Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Scania shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Scania offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Scania at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Scania? Wrong! If the Scania is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Scania then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Scania? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Scania and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Scania wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Scania then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Scania site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Scania, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Scania, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox_Landskap|fullname=Scania|name=Scania (Skåne)|land=Götaland|area=10,939|flower=[Oxeye daisy|bird=[Red kite|coatofarms=|map=|-->Scania ( in [Swedish language) is a geographical region of Sweden on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, a historical provinces of Sweden (landskap)The Swedish provinces were officially replaced by counties in 1634, before Scania's integration into Sweden, but Scania became one of the unofficial, historic provinces when the province concept was revived in the late 19th century. For more on the concept's revival, see: Jacobsson, Benny (2000). "Konstruktion av landskap. Exemplet Uppland". Idéhistoriska perspektiv. Ed. Ingemar Nilsson, Arachne 16, Göteborg 2000, p. 109-119. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006. (In Swedish). in the Kingdom of Sweden, before 1658 a province in the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the historical lands of Denmark, since 1997 a counties of Sweden (län) of Sweden. To the north, it borders the provinces Halland, Småland and Blekinge, to the east and south the Baltic Sea, and to the west the Oresund strait. It is part of the transnational Oresund Region and the historical region Skåneland (Terra Scania or the Scanian land). Around 130 km long from north to south, Scania covers less than 3% of Sweden's total area. The population of 1,200,000 represents 13% of Sweden's total population.

Due to the historical connection to Denmark, the vast fertile plain, the deciduous forests and the relatively mild climate, Scania is often considered culturally and physically distinct from other regions of Sweden.Germundsson, Tomas (2005). "Regional Cultural Heritage versus National Heritage in Scania’s Disputed National Landscape." International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 21–37. (ISSN 1470–3610).

Administrative subdivisions For politics see Skåne Regional Council and List of Skåne Governors. . Introduced 1902 (could be older); official flag of Skåne Regional Council since 1999 Newsletter of Skåne Regional Council, No. 2, 1999. of Scania.Danish Scania was subdivided into administrative units called hundreds (herreder in Danish) during medieval times. Under the Swedish administration, several different administrative subdivisions have been in effect within the region. For most of the period between 1658 and 1719, Scania was a dominions of Sweden.

The provinces of Sweden have no political or administrative function. Scania is presently subdivided into 33 municipalities of SwedenRegion Skåne. Municipalities in Skåne. Official site. Retrieved 24 August 2007.(kommuner in Swedish), the largest being Malmö Municipality (270,000 inhabitants), Helsingborg Municipality (124,000), Lund Municipality (103,000 inhabitants) and Kristianstad Municipality (75,000 inhabitants). The municipalities have municipal governments, similar to city commission government, and are further divided into parishes, originally created by the Church of Denmark. The parish division is traditionally used by the Church of Sweden, but also serves as a divisioning measure for Swedish census and elections.

Since 1997, the largest administrative unit in Scania is called Skåne County, with boundaries that are almost identical to the boundaries of the province. Between 1719 and 1997, Scania was divided into two administrative counties, Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County. 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 themselvesRegion Skåne. Democracy-Increased autonomy. Official site. Retrieved 24 August 2007., as opposed to the county administrative council that guards the interest of the state in the region under the chairmanship of the List of County Governors of Sweden (landshövding in Swedish). The County Administrative Board is nominally a Government Agencies in Sweden. The seat of residence for the List of Skåne Governors is the town of Malmö. The arms for the for the province and the newly created county are based on the Danish era arms for the city of Malmö. The arms for the county has the red and yellow colors of the province arms reversed and a crown, beak and tongue in yellow instead of blue. When the county arms is shown with a Swedish royal crown, it represents the County Administrative Board, which is the regional presence of (royal) government authority.

Before Region Skåne was formed in 1999 on a trial basis, the regional development was the responsibility of a Regional Association, comprising the 33 municipalities together with the then current health services principals, namely the Kristianstad and Malmöhus county councils and the Health Services authority in the City of Malmö.

History at the Battle of Lund, 1676. Painting by Johan Philip Lemke, 1684Main articles: History of Scania and Skåneland

Historically the province of Scania was a part of Terra Scania (Skåneland in SwedishSwedish Academy (2006). SAOB. (In Swedish). Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006. and Skånelandene in DanishDanish National Archives. Lensregnskaberne 1560-1658. (In Danish). Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006.), which together with Jutland and Zealand, the other two Lands of Denmark, formed a Danish state in the 9th century.

Following the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, Skåneland became a possession of the Swedish The Crown. As a dominion (generalguvernement in Swedish), like other conquered and unintegrated territories within the Dominions of Sweden, this region was ruled by a Swedish Governors-General, the highest representatives of the Swedish monarch. After a coup in Bornholm, during which the Swedish Commanding Officer Johan Printzensköld was killed, Bornholm was returned to Denmark in 1660.Terra Scaniae. Kuppförsök mot svenskarna 1658. Försvenskningens första skede. (In Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2006. Scania, Halland and Blekinge remained a dominion, ruled by the first Governor-General of Skåneland, Gustaf Otto Stenbock.Terra Scaniae. Herr generalguvernör. (In Swedish). Retrieved 8 January 2007.

The Governor-General's seat of residence was in Malmö. Initially, he had four county governors under his command: one in Halland County, one in Kristianstad County (which included the province Blekinge), one in Helsingborg County and one in Landskrona County. The region's status as a dominion was suspended in 1669 but recreated in 1676 before the start of the Scanian War.Terra Scaniae. Skånes län efter 1658, p. 1-4. (In Swedish). Retrieved 8 January 2007. During 1676-1679, Scania, with the exception of Malmö, was again under Danish administration, but the peace dictated by France on behalf of Sweden in the Treaty of Lund (1679) returned Scania to Swedish administration.

The 1676-1679 war between Denmark and Sweden over Scania was devastating for the people of Scania. It ended in a draw, after much destruction of property and suffering for the civilian population.

1680-1690 Section 9 of the Roskilde peace treaty had initially ensured cultural autonomy in Scania and in an additional agreement, signed at the Malmö Recess in 1662, Sweden guaranteed that the old laws and privileges of Scania would continue to apply in the region. The Malmö Recess agreement further ensured that Scanian noblemen, priests and peasants would be allowed to send representatives to the Swedish parliament.Oresundstid. The Swedification of Scania. 17th century. Retrieved 7 January 2007.

However, in 1680 Sweden’s first era of absolute monarchy was ushered in as the Swedish king Charles XI managed to convince the Diet (assembly), (the Riksdag of the Estates, an early form of Swedish Parliament) to declare the king "a Christian ruler with absolute power to rule his kingdom at his discretion".Upton, Anthony F. (1998). Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism, 1660-1697. Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521573904. In 1682, the Diet downgraded the Council of State to a King's Council and gave the king unlimited powers to legislate without the need for confirmation from the Diet. A decision not to honor the agreement of the Malmö Recess soon followed and a tougher Swedification program was implemented in Scania, aiming to create uniformity within the Swedish kingdom.Terra Scaniae. Hårdare försvenskning. (In Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2006. Scania was allowed to retain its old laws and customs until 1683, at which point the Swedish administration persuaded the Scanian aristocracy to waive the Scanian laws and privileges in favor of the new Swedish law and church ordinance, as a condition for allowing Scanians to have representation in the Swedish parliament.

