Landskrona - History

History

The city of Landskrona was founded at the location of Scania's (at that time a part of Denmark) 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 foundation was done at a place for a fishing settlement, historical described as Sønder Sæby ("sønder" means "southern"). Still today exists a very small settlement just north of the town, known as Säby (Sæby in Danish). This probably was the Nørre Sæby ("nørre" means "northern") in the beginning of the 15:th century, but since the southern village became the town, the need for distinguish northern and southern Sæby disappeared. The original name of the officially founded town was Landszkrone. But changed to Landskrone sometime before 1450.

The town supported the 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.

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. On its northern side an allotment-garden area of cottages was founded in the final years of the 19:th century. It's the oldest of its kind in Sweden today.

After the industrial revolution and the urbanization the town grew fast. During the first World War a large shipyard, Öresundsvarvet was started. But after the war the fast growing of Landskrona slowed down while nearby towns like Helsingborg, Lund and Malmö continued to grow. In the mid 1970s the shipyard had more than 3500 people employed - and the town had only 30.000 inhabitants (38.000 in the municipality). When the shipyard closed in 1983 a 20 year long depression began. But slowly the town has recovered. In 2001 a new railway station was inaugurated. This was very importaint for the town, since the old station was a terminal for southbound trains only. The new station is along the dual fast railway between Copenhagen and Göteborg, and all trains stop at the station.

For many years Landskrona had car ferries to Copenhagen. After the last ferry line closed in 1993 passenger traffic with high speed ships continued to traffic Copenhagen but after the Øresund bridge opened in summer of 2000 also the passenger traffic to Copenhagen ended.