Lund , in the southern part of Sweden, is home to the country's second oldest, yet largest, university, and also has many high-tech companies.
Get in
Lund is fifteen minutes by train from Malmö and an hour from Copenhagen, including its airport. All trains stop at Lund, including the X-2000 expresses from Gothenburg and Stockholm. There are also buses from Malmö.
Get around
Lund is certainly small enough to see most of it in an afternoon's walk. You can pick up a city map at the tourist office just across the street from the cathedral.
The local Skånetrafiken buses can get you to most areas of town. The hubs are around the train station, Botulfsplatsen, and the University Hospital (Universitetssjukhuset). Tickets are 12 SEK for as far as you want to go, if you're under 19 it's 6 SEK.
The best place to catch a cab is by the train station.
See
Museums
Parks
Entertainment
Being a university town, Lund has good arts and entertainment for its size.
Eat
Budget
Mid-range
Splurge
Drink
There are a number of better pubs around Stortorget and Botulfs square.
Sleep
Hotels
Budget
Mid-range
Splurge
Contact
By web
By mail
IPA: lɵnd is a city in southern Sweden. The town has around 74,000 inhabitants and is the seat of Lund Municipality in Skåne County. The city is held to have been founded around 990, when the Scanian lands belonged to Denmark. It soon became the Christian center of Northern Europe with an archbishop and with the towering Lund Cathedral, built in 1103.
Lund University, established 1666, is today one of Scandinavia's largest institution for education and research..
History
The foundation of Lund remains unclear. Until recently, the town was thought to have been founded by King Canute the Great of Denmark around 1020. However, recent archaeological discoveries suggest that the first settlement was founded around 990, when the village of Uppåkra was moved to the location of Lund, by King Sweyn I Forkbeard. The distance is only some five kilometres, but the location of Lund on a hill and on the other side of a ford, gave the new site considerable defensive advantages in comparison with Uppåkra, which is situated on the highest point of a rather large plain.
The city was made a see in 1060, and in 1103 made the seat of the archbishop for Scandinavia. 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.
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 well-known people have attended it, among them actor Max von Sydow and several high-ranking politicians.
In 1658, the Scanian lands were ceded by Denmark to Sweden by the Treaty of Roskilde. On December 4 1676 Lund was defended in the Battle of Lund, one of the bloodiest battles fought in Scandinavia.
Lund University, established in 1666 is Sweden's largest with 41,000 full or part-time students, though not all students actually live in Lund (the figure includes Lund Institute of Technology, which is in some ways independent of the old University). As late as the 1940s, Lund was a relatively small city with few large-scale industries, covering only about a fourth of the current urban area and was dominated by the Cathedral and the University. Since then, the student population has increased about twelvefold, many industrial companies in the chemical, medical or electronics branches and, more recently, within information management, have set up establishments in the city, and the town's population, architecture and pulse has been transformed.
Compared with many other Swedish cities, the urban heart of Lund is well preserved. A local law requires any downtown property that is due to be demolished and rebuilt to be archaeologically excavated.
Geography
Lund is located in Sweden's largest agricultural district, located in the southwest of Scania, less than ten kilometres from the sandy shore of the Öresund Straits and about 16 kilometres from Malmö. From the top of the hill Sankt Hans Backar it is possible to see Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The distance to other swedish cities is therefore rather big with about 250 kilometers to Gothenburg, 600 to Stockholm and about 1200 kilometers to Umeå. In the eastern part of the Lund municipality there is extensive forest, mainly deciduous trees.
Architecture
During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat for the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. There are several medieval buildings remaining, including Lund Cathedral, Liberiet, Stäket and parts of the Cathedral School.
Timber framing is characteristic of the houses built up to the end of the 19th century, for example the Wickmanska gården.
However, most of the central buildings in Lund date from the late 19th century, when small houses were replaced by multi-storey buildings. Notable buildings built during this period include the University Library (1902), Grand Hotel (1899) and the University Main Building (1882).
Image:Liberiet, 2004c.jpg|Liberiet
Image:Grand Hotel, Lund.jpg|Grand Hotel
Image:Universitetsbiblioteket, Lund 2.jpg|The University Library
Image:Katedralskolan lund.JPG|The Cathedral School
image:Wickmanska gården, Lund.jpg|Wickmanska gården
Image:Lunds universitet.jpg|Lund University main building
Transportation
Major Roads
Lund has been connected to the motorway network since 1953 when the E22 was built trough the town, this was the first motorway in Sweden. There are also other connections to most Major roads in the area, for example the E6 via Riksväg 16, and the Länsväg 108 which connects to the E65
Railroads and Public Transport
There has been a railroad connection to Malmö since 1857, which today continues to Copenhagen and Helsingør via the Öresund Bridge, this Connection is mainly served by the so called Öresundstågen which are maintained by the Danske Statsbaner in Denmark and Skånetrafiken in Scania as well as by SJ in the rest of Sweden. There are also the Pågatåg which travel to all over Scania. Because of all the railways coming together in Lund ,it is possible to travel to travel to the three biggest cities in sweden without having to swap trains.
The Public transport in Lund is all operated by Skånetrafiken and consists of buses which connect around 400 bus stops together with 11 bus lines served by a fleet of 40 Mercedes Citaro running on compressed natural gas and a few smaller buses using diesel.
Airports
Lund is located very close to Sturup Airport which is mainly used for domestic flights, apart from that the Copenhagen airport, Kastrup which is located 45 minutes away is often used for long international flights. There is also a very small airport called Hasslanda Flygfält in the nothern area of Lund, but this is mainly used for private and charter flights.
Culture
The culture in Lund is characterized by the large student population and the student traditions. A lot of the nightlife is located to student nations. The city is currently applying for getting European Capital of Culture in 2014.
Lund also has a city theatre and a few other places for concerts and theatres.
Literature and art
Classical writers who have lived in Lund at some time include August Strindberg, Esaias Tegnér, Ola Hansson, Axel Lundegård, Anders Östling, Bengt Lindforss, and Vilhelm Ekelund.
Lundakarnevalen (The Lund carnival)
The Lund carnival is held every fourth year since 1849, arranged by the students at Lund university. Some students dress up in costumes, often relating to and poking fun at current issues, and parade in wagons. Others perform humorous skits in the evenings.
Sports
Lund is not a notable center for sports except for handball, where it has two teams in the top league: H43 and LUGI. It has also a chess team, Lunds ASK, that for decades has been among the top teams in Sweden.
Industry
Lund is a center of high tech companies such as Sony Ericsson and Ericsson Mobile Platforms, and other telecommunication companies. The Lund Institute of Technology has historical connections with the industrial life. There is even a business park within Lund, Ideon, for high tech companies that have ties to the university.
Other important industries include medical technology (Gambro), pharmaceuticals (Astra Zeneca), biotechnology (Active Biotech, among others), (Alfa Laval) and publishing and library services. The hospital and the university in Lund are two other big employers, with extensive research facilities.
Lund is also home to the Tetra Pak company that manufactures and markets paper packaging and equipment for milk, orange juice etc. all over the world.
Twin cities
Lund has a twin city in each of the Nordic countries, as well as in other countries.
Education
Notable natives
Notes
External links