An entire staff of Swedish politicians, artists, poets and scholars were engaged in creating an image of the king as an instrument of God and a personification of the apocalyptic "Lion of the North", a form of symbolic imagery first introduced for Gustav II Adolf. The propaganda was not only aimed at convincing the Swedish population of the king's divinely ordained power, but was also part of a campaign to present Sweden to the world as an imperial power of considerable wealth and military glory.Stadin, Kekke. "The Masculine Image of a Great Power: Representations of Swedish imperial power c. 1630–1690". Scandinavian Journal of History Vol. 30, No. 1. March 2005, pp. 61–82. ISSN 0346-8755. The conquest and domination of Scania was an important theme in the art commissioned by the court to glorify the king. Many works of art from the era show Charles XI as a victorious warrior in Scania and on the central panel of Jacques Foucquet’s monumental ceiling painting in the Stockholm Royal Palace, Charles XI is depicted with "the goddess of Scania" at his feet.Olin, Martin (2005). "Kungliga rum – maktmanifestation och distribution". Historikermöte 2005, Konstvetenskapliga institutionen. Published online (in English) by the Department of History, Uppsala University, in pdf-format.

After 1690 ), consisting of the provinces "Scaniam, Hallandiam et Blekingiam".Halland and Blekinge were successively removed from the Skåneland dominion and became fully integrated into the Swedish Kingdom, while the counties of Scania were joined into one county. By 1693, only Scania County was left a dominion, with a special, not fully integrated, status.

Scania's status was changed on May 9, 1719, when it was divided into two counties, Malmöhus County and Kristianstad County, and became fully integrated, with two county governors and an administration identical to the other Swedish counties. However, the hostilities between Denmark and Sweden during the Napoleonic War caused Sweden to revert Scania's status again and a General-Governor was reintroduced. Between 1801 and 1809, Johan Christopher Toll was appointed General-Governor of Scania, with the county governors of Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County answering to him. On January 1, 1997, the two Scanian counties were joined into the present Skåne County.

Geography and environmental factors ), a skyscraper in Malmö, the largest city in Skåne. woods at the public forests of Söderåsen.The geography of Scania was shaped by the last ice age, the Weichsel glaciation, a time when it was totally covered with ice. The Terrain in Scania's south-western landscape is formed by thick Quaternary deposits from sediment accumulation during the glaciations. Hallandsåsen and Söderåsen are major landmarks but contrary to popular belief, they are not ridges left behind by the retreating ice but Horst (geology)s formed by inversion tectonic activity along the Tornquist Tectonic zone in the late Cretaceous. The Scanian horsts run in a North-West to South-West direction, marking the southwest border of Fennoscandia.Lidmar-Bergström, Karna and Jens-Ove Näslund (2005). "Uplands and Lowlands in Southern Sweden". In The Physical Geography of Fennoscandia. Ed. Matti Seppälä. Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 255-261. ISBN 0199245908.

Unlike some of the other regions of Sweden, the Scanian landscape is not mountainous. With the exception of the lake-rich and densely forested northern parts (Göinge), the rolling hills in the north-west (the Bjäre and Kullaberg peninsulas) and the beech-woods clad areas extending from the slopes of the horsts, a sizeable portion of Scania's terrain consists of plain. The low profile and the open landscape distinguish Scania from the other geographical regions of Sweden which consist mainly of waterway-rich, cool mixed, coniferous forests, taiga and alpine tundra.Österberg, Klas (2001). Forest - Geographical Regions. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 25 Jan. 2001. Retrieved 4 Nov. 2006. Stretching from the north-western to the south-eastern parts of Scania is a belt of deciduous forests following the Linderödsåsen ridge, and previously marking the border between Malmöhus County and Kristianstad County. Denser fir forests are found in the north-eastern Göinge parts along the border with the forest dominated province of Småland.

The two major plains, Söderslätt in the south-west och Österlen in the south-east, consist of highly fertile agricultural land - the yield per unit area is higher than in any other region in Sweden. The Scanian plains are an important resource for the rest of Sweden since between 25-50% of the total production of various types of cereals come from the region. In addition, close to 90% of Sweden's sugar beets are grown in Scania.SCB. Jordbruksstatistisk årsbok 2006. (Agricultural Statistic Yearbook 2006). Published online in pdf-format by Statiska Centralbyrån ( Statistics Sweden). (In Swedish). Retrieved 10 January 2007. The soil is among the most fertile in the world.

The Kullaberg Nature Preserve in northwest Scania is home to several rare species including Spring vetchling, Lathyrus sphaericus. Hogan, C.M. (2004). Kullaberg environmental analysis. Lumina Technologies prepared for municipality of Höganäs, Aberdeen Library Archives, Aberdeen, Scotland, July 17, 2004.



Scania was historically divided into 14 chartered List of cities in Sweden and 23 Hundreds of Sweden.

Cities Main article: Towns of Skåne

Over 90% of Scania's population live in cities.The Foundation for Recreational Areas in Scania. "Information about the Skaneled Trails". Region Skåne. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006 In 2000, the Oresund bridge - the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe, linked Malmö and Copenhagen, making Scania's population part of a 3.6 million total population in the Oresund Region. In 2005, the region had 9,200 commuters crossing the bridge daily, the vast majority of them from Malmö to Copenhagen.Peter, Laurence. "Bridge shapes new Nordic hub". BBC News, 14 Sep. 2006. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006.

The below list of towns all held City status in Sweden until the term was abolished in Sweden in 1971 in favour of municipalities. In Danish times, other towns had been granted a royal charter, but the towns remained small.

Hundreds

Transport See also: Skåne commuter rail

The motorway built between between Malmö and Lund in 1953 was the first List of motorways in Sweden. With the construction of the Oresund bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen (the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe), the Swedish motorways were linked with European route E20 in Denmark and Skåne commuter rail became connected with the Danish railway system.

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, theSwedish 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. Ljungbyhed airport - ESTL. Fact sheet created by Lund University School of Aviation. Retrieved 22 January 2007.

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

Culture Scania's long-running and sometimes intense trade relations with other communities along the coast of the European continent through history has made the culture of Scania distinct from other geographical regions of Sweden. Its open landscape, often described as a colorful patchwork quilt of corn and rape fields, and the relatively mild climate at the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, have inspired many Swedish artists and authors to compare it to European regions like Provence in southern France and Zeeland in the Netherlands.Linnaeus, Carl (1750). Skånska resa (Scanian Journey). Among the many authors who have described the "foreign" continental elements of the Scanian landscape, diet and customs are August Strindberg and Carl Linnaeus. In 1893 August Strindberg wrote about Scania: "In beautiful, large wave lines, the fields undulate down toward the lake; a small deciduous forest limits the coastline, which is given the inviting look of the Riviera, where people shall walk in the sun, protected from the north wind. The Swede leaves the plains with a certain sense of comfort, because its beauty is foreign to him." In another chapter he states: "The Swedes have a history that is not the history of the South Scandinavians. It must be just as foreign as Gustav Vasa history is to the Scanian."Strindberg, August (1893). "Skånska landskap med utvikningar". Prosabitar från 1890-talet. Bonniers , Stockholm, 1917. (In Swedish).

