Lund
Clockwise from top: Lund Cathedral and Lundagård; Lund University Main Building; Lund University library.
Coat of arms
Motto:  Idéernas stad (Eng: The city of ideas)
Lund Show map of Scania Lund Show map of Sweden Lund Show map of European Union
Coordinates: 55°42′14″N 13°11′42″E / 55.70389°N 13.19500°E / 55.70389; 13.19500
Country	Sweden
Province	Scania
County	Scania County
Municipality	Lund Municipality
Area [1]
• Total	26.37 km2 (10.18 sq mi)
Population  (2020)[1]
• Total	94,393
• Density	3,580/km2 (9,300/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Lundensare, Lundabo
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Website	lund.se/en/

Lund (/lʊnd/, US also /lʌnd/ LU(U)ND,^[2][3][4][5] Swedish: [ˈlɵnːd] ^ⓘ) is a city in the southern Swedish province of Scania, across the Öresund strait from Copenhagen, Denmark. The town had 91,940 inhabitants^[6] out of a municipal total of 121,510 as of 2018^[update].^[7] It is the seat of Lund Municipality, Scania County. The Öresund Region, which includes Lund, is home to more than 4.1 million people.^[8][9]

Archeologists date the foundation of Lund to around 990, when Scania was part of Denmark. From 1103 it was the seat of the Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lund, and the towering Lund Cathedral, built c. 1090–1145, still stands at the centre of the town. Denmark ceded the city to Sweden in the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, and its status as part of Sweden was again confirmed in following peace treaties.

Lund University, established in 1666, is one of Scandinavia's oldest and largest institutions for education and research.^[10][11][12] The university and its buildings dominate much of the centre of the city, and have led to Lund becoming a regional centre for high tech industry.

History

Lund is sometimes mentioned as the oldest town or city in present-day Sweden, although it has only been formally established as such for 300 years of its at least thousand-year history. It is old enough that its origins are unclear, but is presumed to have existed by the end of the Viking Age. Until the 1980s, the town was thought to have been founded around 1020 by either Sweyn I Forkbeard or his son Canute the Great of Denmark.^[13] The area was then part of the kingdom of Denmark. But, recent archaeological discoveries suggest that the first settlement dated to c. 990, possibly the relocation of settlers at Uppåkra. The Uppåkra settlement dates back to the first century B.C.^[14] and its remains are at the present site of the village of Uppåkra. King Sweyn I Forkbeard moved Lund to its present location, a distance of some five kilometres (3.1 miles). The new location of Lund, on a hill and across a ford, gave the new site considerable defensive advantages in comparison with Uppåkra, situated on the highest point of a large plain.

The organisation of the Danish church begun under the rule of Canute the Great. Lund became the see of one of seven dioceses in 1048.^[15] In 1104 it became an archbishopric.^[16] Lund's ecclesiastical province comprised Scandinavia and even Garðar on Greenland. The diocese of nearby Dalby was absorbed in 1066. Lund Cathedral was similarly founded in or shortly after 1103. In 1152, the Norwegian archdiocese of Nidaros was founded as a separate province of the church, independent of Lund. In 1164 Sweden also acquired an archbishop of its own, although he was nominally subordinate to the archbishop of Lund. It is still, as the diocese of Lund, a diocese in the Church of Sweden.

Lund Cathedral School (Katedralskolan) was founded in 1085 by the Danish king Canute the Saint. This is the oldest school in Scandinavia and one of the oldest in Northern Europe. Many prominent people were educated there, among them the actor Max von Sydow and several high-ranking politicians.

Lund was ceded to Sweden in 1658 as part of the terms of the Treaty of Roskilde. It was recaptured by Denmark in 1676 during the early phases of the Scanian War. The exceptionally bloody Battle of Lund was fought just north of the city in 1676, and ended in a decisive Swedish victory; Swedish control of Scania was confirmed in the Peace of Lund later that year.^[17] Sweden's control over Scania, and hence Lund, was again confirmed by another treaty in 1720.^[18][19]

Scandinavia's first University, the Academy of Lund was founded in the 1400s. It was suppressed during the Danish Reformation in 1537.^[20] The present Lund University was established in 1666.^[21]

In 1943, during the Second World War, Lund was accidentally bombed by a British aircraft. No deaths were reported, though some people were injured by glass fragments.^[22]

