The Lund Cathedral, dated from 1103.

Lund is a city in Scania in southernmost Sweden, and the center of the Lund Municipality. The town is, according to recent archaeological diggings, claimed to be founded in year 990 by the Danish king Sweyn I Forkbeard, and hence celebrated its 1,000 year anniversary in 1990.

The city has today around 74,000 inhabitants with a population density of 3,000/km² — however, an unknown number of students are believed to be unaccounted for.

In 990, the then 1000-year old town Uppåkra is believed to have been moved to Lund's location. The distance is only some five kilometres, but Lund is located on a hill, and on the other side of a rivulet-ford, giving the new site considerable defence advantages compared to Uppåkra, that is situated on the highest point of a rather large plain. Beside new techniques of warfare, the relocation is believed to signify the process of unification of Denmark.

The city was made see in 1060, and in 1103 made the site of the archbishop for Scandinavia. The Lund Cathedral was similarly founded in or shortly after 1103. During the 12th century, Norway and Sweden got archbishops of their own, although subordinated to the bishop of Lund, and Lund remained Scandinavia's religiously and culturally leading city until the Protestant Reformation in 1536.

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. The school is also one of the most prestigeous schools in Sweden, and many wellknown people have attended it, among those actor Max von Sydow and several high ranking politicians.

In 1658, the entire Terra Scania was ceded by Denmark to Sweden by the Treaty of Roskilde. On December 4 in 1676 it was defended at the Battle of Lund, one of the bloodiest battles fought in Scandinavia. Lund University, established in 1666 as a means of Swedification, is one of Sweden's largest with 41,000 students, though not all students actually live in Lund.

As an unavoidable consequence of Lund being located on a hill, the city has a considerable difference in altitude — to particular disadvantage for the many, students and others, who use bikes as their main means of transportation. The difference in altitude is about 80 meters from the lowest point in the south to the highest point in the north.

Lund is also home to the Tetra Pak company that markets paper packaging machinery for milk and orange juice all over the world. Sony Ericsson develops cell phone handsets in Lund. Other important industries include pharmaceuticals, electronics, and publishing and library services.

Notable natives

• Max von Sydow
• Kai M Siegbahn
• Carl Fredrik Hill

See also

• Lund Institute of Technology
• Lund School of Economics and Management
• Royal Swedish Physiographic Society

• Walpurgis Night

External links

• Lund - Official site
• LundaPortalen - Independent webportal