Architecture See also: List of castles in Scania], Scania, built 1641. — a typical example of a Danish medieval church.Traditional Scanian architecture is shaped by the limited availability of wood; it incorporates different applications of the building technique called half-timbering. In the cities, the infill of the façades consisted of bricks,Albertsson, Rolf. "Half-timbered houses". Section in Malmö 1692 - a historical project. Malmö City Culture Department and Museum of Foteviken. Retrieved 16 January 2007. whereas the country-side half-timbered houses had infill made of clay and straw.Oresundstid. Images: Half-timbered house in Scania. Retrieved 16 January 2007. Unlike many other Scanian towns, the town of Ystad has managed to preserve a rather large core of its half-timbered architecture in the city center - over 300 half-timbered houses still exist today.Ystad Municipality. Welcome to Ystad. Official site. Retrieved 16 January 2007. Many of the houses in Ystad were built in the renaissance style that was common in the entire Oresund Region, and which has also been preserved in Elsinore (Helsingør). Among Ystad's half-timbered houses is the oldest such building in Scandinavia, Pilgrändshuset from 1480.Ystad Municipality. A walk through the centuries, section "Pedestrian street". Official site. Retrieved 16 January 2007.

In Göinge, located in the northern part of Scania, the architecture was not shaped by a scarcity of wood, and the pre-17th century farms consisted of graying, recumbent timber buildings around a small grass and cobblestone courtyard. Only a small number of the original Göinge farms remain today. During two campaigns, the first in 1612 by Gustav II Adolf and the second by Charles XI in the 1680s, entire districts were leveled by fire.A letter from the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf describes a raid in 1612: "We have been in Scania and we have burned most of the province, so that 24 parishes and the town of Vä lie in ashes. We have met no resistance, neither from cavalry nor footmen, so we have been able to rage, plunder, burn and kill to our hearts' content. We had thought of visiting Århus in the same way, but when it was brought to our knowledge that there were Danish cavalry in the town, we set out for Markaryd and we could destroy and ravage as we went along and everything turned out lucky for us." (Quoted and translated by Oresundstid in the section The Kalmar War 1611-13. In Örkened Parish, in what is now eastern Osby Municipality, the buildings were destroyed to punish the different villages for their protection of members of the Snapphane movement in the late 17th century.Herman Lindquist (1995). Historien om Sverige – storhet och fall. Norstedts Förlag, 2006. ISBN 9113015354. (In Swedish). An original, 17th century Göinge farm, Sporrakulla Farm, has been preserved in a forestcalled Kullaskogen, a nature reserve close to Glimåkra in Östra Göinge. According to the local legend, the farmer saved the farm in the first raid of 1612 by setting a forest fire in front of it, making the Swedish troops believe that the farm had already been plundered and set ablaze. Skåneleden: 6B. Breanäsleden (In Swedish). Official site by The Foundation for Recreational Areas in Scania and Region Skåne. See also Göingebygden, official site by Skåne Nordost Tourism Office and The Snapp-hane Kingdom. Official site by Osby Tourism Office.

's coin, likely minted in Lund between 994 and 1013 AD. A number of Scanian towns flourished during the Viking Age. The city of Lund is believed to have been founded by the Viking-king Sweyn Forkbeard. Scanian craftsmen and traders were prospering during this era and Denmark's first and largest mint was established in Lund. The first Scanian coins have been dated to 870 AD.Hauberg, P. (1900). Myntforhold og Udmyntninger i Danmark indtil 1146. D. Kgl. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., 6. Række, historisk og filosofisk Afd. V. I., Chapter III: Danmarks Mynthistorie indtil 1146, and Chapter V: Myntsteder published online by Gladsaxe Gymnasium. (In Danish). Retrieved 10 January 2007. The archaeological excavations performed in the city indicate that the oldest known stave church in Scania was built by Sweyn Forkbeard in Lund in 990.City of Lund. Touchdowns in the History of Lund. Official site for the City of Lund. Retrieved 10 January 2006. In 1103, Lund was made the archbishopric for all of Scandinavia.

Many of the old churches in today's Scanian landscape stem from the medieval age, although many church renovations, extensions and destruction of older buildings took place in the 16th and 19th century. From those that have kept features of the authentic style, it is still possible to see how the medieval, Romanesque architecture or Renaissance_architecture#Scandinavia churches of Danish Scania looked like. Many Scanian churches have distinctive Crow-stepped gables and sturdy church porches, usually made of stone.

The first version of Lund Cathedral was built in 1050, in sandstone from Höör, on the initiative of Canute the Holy.Terra Scaniae. Lunds Domkyrka. (In Swedish). Retrieved 11 January 2007. The oldest parts of today's cathedral are from 1085, but the actual cathedral was constructed during the first part of the 12th century with the help of stone cutters and sculptors from the River Rhine and Italy, and was ready for use in 1123. It was consecrated in 1145 and for the next 400 years, Lund became theecclesiastical power center for Scandinavia and one of the most important cities in Denmark. The cathedral was altered in the16th century by architect Adam van Düren and later by Carl Georg Brunius and Helgo Zetterwall.Scania also has churches built in the Gothic architecture style, such as Saint Petri Church in Malmö, dating from the early 14th century. Similar buildings can be found in all Hansa cities around the Baltic Sea (such as Helsingborg and Rostock). The parishes in the countryside did not have the means for such extravagant buildings. Possibly the most notable countryside church is the ancient and untouched stone church in Dalby, Skåne, Sweden. It is the oldest stone church in Sweden, built around the same time as Lund cathedral. After the Lund Cathedral was built, many of the involved workers travelledaround the province and used their acquired skills to make baptism fonts, paintings and decorations, and naturally architectural constructions.

Scania has 240 castles and country estates - more than any other province in Sweden.Region Skåne (2006). http://www.skane.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=151922 What is typical Skåne?. Official site. Retrieved 22 January 2007. Many of them received their current shape during the 16th century, when new or remodeled castles started to appear in greater numbers, often erected by the reuse of stones and material from the original 11th-15th century castles and abbeys found at the estates. Between 1840 and 1900, the nobility in Scania built and rebuilt many of the castles again, often by modernizing previous buildings at the same location in a style that became typical for Scania. The style is a mixture of different architectural influences of the era, but frequently refers back to the style of the 16th century castles of the Reformation era, a time when the large estates of the Catholic church were made Crown property and the abbeys bartered or sold to members of the aristocracy by the Danish king.Terra Scaniae. 1600-talet. (In Swedish). Retrieved 27 January 2007. For many of the 19th century remodels, Danish architects were called in. According to some scholars, the driving force behind the use of historical Scanian architecture, as interpreted by 19th century Danish architects using Renaissance_architecture#Netherlands style, was a wish to refer back to an earlier era when the aristocracy had special privileges and political power in relation to the Danish king.Bjurklint Rosenblad, Kajsa. Scenografi för ett ståndsmässigt liv: adelns slottsbyggande i Skåne 1840-1900. Malmö: Sekel, 2005. ISBN 9197522236. Abstract in English at Scripta Academica Lundensia, Lund University.

