Post code: S-37...
Telephone code: 0455
The smallest Swedish province (area 2,941sq.km/1,136sq.mi), Blekinge lies in the south of the country on the Baltic, at the entrance to the Kalmarsund. Blekinge was frequently devastated during the wars between Sweden and Denmark, until in 1658, under the treaty of Roskilde, it
finally became Swedish. Known as the "garden of Sweden", it has the country's largest forests of beech and oak, planted up to 1830 by the royal forestry administration (nature reserves, with marked footpaths). Blekinge was the seafaring province of Sweden, with the ports of Karlskrona and Karlshamn. Karlskrona was a Swedish naval base and later had large shipyards, while Karlshamn was the port from which many farming people from the district of Småland to the north emigrated to America in the 19th century.
Karlskrona is built on some 30 islands linked with one another by bridges. The town was founded by Charles XI on the island of Trossö in 1680, when the headquarters of the Swedish fleet were also established there. In the 18th century Karlskrona was Sweden's second largest town, but thereafter it declined in importance. It is now an industrial town (principally foodstuffs and fish-processing), with Sweden's largest cold-storage depots. The Swedish economic situation has led in Karlskrona, as in other ports, to the closing of many shipyards.
In 1998 the Naval Port of Karlskrona was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Shipbuilding and the architecture of Karlskrona have attracted attention in Europe since the 18th century. The naval base and shipyard are still in use today.
Hiking, walking, fishing or swimming are popular activities in and around Karlskrona.
Print this page
Add to Favorites
