish national league (Elitserien, as of 2008) whilst IFK Ystad is situated in the league below (Division 1, as of 2008). Through the years several famous handball players have played for either of these clubs, the most famous one probably being Per Carlén.

Newspapers
The only newspaper active in Ystad is the Ystads Allehanda which is also covering the neighbouring municipalities of Skurup, Tomelilla, Simrishamn and Sjöbo. The newspaper was founded in 1873

Ystad Municipality

Ystad Municipality (Ystads kommun) is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the city Ystad. The present municipality was created in 1971 by the amalgamation of the former City of Ystad with four surrounding municipalities.

Localities
There are nine urban areas (also called a Tätort or locality) in Ystad Municipality.

In the table the urban areas are listed according to the size of the population as of December 31, 2005. The municipal seat is in bold characters.

#	Locality	Population
1	Ystad	17,286
2	Köpingebro	1,060
3	Svarte	836
4	Nybrostrand	675
5	Löderup	558
6	Sövestad	376
7	Glemmingebro	349
8	Hedeskoga	280
9	Stora Herrestad	258

Sister cities: Haugesund, Rogaland, Norway

Web References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ystad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ystad_Municipality

Skåne County

Coat of Arms Skåne County Sweden

Skåne County (Skåne län) is the southernmost county or län, of Sweden, basically corresponding to the historical province Scania. It borders the counties of Halland, Kronoberg and Blekinge. The seat of residence for the Skåne Governor is the town of Malmö. The headquarters of Region Skåne is the town of Kristianstad.

The present county was created in 1997 when Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County were merged.

Skåne County covers around 3% of Sweden's total area, but its population of 1,200,000 comprises 13% of Sweden's total population.

Heraldry
The coat of arms for Skåne County is the same as for the province of Scania only with the tinctures reversed and the crown, beak and tongue of the Griffin in the same color. When the arms is shown with a royal crown it represents the County Administrative Board, which is the regional presence of (royal) government authority. Blazon: ‘Gules, a Griffin's head erased Or, crowned and armed the same’.

Provinces
Skåne County is the administrative equivalent of the province of Scania, but it also includes an insignificant part of the province Halland.

Administration
The seat of residence for the Governor or Landshövding is the town of Malmö. The County Administrative Board is a Government Agency headed by a Governor. See List of Skåne Governors.

The two administrative counties of the province of Scania, Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County, which were established in 1719 were merged together in 1997, forming the present county with boundaries that are almost identical to the boundaries of the province.

County council
Skåne Regional Council (Region Skåne) is an evolved County Council. Its main responsibilities are for the public healthcare system and public transport. In addition, it has for a trial period assumed certain tasks from the County Administrative Board.

In 1999, a regional council (Region Skåne in Swedish) was established for the overall political organisation. Its county or regional assembly is the highest political body in the region and its members are elected by the Scanians themselves, as opposed to the county administrative council that guards the interest of the state in the region under the chairmanship of the county governor (landshövding in Swedish).

Municipalities
Skåne County is subdivided into 33 municipalities (kommuner in Swedish), the largest being Malmö Municipality (280,000 inhabitants), Helsingborg Municipality (124,000), Lund Municipality (103,000 inhabitants) and Kristianstad Municipality (75,000 inhabitants). The municipalities have municipal governments, similar to city commissions, and are further divided into parishes. The parish division is traditionally used by the Church of Sweden, but also serves as a divisioning measure for Swedish census and elections.

1. Bjuv	18. Osby
2. Bromölla	19. Perstorp
3. Burlöv	20. Simrishamn
4. Båstad	21. Sjöbo
5. Eslöv	22. Skurup
6. Helsingborg	23. Staffanstorp
7. Hässleholm	24. Svalöv
8. Höganäs	25. Svedala
9. Hörby	26. Tomelilla
10. Höör	27. Trelleborg
11. Klippan	28. Vellinge
12. Kristianstad	29. Ystad
13. Kävlinge	30. Åstorp
14. Landskrona	31. Ängelholm
15. Lomma	32. Örkelljunga
16. Lund	33. Östra Göinge
17. Malmö

 

Localities in order of size
Below is a list of localities (tätorter) in Skåne County with a population greater than 2,000 (as of 2000). In those cases when municipal borders cross through a town, it's counted to the municipality the largest part belongs to. Municipalities are noted in parenthesis, except when the municipality carry the name of the town.