Language, literature and art See also: Scanian (linguistics)

Scanian (linguistics) dialects have various local native idioms and speech patterns, and realizes diphthongs and South Scandinavian Uvular trill, as opposed to the supradental /r/-sound characteristic of spoken Standard Swedish. They are very similar to the dialect of Danish language spoken in Bornholm, Denmark. The prosody of the Scanian dialects have more in common with German language, Danish language and Dutch language (and sometimes also with English language, although to a lesser extent) than with the prosody of central Swedish dialects.Gårding, Eva (1974). "Talar skåningarna svenska" (Do Scanians speak Swedish). Svenskans beskrivning. Ed. Christer Platzack. Lund: Institutionen för nordiska språk, 1973, p 107, 112. (In Swedish). In general, Scanian dialects behave more like the other Germanic languages that have vowel quantity.

Famous Scanian authors include Victoria Benedictsson, (1850–1888) from Domme, Trelleborg Municipality, who wrote about the inequality of women in the 19th century society, but who also authored regional stories about Scania, such as From Skåne of 1884; Ola Hansson"Poems" of 1884 and "Notturno" of 1885 celebrate the natural beauty and folkways of Scania. The result of a globetrotting life style, Ola Hansson's later poetry had various continental influences, but like many other Scanian writers', his authorship often reflected the tension between cosmopolitan culture and regionalism. For larger trends and a historic perspective on Scanian literature, see Vinge, Louise (ed.) Skånes litteraturhistoria del I, ISBN 9156410484, and Skånes litteraturhistoria del II, ISBN 9156410492, Corona: Malmö, 1996-1997. (In Swedish). (1860-1925) from Hönsinge, Trelleborg; Vilhelm Ekelund (1880-1949) from Stehag, Eslöv; Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (1895-1972) from Vollsjö, Sjöbo; Hjalmar Gullberg (1898-1961) from Malmö; Artur Lundkvist (1906-1991) from Hagstad, Perstorp; Hans Alfredsson (born 1931) and Jacques Werup (born 1945), both from Malmö. Birgitta Trotzig (born 1929) from Gothenburg has written several historic novels set in Scania, such as The Exposed of 1957, which describes life in 17th century Scania with a primitive country priest as its main character and the 1961 novel A Tale from the Coast, which recounts a legend about human suffering and is set in Scania in the 15th century.

A printing-house was established in the city of Malmö in 1528. It became instrumental in the propagation of new ideas and during the 16th century, Malmö became the center for the Danish reformation.Infotek Öresund. Litteraturhistoria, Malmö. Fact sheet produced by Infotek Öresund, a cooperative project between the public libraries of Helsingborg, Elsinore, Copenhagen and Malmö, published online by Malmö Public Library, 4 November 2005. (In Swedish).

Scanian culture, as expressed through the medium of textile art, has received international attention during the last decade.See for example: Monument to Love and Textiles de Scania des XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles. Scanian textiles from the Khalili Collection exhibited at the Swedish Cultural Centre in Paris and the Boston University Art Gallery. Retrieved 15 January 2007. The art form, often referred to as Scanian Marriage Weavings, flourished from 1750 for a period of 100 years, after which it slowly vanished. Consisting of small textile panels mainly created for wedding ceremonies, the art is strongly symbolic, often expressing ideas about fertility, longevity and a sense of hope and joy.Keelan, Major Andrew and Wendy Keelan. The Khalili Collection - An Introduction. The Khalili Family Trust. Retrieved 15 January 2007. The Scanian artists were female weavers working at home, who had learned to weave at a young age, often in order to have a marriage chest filled with beautiful tapestries as a dowry.

According to international collectors and art scholars, the Scanian patterns are of special interest for the striking similarities with Ancient Rome, Byzantine and Asia art. The designs are studied by art historians tracing how portable decorative goods served as transmitters of art concepts from culture to culture, influencing designs and patterns along the entire length of the ancient trade routes. The Scanian textiles show how goods traded along the Silk Road brought Copt, Anatolian, and China designs and symbols into the folk art of far away regions like Scania, where they were reinterpretated and integrated into the local culture. Some of the most ancient designs in Scanian textile art are pairs of birds facing a tree with a "Great Bird" above, often symbolized simply by its wings.Hansen, Viveka (1997). Swedish Textile Art: Traditional Marriage Weavings from Scania. Nour Foundation: 1997. ISBN 1874780072. Regionally derived iconography include mythological Scanian river horses in red (bäckahästar in Swedish), with horns on their foreheads and misty clouds from their nostrils. The horse motif has been traced to patterns on 4th and 5th century Egyptian fabrics, but in Scanian art it is transformed to illustrate the Norse mythology river horse of Scanian folklore.Lundström, Lena (2003). "Vattenväsen i väverskans händer". Curator's description of the exhibition "Aqvaväsen" at Trelleborgs Museum in Vårt Trelleborg, 2:2003, pp. 20-21. Available online in pdf format. (In Swedish).

Heraldry and dukes Scania was granted its coat of arms at the funeral of Charles X Gustav of Sweden in 1660, based on the arms of the town of Malmö. The arms is represented with a duke coronet and the formal description (blazon) is: "Or, a Griffin's head erased Gules, crowned Azure and armed Azure, when it should be armed".

Since 1772, Swedish Princes have been created Dukes of various provinces, although this is a solely nominal title. The Dukes of Skåne are:

From his marriage, in 1905, King Gustaf VI Adolf had his summer residence at Sofiero palace in Helsingborg. He and his family spent their summers there, and the cabinet meetings held there during the summer months forced the ministers to arrive by night train from Stockholm. He died at Helsingborg Hospital in 1973.

References and notes See also

External links Official links

Organisations

{{Infobox_Landskap|fullname=Scania|name=Scania (Skåne)|land=Götaland|area=10,939|flower=[Oxeye daisy|bird=[Red kite|coatofarms=|map=|-->Scania ( in [Swedish language) is a geographical region of Sweden on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, a historical provinces of Sweden (landskap)The Swedish provinces were officially replaced by counties in 1634, before Scania's integration into Sweden, but Scania became one of the unofficial, historic provinces when the province concept was revived in the late 19th century. For more on the concept's revival, see: Jacobsson, Benny (2000). "Konstruktion av landskap. Exemplet Uppland". Idéhistoriska perspektiv. Ed. Ingemar Nilsson, Arachne 16, Göteborg 2000, p. 109-119. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006. (In Swedish). in the Kingdom of Sweden, before 1658 a province in the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the historical lands of Denmark, since 1997 a counties of Sweden (län) of Sweden. To the north, it borders the provinces Halland, Småland and Blekinge, to the east and south the Baltic Sea, and to the west the Oresund strait. It is part of the transnational Oresund Region and the historical region Skåneland (Terra Scania or the Scanian land). Around 130 km long from north to south, Scania covers less than 3% of Sweden's total area. The population of 1,200,000 represents 13% of Sweden's total population.