Over the second half of the 20th century the population of Lund more than doubled, driven in large part by the growth of the university and high tech industries.^[23] For example, Tetra Pak, the food packaging and processing company, was founded in Lund in 1952.^[24] Suburbs were added to the outer edges of the city: Klostergården, Norra Fäladen and Linero in the 1960s, Norra Nöbbelöv in the 1970s, Gunnesbo in the 1980s and Värpinge in the 1990s.^[24]

Geography

Lund is located in Sweden's largest agricultural district, in the south-west of Scania, less than ten kilometres (6.2 miles) from the sandy shore of the Öresund Strait. Its location on the south-facing slope of the Romeleåsen horst leads to the city rising from the low-lying Höje River in the south to 86 metres (282 feet) above mean sea level in the north. From the top of the Sankt Hans Hill it is possible to see Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The nearest large Swedish city, Malmö, is about 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) to the south-west. Other Swedish cities are more distant: Gothenburg is 250 kilometres (160 miles) away, the capital Stockholm is 600 kilometres (370 miles) distant, and Umeå lies 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) to the north.

The central part of Lund largely retains its medieval street layout. A few buildings from the Middle Ages remain, including Lund Cathedral, Liberiet, St. Peter's Priory, the restaurant Stäket and Krognoshuset. Many of today's buildings in the centre were constructed in the late 1800s, including Katedralskolan, the Grand Hotel and the main building and library of Lund University.

City squares

Lund city contains four main city squares that are connected by a number of roads and passages that represent the main city centre containing numerous restaurants, shops and bars. Clemenstorget is a tree-covered city square located alongside the railway and associated station, hosts a small market and is the central terminus of the city's tramway. Bantorget is a green park-square close to the central station and Lund's Grand Hotel is placed there. The city hall is located on the main city square - Stortorget which often features concerts and various cultural and political events. Mårtenstorget hosts the Lund Market Hall, has many restaurants, food trucks and bars around it and serves as a market square during the daytime. In earlier times the square was used as a cattle market and was known as "Oxtorget". Smaller city squares in Lund include Domkyrkoplatsen, Petriplatsen, Västra stationstorget, Sockertorget and Knut den Stores Torg.

Parks and nature

Lund's most central park is Lundagård, which, along with the adjoining University square, forms the centre of the University. The park is dominated by historic buildings including Lund Cathedral, Lund University Main Building, and Kungshuset. The trees of the park are home to a large colony of rooks.

The much larger main city park (Stadsparken) is located in the south-west corner of the city center. The site was used for the Lund Exhibition in 1907 and subsequently developed into a public park between 1909 and 1911. The park contains planted gardens, a small lake, a children's playground and bandstands, as well as the public swimming center Högevallsbadet and the former buildings of Lund Observatory. It also has a menagerie that houses different varieties of birds.

Other significant areas of greenery in the city include the Botanical Garden (Botaniska trädgården) and Sankt Hans Hill in the north of the city. The nature preserve Rinnebäck Gorge (Rinnebäcksravinen), The Källby dams (Källby dammar) and the community park Folkparken are located in the western part of the city. The nature preserve Nöbbelövs Marshland (Nöbbelövs mosse) is located in the northwest of the city.

Popular places for swimming close to the city are the beaches in neighboring Lomma, Bjärred and Malmö and lakes such as the nature preserve Billebjer and the Dalby quarry (Dalby stenbrott) in the eastern countryside of the city.

Climate

Lund, like the rest of far southern Sweden, has an oceanic climate. The climate is relatively mild compared to other locations at similar latitudes, or even somewhat further south, mainly because of its proximity to the sea. Because of Lund's northerly latitude, daylight lasts as long as 17 hours at midsummer, and only around 7 hours in mid-winter.

Summers are warm and pleasant with average high temperatures of 23 °C (73 °F) and lows of around 14 °C (57 °F), but temperatures often exceed 25 °C (77 °F) and heat waves are common during the summer. Winters are quite chilly, with temperatures steady between −1 and 3 °C (30 and 37 °F). Lund has arguably the mildest climate of the country in average highs. In terms of yearly means and average lows Falsterbo is marginally milder.

Rainfall is light to moderate throughout the year with an average of 169 wet days. Snowfall occurs sparingly, mainly from December to March, but snow cover does not typically remain for a long time, and some winters are virtually free of snow.