1. Malmö & Arlöv¹, 248,520
2. Helsingborg, 87,914
3. Lund, 73,840
4. Kristianstad, 31,592
5. Landskrona, 27,393
6. Trelleborg, 24,850
7. Ängelholm, 21,716
8. Hässleholm, 17,289
9. Ystad, 16,851
10. Eslöv, 15,521
11. Staffanstorp², 13,596
12. Höganäs, 13,401
13. Höllviken², 9,387 (Vellinge Municipality)
14. Oxie², 9,242 (Malmö Municipality)
15. Svedala, 9,085
16. Åhus, 8,681 (Kristianstad Municipality)
17. Bjärred², 8,374 (Lomma Municipality)
18. Lomma², 8,373
19. Åstorp, 8,007
20. Kävlinge², 8,006
21. Klippan, 7,402
22. Bromölla, 7,333
23. Höör², 7,176
24. Skanör² & Falsterbo², 7,087 (Vellinge Municipality)
25. Osby, 6,903
26. Skurup, 6,615
27. Hörby, 6,421
28. Simrishamn, 6,319
29. Sjöbo, 6,270
30. Bjuv, 6,228
31. Vellinge², 5,973
32. Tomelilla, 5,946
33. Södra Sandby², 5,586 (Lund Municipality)
34. Dalby², 5,469 (Lund Municipality)
35. Åkarp², 5,339 (Burlöv Municipality)
36. Perstorp, 5,321
37. Löddeköpinge², 5,173 (Kävlinge Municipality)
38. Bunkeflostrand², 5,114 (Malmö Municipality)
39. Ödåkra, 4,839 (Helsingborg Municipality)
40. Båstad, 4,683
41. Tyringe, 4,606 (Hässleholm Municipality)
42. Örkelljunga, 4,416
43. Rydebäck², 4,287 (Helsingborg Municipality)
44. Vinslöv, 3,818 (Hässleholm Municipality)
45. Hittarp², 3,664 (Helsingborg Municipality)
46. Veberöd², 3,569 (Lund Municipality)
47. Furulund², 3,517 (Kävlinge Municipality)
48. Hjärup², 3,402 (Staffanstorp Municipality)
49. Bara², 3,289 (Svedala Municipality)
50. Viken, 3,269 (Höganäs Municipality)
51. Tollarp, 3,174 (Kristianstad Municipality)
52. Knislinge, 3,130 (Östra Göinge Municipality)
53. Svalöv, 3,071
54. Ekeby, 2,983 (Bjuv Municipality)
55. Broby, 2,955 (Östra Göinge Municipality)
56. Hofterup², 2,931 (Kävlinge Municipality)
57. Vejbystrand, 2,714 (Ängelholm Municipality)
58. Munka-Ljungby, 2,702 (Ängelholm Municipality)
59. Billesholm, 2,688 (Bjuv Municipality)
60. Bårslöv², 2,664 (Helsingborg Municipality)
61. Påarp², 2,652 (Helsingborg Municipality)
62. Bjärnum, 2,636 (Hässleholm Municipality)
63. Genarp², 2,512 (Lund Municipality)
64. Häljarp², 2,511 (Landskrona Municipality)
65. Ljunghusen², 2,253 (Vellinge Municipality)
66. Förslöv, 2,058 (Båstad Municipality)

Notes
¹/ Arlöv is the center of the Burlöv Municipality, but as Arlöv constitutes a conurbation with Malmö, Arlöv is in this table counted as a neighbourhood of Malmö.
²/ Today chiefly detached house suburbs within the West-Scanian metropolitan area reaching from Mölle in the North-West to Ystad in the South-East.

Transport
The motorway built between between Malmö and Lund in 1953 was the first motorway in Sweden. With the opening of the Oresund bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen (the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe) in 2000, the Swedish motorways were linked with European route E20 in Denmark, and the two countries' railway systems were physically connected. Before the bridge was built there were train ferries operated between Helsingborg and Helsingør. There are also train ferries to and from Germany and Poland.

Scania has three major public airports, Malmö Airport, Ängelholm-Helsingborg Airport and Kristianstad Airport. One of the oldest airports in the world still in use is located in Scania, namely Ljungbyhed Airport, in operation since 1910. Starting in 1926, the Swedish Air force used the airport for flight training, and up until the military school was moved to the nearby Ängelholm F10 Wing in 1997, the airport was extremely busy. In the late 1980s, it was Sweden's busiest airport, with a record high of more than 1,400 take-offs and landings per day.

The major ports of Scania are Copenhagen Malmö Port and Helsingborg Harbour. Ferry connections across the Baltic Sea operate from several smaller ports as well.

Web References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skåne_County