Due to the historical connection to Denmark, the vast fertile plain, the deciduous forests and the relatively mild climate, Scania is often considered culturally and physically distinct from other regions of Sweden.Germundsson, Tomas (2005). "Regional Cultural Heritage versus National Heritage in Scania’s Disputed National Landscape." International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 21–37. (ISSN 1470–3610).

Administrative subdivisions For politics see Skåne Regional Council and List of Skåne Governors. . Introduced 1902 (could be older); official flag of Skåne Regional Council since 1999 Newsletter of Skåne Regional Council, No. 2, 1999. of Scania.Danish Scania was subdivided into administrative units called hundreds (herreder in Danish) during medieval times. Under the Swedish administration, several different administrative subdivisions have been in effect within the region. For most of the period between 1658 and 1719, Scania was a dominions of Sweden.

The provinces of Sweden have no political or administrative function. Scania is presently subdivided into 33 municipalities of SwedenRegion Skåne. Municipalities in Skåne. Official site. Retrieved 24 August 2007.(kommuner in Swedish), the largest being Malmö Municipality (270,000 inhabitants), Helsingborg Municipality (124,000), Lund Municipality (103,000 inhabitants) and Kristianstad Municipality (75,000 inhabitants). The municipalities have municipal governments, similar to city commission government, and are further divided into parishes, originally created by the Church of Denmark. The parish division is traditionally used by the Church of Sweden, but also serves as a divisioning measure for Swedish census and elections.

Since 1997, the largest administrative unit in Scania is called Skåne County, with boundaries that are almost identical to the boundaries of the province. Between 1719 and 1997, Scania was divided into two administrative counties, Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County. 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 themselvesRegion Skåne. Democracy-Increased autonomy. Official site. Retrieved 24 August 2007., as opposed to the county administrative council that guards the interest of the state in the region under the chairmanship of the List of County Governors of Sweden (landshövding in Swedish). The County Administrative Board is nominally a Government Agencies in Sweden. The seat of residence for the List of Skåne Governors is the town of Malmö. The arms for the for the province and the newly created county are based on the Danish era arms for the city of Malmö. The arms for the county has the red and yellow colors of the province arms reversed and a crown, beak and tongue in yellow instead of blue. When the county arms is shown with a Swedish royal crown, it represents the County Administrative Board, which is the regional presence of (royal) government authority.

Before Region Skåne was formed in 1999 on a trial basis, the regional development was the responsibility of a Regional Association, comprising the 33 municipalities together with the then current health services principals, namely the Kristianstad and Malmöhus county councils and the Health Services authority in the City of Malmö.

History at the Battle of Lund, 1676. Painting by Johan Philip Lemke, 1684Main articles: History of Scania and Skåneland

Historically the province of Scania was a part of Terra Scania (Skåneland in SwedishSwedish Academy (2006). SAOB. (In Swedish). Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006. and Skånelandene in DanishDanish National Archives. Lensregnskaberne 1560-1658. (In Danish). Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006.), which together with Jutland and Zealand, the other two Lands of Denmark, formed a Danish state in the 9th century.

Following the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, Skåneland became a possession of the Swedish The Crown. As a dominion (generalguvernement in Swedish), like other conquered and unintegrated territories within the Dominions of Sweden, this region was ruled by a Swedish Governors-General, the highest representatives of the Swedish monarch. After a coup in Bornholm, during which the Swedish Commanding Officer Johan Printzensköld was killed, Bornholm was returned to Denmark in 1660.Terra Scaniae. Kuppförsök mot svenskarna 1658. Försvenskningens första skede. (In Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2006. Scania, Halland and Blekinge remained a dominion, ruled by the first Governor-General of Skåneland, Gustaf Otto Stenbock.Terra Scaniae. Herr generalguvernör. (In Swedish). Retrieved 8 January 2007.

The Governor-General's seat of residence was in Malmö. Initially, he had four county governors under his command: one in Halland County, one in Kristianstad County (which included the province Blekinge), one in Helsingborg County and one in Landskrona County. The region's status as a dominion was suspended in 1669 but recreated in 1676 before the start of the Scanian War.Terra Scaniae. Skånes län efter 1658, p. 1-4. (In Swedish). Retrieved 8 January 2007. During 1676-1679, Scania, with the exception of Malmö, was again under Danish administration, but the peace dictated by France on behalf of Sweden in the Treaty of Lund (1679) returned Scania to Swedish administration.

The 1676-1679 war between Denmark and Sweden over Scania was devastating for the people of Scania. It ended in a draw, after much destruction of property and suffering for the civilian population.

1680-1690 Section 9 of the Roskilde peace treaty had initially ensured cultural autonomy in Scania and in an additional agreement, signed at the Malmö Recess in 1662, Sweden guaranteed that the old laws and privileges of Scania would continue to apply in the region. The Malmö Recess agreement further ensured that Scanian noblemen, priests and peasants would be allowed to send representatives to the Swedish parliament.Oresundstid. The Swedification of Scania. 17th century. Retrieved 7 January 2007.

However, in 1680 Sweden’s first era of absolute monarchy was ushered in as the Swedish king Charles XI managed to convince the Diet (assembly), (the Riksdag of the Estates, an early form of Swedish Parliament) to declare the king "a Christian ruler with absolute power to rule his kingdom at his discretion".Upton, Anthony F. (1998). Charles XI and Swedish Absolutism, 1660-1697. Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521573904. In 1682, the Diet downgraded the Council of State to a King's Council and gave the king unlimited powers to legislate without the need for confirmation from the Diet. A decision not to honor the agreement of the Malmö Recess soon followed and a tougher Swedification program was implemented in Scania, aiming to create uniformity within the Swedish kingdom.Terra Scaniae. Hårdare försvenskning. (In Swedish). Retrieved 7 January 2006. Scania was allowed to retain its old laws and customs until 1683, at which point the Swedish administration persuaded the Scanian aristocracy to waive the Scanian laws and privileges in favor of the new Swedish law and church ordinance, as a condition for allowing Scanians to have representation in the Swedish parliament.

An entire staff of Swedish politicians, artists, poets and scholars were engaged in creating an image of the king as an instrument of God and a personification of the apocalyptic "Lion of the North", a form of symbolic imagery first introduced for Gustav II Adolf. The propaganda was not only aimed at convincing the Swedish population of the king's divinely ordained power, but was also part of a campaign to present Sweden to the world as an imperial power of considerable wealth and military glory.Stadin, Kekke. "The Masculine Image of a Great Power: Representations of Swedish imperial power c. 1630–1690". Scandinavian Journal of History Vol. 30, No. 1. March 2005, pp. 61–82. ISSN 0346-8755. The conquest and domination of Scania was an important theme in the art commissioned by the court to glorify the king. Many works of art from the era show Charles XI as a victorious warrior in Scania and on the central panel of Jacques Foucquet’s monumental ceiling painting in the Stockholm Royal Palace, Charles XI is depicted with "the goddess of Scania" at his feet.Olin, Martin (2005). "Kungliga rum – maktmanifestation och distribution". Historikermöte 2005, Konstvetenskapliga institutionen. Published online (in English) by the Department of History, Uppsala University, in pdf-format.

After 1690 ), consisting of the provinces "Scaniam, Hallandiam et Blekingiam".Halland and Blekinge were successively removed from the Skåneland dominion and became fully integrated into the Swedish Kingdom, while the counties of Scania were joined into one county. By 1693, only Scania County was left a dominion, with a special, not fully integrated, status.

Scania's status was changed on May 9, 1719, when it was divided into two counties, Malmöhus County and Kristianstad County, and became fully integrated, with two county governors and an administration identical to the other Swedish counties. However, the hostilities between Denmark and Sweden during the Napoleonic War caused Sweden to revert Scania's status again and a General-Governor was reintroduced. Between 1801 and 1809, Johan Christopher Toll was appointed General-Governor of Scania, with the county governors of Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County answering to him. On January 1, 1997, the two Scanian counties were joined into the present Skåne County.

Geography and environmental factors ), a skyscraper in Malmö, the largest city in Skåne. woods at the public forests of Söderåsen.The geography of Scania was shaped by the last ice age, the Weichsel glaciation, a time when it was totally covered with ice. The Terrain in Scania's south-western landscape is formed by thick Quaternary deposits from sediment accumulation during the glaciations. Hallandsåsen and Söderåsen are major landmarks but contrary to popular belief, they are not ridges left behind by the retreating ice but Horst (geology)s formed by inversion tectonic activity along the Tornquist Tectonic zone in the late Cretaceous. The Scanian horsts run in a North-West to South-West direction, marking the southwest border of Fennoscandia.Lidmar-Bergström, Karna and Jens-Ove Näslund (2005). "Uplands and Lowlands in Southern Sweden". In The Physical Geography of Fennoscandia. Ed. Matti Seppälä. Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 255-261. ISBN 0199245908.

Unlike some of the other regions of Sweden, the Scanian landscape is not mountainous. With the exception of the lake-rich and densely forested northern parts (Göinge), the rolling hills in the north-west (the Bjäre and Kullaberg peninsulas) and the beech-woods clad areas extending from the slopes of the horsts, a sizeable portion of Scania's terrain consists of plain. The low profile and the open landscape distinguish Scania from the other geographical regions of Sweden which consist mainly of waterway-rich, cool mixed, coniferous forests, taiga and alpine tundra.Österberg, Klas (2001). Forest - Geographical Regions. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 25 Jan. 2001. Retrieved 4 Nov. 2006. Stretching from the north-western to the south-eastern parts of Scania is a belt of deciduous forests following the Linderödsåsen ridge, and previously marking the border between Malmöhus County and Kristianstad County. Denser fir forests are found in the north-eastern Göinge parts along the border with the forest dominated province of Småland.

The two major plains, Söderslätt in the south-west och Österlen in the south-east, consist of highly fertile agricultural land - the yield per unit area is higher than in any other region in Sweden. The Scanian plains are an important resource for the rest of Sweden since between 25-50% of the total production of various types of cereals come from the region. In addition, close to 90% of Sweden's sugar beets are grown in Scania.SCB. Jordbruksstatistisk årsbok 2006. (Agricultural Statistic Yearbook 2006). Published online in pdf-format by Statiska Centralbyrån ( Statistics Sweden). (In Swedish). Retrieved 10 January 2007. The soil is among the most fertile in the world.

The Kullaberg Nature Preserve in northwest Scania is home to several rare species including Spring vetchling, Lathyrus sphaericus. Hogan, C.M. (2004). Kullaberg environmental analysis. Lumina Technologies prepared for municipality of Höganäs, Aberdeen Library Archives, Aberdeen, Scotland, July 17, 2004.



Scania was historically divided into 14 chartered List of cities in Sweden and 23 Hundreds of Sweden.

Cities Main article: Towns of Skåne

Over 90% of Scania's population live in cities.The Foundation for Recreational Areas in Scania. "Information about the Skaneled Trails". Region Skåne. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006 In 2000, the Oresund bridge - the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe, linked Malmö and Copenhagen, making Scania's population part of a 3.6 million total population in the Oresund Region. In 2005, the region had 9,200 commuters crossing the bridge daily, the vast majority of them from Malmö to Copenhagen.Peter, Laurence. "Bridge shapes new Nordic hub". BBC News, 14 Sep. 2006. Retrieved 20 Oct. 2006.

The below list of towns all held City status in Sweden until the term was abolished in Sweden in 1971 in favour of municipalities. In Danish times, other towns had been granted a royal charter, but the towns remained small.

Hundreds

Transport See also: Skåne commuter rail

The motorway built between between Malmö and Lund in 1953 was the first List of motorways in Sweden. With the construction of the Oresund bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen (the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe), the Swedish motorways were linked with European route E20 in Denmark and Skåne commuter rail became connected with the Danish railway system.

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, theSwedish 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. Ljungbyhed airport - ESTL. Fact sheet created by Lund University School of Aviation. Retrieved 22 January 2007.

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

Culture Scania's long-running and sometimes intense trade relations with other communities along the coast of the European continent through history has made the culture of Scania distinct from other geographical regions of Sweden. Its open landscape, often described as a colorful patchwork quilt of corn and rape fields, and the relatively mild climate at the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, have inspired many Swedish artists and authors to compare it to European regions like Provence in southern France and Zeeland in the Netherlands.Linnaeus, Carl (1750). Skånska resa (Scanian Journey). Among the many authors who have described the "foreign" continental elements of the Scanian landscape, diet and customs are August Strindberg and Carl Linnaeus. In 1893 August Strindberg wrote about Scania: "In beautiful, large wave lines, the fields undulate down toward the lake; a small deciduous forest limits the coastline, which is given the inviting look of the Riviera, where people shall walk in the sun, protected from the north wind. The Swede leaves the plains with a certain sense of comfort, because its beauty is foreign to him." In another chapter he states: "The Swedes have a history that is not the history of the South Scandinavians. It must be just as foreign as Gustav Vasa history is to the Scanian."Strindberg, August (1893). "Skånska landskap med utvikningar". Prosabitar från 1890-talet. Bonniers , Stockholm, 1917. (In Swedish).

Architecture See also: List of castles in Scania], Scania, built 1641. — a typical example of a Danish medieval church.Traditional Scanian architecture is shaped by the limited availability of wood; it incorporates different applications of the building technique called half-timbering. In the cities, the infill of the façades consisted of bricks,Albertsson, Rolf. "Half-timbered houses". Section in Malmö 1692 - a historical project. Malmö City Culture Department and Museum of Foteviken. Retrieved 16 January 2007. whereas the country-side half-timbered houses had infill made of clay and straw.Oresundstid. Images: Half-timbered house in Scania. Retrieved 16 January 2007. Unlike many other Scanian towns, the town of Ystad has managed to preserve a rather large core of its half-timbered architecture in the city center - over 300 half-timbered houses still exist today.Ystad Municipality. Welcome to Ystad. Official site. Retrieved 16 January 2007. Many of the houses in Ystad were built in the renaissance style that was common in the entire Oresund Region, and which has also been preserved in Elsinore (Helsingør). Among Ystad's half-timbered houses is the oldest such building in Scandinavia, Pilgrändshuset from 1480.Ystad Municipality. A walk through the centuries, section "Pedestrian street". Official site. Retrieved 16 January 2007.

In Göinge, located in the northern part of Scania, the architecture was not shaped by a scarcity of wood, and the pre-17th century farms consisted of graying, recumbent timber buildings around a small grass and cobblestone courtyard. Only a small number of the original Göinge farms remain today. During two campaigns, the first in 1612 by Gustav II Adolf and the second by Charles XI in the 1680s, entire districts were leveled by fire.A letter from the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf describes a raid in 1612: "We have been in Scania and we have burned most of the province, so that 24 parishes and the town of Vä lie in ashes. We have met no resistance, neither from cavalry nor footmen, so we have been able to rage, plunder, burn and kill to our hearts' content. We had thought of visiting Århus in the same way, but when it was brought to our knowledge that there were Danish cavalry in the town, we set out for Markaryd and we could destroy and ravage as we went along and everything turned out lucky for us." (Quoted and translated by Oresundstid in the section The Kalmar War 1611-13. In Örkened Parish, in what is now eastern Osby Municipality, the buildings were destroyed to punish the different villages for their protection of members of the Snapphane movement in the late 17th century.Herman Lindquist (1995). Historien om Sverige – storhet och fall. Norstedts Förlag, 2006. ISBN 9113015354. (In Swedish). An original, 17th century Göinge farm, Sporrakulla Farm, has been preserved in a forestcalled Kullaskogen, a nature reserve close to Glimåkra in Östra Göinge. According to the local legend, the farmer saved the farm in the first raid of 1612 by setting a forest fire in front of it, making the Swedish troops believe that the farm had already been plundered and set ablaze. Skåneleden: 6B. Breanäsleden (In Swedish). Official site by The Foundation for Recreational Areas in Scania and Region Skåne. See also Göingebygden, official site by Skåne Nordost Tourism Office and The Snapp-hane Kingdom. Official site by Osby Tourism Office.

's coin, likely minted in Lund between 994 and 1013 AD. A number of Scanian towns flourished during the Viking Age. The city of Lund is believed to have been founded by the Viking-king Sweyn Forkbeard. Scanian craftsmen and traders were prospering during this era and Denmark's first and largest mint was established in Lund. The first Scanian coins have been dated to 870 AD.Hauberg, P. (1900). Myntforhold og Udmyntninger i Danmark indtil 1146. D. Kgl. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., 6. Række, historisk og filosofisk Afd. V. I., Chapter III: Danmarks Mynthistorie indtil 1146, and Chapter V: Myntsteder published online by Gladsaxe Gymnasium. (In Danish). Retrieved 10 January 2007. The archaeological excavations performed in the city indicate that the oldest known stave church in Scania was built by Sweyn Forkbeard in Lund in 990.City of Lund. Touchdowns in the History of Lund. Official site for the City of Lund. Retrieved 10 January 2006. In 1103, Lund was made the archbishopric for all of Scandinavia.

Many of the old churches in today's Scanian landscape stem from the medieval age, although many church renovations, extensions and destruction of older buildings took place in the 16th and 19th century. From those that have kept features of the authentic style, it is still possible to see how the medieval, Romanesque architecture or Renaissance_architecture#Scandinavia churches of Danish Scania looked like. Many Scanian churches have distinctive Crow-stepped gables and sturdy church porches, usually made of stone.

The first version of Lund Cathedral was built in 1050, in sandstone from Höör, on the initiative of Canute the Holy.Terra Scaniae. Lunds Domkyrka. (In Swedish). Retrieved 11 January 2007. The oldest parts of today's cathedral are from 1085, but the actual cathedral was constructed during the first part of the 12th century with the help of stone cutters and sculptors from the River Rhine and Italy, and was ready for use in 1123. It was consecrated in 1145 and for the next 400 years, Lund became theecclesiastical power center for Scandinavia and one of the most important cities in Denmark. The cathedral was altered in the16th century by architect Adam van Düren and later by Carl Georg Brunius and Helgo Zetterwall.Scania also has churches built in the Gothic architecture style, such as Saint Petri Church in Malmö, dating from the early 14th century. Similar buildings can be found in all Hansa cities around the Baltic Sea (such as Helsingborg and Rostock). The parishes in the countryside did not have the means for such extravagant buildings. Possibly the most notable countryside church is the ancient and untouched stone church in Dalby, Skåne, Sweden. It is the oldest stone church in Sweden, built around the same time as Lund cathedral. After the Lund Cathedral was built, many of the involved workers travelledaround the province and used their acquired skills to make baptism fonts, paintings and decorations, and naturally architectural constructions.

Scania has 240 castles and country estates - more than any other province in Sweden.Region Skåne (2006). http://www.skane.se/templates/Page.aspx?id=151922 What is typical Skåne?. Official site. Retrieved 22 January 2007. Many of them received their current shape during the 16th century, when new or remodeled castles started to appear in greater numbers, often erected by the reuse of stones and material from the original 11th-15th century castles and abbeys found at the estates. Between 1840 and 1900, the nobility in Scania built and rebuilt many of the castles again, often by modernizing previous buildings at the same location in a style that became typical for Scania. The style is a mixture of different architectural influences of the era, but frequently refers back to the style of the 16th century castles of the Reformation era, a time when the large estates of the Catholic church were made Crown property and the abbeys bartered or sold to members of the aristocracy by the Danish king.Terra Scaniae. 1600-talet. (In Swedish). Retrieved 27 January 2007. For many of the 19th century remodels, Danish architects were called in. According to some scholars, the driving force behind the use of historical Scanian architecture, as interpreted by 19th century Danish architects using Renaissance_architecture#Netherlands style, was a wish to refer back to an earlier era when the aristocracy had special privileges and political power in relation to the Danish king.Bjurklint Rosenblad, Kajsa. Scenografi för ett ståndsmässigt liv: adelns slottsbyggande i Skåne 1840-1900. Malmö: Sekel, 2005. ISBN 9197522236. Abstract in English at Scripta Academica Lundensia, Lund University.

Language, literature and art See also: Scanian (linguistics)

Scanian (linguistics) dialects have various local native idioms and speech patterns, and realizes diphthongs and South Scandinavian Uvular trill, as opposed to the supradental /r/-sound characteristic of spoken Standard Swedish. They are very similar to the dialect of Danish language spoken in Bornholm, Denmark. The prosody of the Scanian dialects have more in common with German language, Danish language and Dutch language (and sometimes also with English language, although to a lesser extent) than with the prosody of central Swedish dialects.Gårding, Eva (1974). "Talar skåningarna svenska" (Do Scanians speak Swedish). Svenskans beskrivning. Ed. Christer Platzack. Lund: Institutionen för nordiska språk, 1973, p 107, 112. (In Swedish). In general, Scanian dialects behave more like the other Germanic languages that have vowel quantity.

Famous Scanian authors include Victoria Benedictsson, (1850–1888) from Domme, Trelleborg Municipality, who wrote about the inequality of women in the 19th century society, but who also authored regional stories about Scania, such as From Skåne of 1884; Ola Hansson"Poems" of 1884 and "Notturno" of 1885 celebrate the natural beauty and folkways of Scania. The result of a globetrotting life style, Ola Hansson's later poetry had various continental influences, but like many other Scanian writers', his authorship often reflected the tension between cosmopolitan culture and regionalism. For larger trends and a historic perspective on Scanian literature, see Vinge, Louise (ed.) Skånes litteraturhistoria del I, ISBN 9156410484, and Skånes litteraturhistoria del II, ISBN 9156410492, Corona: Malmö, 1996-1997. (In Swedish). (1860-1925) from Hönsinge, Trelleborg; Vilhelm Ekelund (1880-1949) from Stehag, Eslöv; Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (1895-1972) from Vollsjö, Sjöbo; Hjalmar Gullberg (1898-1961) from Malmö; Artur Lundkvist (1906-1991) from Hagstad, Perstorp; Hans Alfredsson (born 1931) and Jacques Werup (born 1945), both from Malmö. Birgitta Trotzig (born 1929) from Gothenburg has written several historic novels set in Scania, such as The Exposed of 1957, which describes life in 17th century Scania with a primitive country priest as its main character and the 1961 novel A Tale from the Coast, which recounts a legend about human suffering and is set in Scania in the 15th century.

A printing-house was established in the city of Malmö in 1528. It became instrumental in the propagation of new ideas and during the 16th century, Malmö became the center for the Danish reformation.Infotek Öresund. Litteraturhistoria, Malmö. Fact sheet produced by Infotek Öresund, a cooperative project between the public libraries of Helsingborg, Elsinore, Copenhagen and Malmö, published online by Malmö Public Library, 4 November 2005. (In Swedish).

Scanian culture, as expressed through the medium of textile art, has received international attention during the last decade.See for example: Monument to Love and Textiles de Scania des XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles. Scanian textiles from the Khalili Collection exhibited at the Swedish Cultural Centre in Paris and the Boston University Art Gallery. Retrieved 15 January 2007. The art form, often referred to as Scanian Marriage Weavings, flourished from 1750 for a period of 100 years, after which it slowly vanished. Consisting of small textile panels mainly created for wedding ceremonies, the art is strongly symbolic, often expressing ideas about fertility, longevity and a sense of hope and joy.Keelan, Major Andrew and Wendy Keelan. The Khalili Collection - An Introduction. The Khalili Family Trust. Retrieved 15 January 2007. The Scanian artists were female weavers working at home, who had learned to weave at a young age, often in order to have a marriage chest filled with beautiful tapestries as a dowry.

According to international collectors and art scholars, the Scanian patterns are of special interest for the striking similarities with Ancient Rome, Byzantine and Asia art. The designs are studied by art historians tracing how portable decorative goods served as transmitters of art concepts from culture to culture, influencing designs and patterns along the entire length of the ancient trade routes. The Scanian textiles show how goods traded along the Silk Road brought Copt, Anatolian, and China designs and symbols into the folk art of far away regions like Scania, where they were reinterpretated and integrated into the local culture. Some of the most ancient designs in Scanian textile art are pairs of birds facing a tree with a "Great Bird" above, often symbolized simply by its wings.Hansen, Viveka (1997). Swedish Textile Art: Traditional Marriage Weavings from Scania. Nour Foundation: 1997. ISBN 1874780072. Regionally derived iconography include mythological Scanian river horses in red (bäckahästar in Swedish), with horns on their foreheads and misty clouds from their nostrils. The horse motif has been traced to patterns on 4th and 5th century Egyptian fabrics, but in Scanian art it is transformed to illustrate the Norse mythology river horse of Scanian folklore.Lundström, Lena (2003). "Vattenväsen i väverskans händer". Curator's description of the exhibition "Aqvaväsen" at Trelleborgs Museum in Vårt Trelleborg, 2:2003, pp. 20-21. Available online in pdf format. (In Swedish).

Heraldry and dukes Scania was granted its coat of arms at the funeral of Charles X Gustav of Sweden in 1660, based on the arms of the town of Malmö. The arms is represented with a duke coronet and the formal description (blazon) is: "Or, a Griffin's head erased Gules, crowned Azure and armed Azure, when it should be armed".

Since 1772, Swedish Princes have been created Dukes of various provinces, although this is a solely nominal title. The Dukes of Skåne are:

From his marriage, in 1905, King Gustaf VI Adolf had his summer residence at Sofiero palace in Helsingborg. He and his family spent their summers there, and the cabinet meetings held there during the summer months forced the ministers to arrive by night train from Stockholm. He died at Helsingborg Hospital in 1973.

References and notes See also

External links Official links

Organisations



Scania (Great Britain) Limited - Premium Trucks, Buses, Coaches and ...
Provides information about trucks, buses, engines, and services available through a dealer network in the UK.

Scania Truck Range
Subscribe to Scania eNews Get all the latest news about Scania products and services in the UK delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe here

www.scania.com
Truck retailer. Features lists of services and support, products, investor relations, human resources, and purchasing information. (NYSE: SCV.A)

Scania Image Bank
Scania Image Bank provides images to newspapers and magazines as well as to Scania's own organisation. Here you'll find images depicting all of Scania's business areas ...

Scania Australia
Scania ... Think, tank. In Australia the cost of fuel has risen astronomically in recent times.

Scania buses and coaches
The Scania way to fuel economy Summing up on vast research and experience, we have learned that the affectable factors in the fuel efficiency equation boil down to three ...

Scania (company) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scania AB is a European manufacturer of heavy trucks (British English: lorries), buses, and diesel engines, based in Södertälje, Sweden. It became the ninth brand in the ...

Scania Trucks for Sale
Wanted: Scania 114 340 to 400hp, 6x2 or 6x4 Year: 1999 onwards Mileage: good condition Price: Negoatiable USD

KUDA - Products SCANIA
Product / Scania

Scania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scania (Skåne   (help · info) in Swedish) [2] is a geographical region on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, a traditional province (landskap) in the Kingdom of ...

 

Scania



 
Copyright © 2008 Hintcenter.com - All rights reserved.
Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
All Trademarks belong to their repective owners. Many aspects of this page are used under
commercial commons license from Yahoo!