Halland () is one of the traditional
provinces of Sweden
The provinces of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges landskap) are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces; they have no administrative function (except for in some cases as sport districts), but remain historical legacies and ...
(''landskap''), on the western coast of
Götaland, southern
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
. It borders
Västergötland
Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden.
Väs ...
,
Småland
Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden.
Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized f ...
,
Scania
Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skån ...
and the sea of
Kattegat. Until 1645 and the
Second Treaty of Brömsebro, it was part of the
Kingdom of Denmark
The Danish Realm ( da, Danmarks Rige; fo, Danmarkar Ríki; kl, Danmarkip Naalagaaffik), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (; ; ), is a sovereign state located in Northern Europe and Northern North America. It consists of metropolitan Denma ...
. Its name means ''Land of Rocky Slabs'' (Swedish: ''hällar'') referring to the coastal cliffs of the region.
Administration
The
provinces of Sweden
The provinces of Sweden ( sv, Sveriges landskap) are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces; they have no administrative function (except for in some cases as sport districts), but remain historical legacies and ...
serve no administrative function. Instead, that function is served by the
Counties of Sweden
The counties of Sweden ( Swedish: ''Sveriges län'') are the top-level geographic subdivisions of Sweden. Sweden is today divided into 21 counties; however, the number of counties has varied over time, due to territorial gains/losses and to d ...
. However, the province of Halland is almost coextensive with the administrative
Halland County, though parts of the province belong to
Västra Götaland County
Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden.
The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...
and
Skåne County
Skåne County ( sv, Skåne län, link=no ), sometimes referred to as Scania County in English, is the most southern county, or , of Sweden, basically corresponding to the traditional province Scania. It borders the counties of Halland, Krono ...
, while the county also includes parts of
Småland
Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden.
Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized f ...
and
Västergötland
Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden.
Väs ...
.
As of 31 December 2016 Halland had a population of 327,093. Of these, 310,536 lived in Halland County; 14,205 lived in Västra Götaland County; and 2,352 lived in Skåne County.
Heraldry
During the Danish era until 1658, the province had no
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
and no seal. In Sweden, however, every province had been represented by
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
arms since 1560. When
Charles X Gustav of Sweden
Charles X Gustav, also Carl Gustav ( sv, Karl X Gustav; 8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660), was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden. Afte ...
suddenly died in 1660 a coat of arms had to be created for the newly acquired province. Each province was to be represented by its arms at the royal funeral. There are several theories about the choice of a lion.
Bengt Algotsson, duke of Halland and Finland in the 14th century, used a lion in his personal arms.
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The ...
: ''Azure, a Lion rampant Argent langued, armed and dente Gules.''
The same coat of arms was later granted for the administrative Halland County, which has almost the same boundaries.
Geography
The rivers of
Viskan,
Ätran,
Nissan
, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun bra ...
and
Lagan flow through the province and reach the sea in
Kattegat. Halland is well known for its fertile soil and as an agricultural district.
Most of the region is made up of a relief unit known as the
Sub-Mesozoic hilly peneplain. Around
Morup and
Tvååker hilltops are
remnants
Remnant or remnants may refer to:
Religion
* Remnant (Bible), a recurring theme in the Bible
* Remnant (Seventh-day Adventist belief), the remnant theme in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
* ''The Remnant'' (newspaper), a traditional Catholic n ...
of the
Sub-Cambrian peneplain
The sub-Cambrian peneplain is an ancient, extremely flat, erosion surface ( peneplain) that has been exhumed and exposed by erosion from under Cambrian strata over large swathes of Fennoscandia. Eastward, where this peneplain dips below Cambria ...
, an ancient
erosion surface that covers much of eastern Sweden. Loose
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...
nodules of Cretaceous age have been found around Halland. The flints are remnants of a former cover of
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
that has been eroded. At present the sedimentary cover continues to exist in
Scania
Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skån ...
, Denmark and offshore.
History
Early history
The
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
was probably a period of relative prosperity in Halland. This is shown in the number of new settlements and the numerous archaeological remains. Over 1,100 tumuli and grave mounds have been found.
The end of the Bronze Age witnessed an over-consumption of resources. Large areas were deforested. This might have been a result of a high demand for charcoal in smelting
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
or
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids suc ...
among the local elites.
The worsening climate at the beginning of the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
meant that the local elites no longer could obtain bronze to the same extent as before. As a result, the social structures collapsed.
The early Iron Age social structures seem to have been relatively egalitarian, but from around 200 AD there was a trend in which
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
s formed larger communities and small
kingdoms. This is likely to have been a distant influence from the growing
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
. During the 5th and 6th century large free-standing farms were created; they grew larger as time passed. An example of such a farm can be found in
Slöinge.
It was not just the social structure that changed, so too did the settlement structure. New villages were formed, while old ones were abandoned. The new centers that were formed became the kernel from which new areas were settled during
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
times.
800–1645 AD
According to information from a trader travelling from
Skiringssal, close to the
Oslofjord
The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the N ...
to
Hedeby
Hedeby (, Old Norse ''Heiðabýr'', German ''Haithabu'') was an important Danish Viking Age (8th to the 11th centuries) trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holst ...
in the 870s it can be concluded that Halland was a Danish area at that time. It would stay so for most of recorded history.
Iron extraction is known to have taken place in
Hishult and
Tvååker/
Sibbarp during the Iron Age.
As part of the
Scanian lands (then part of the Kingdom of
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
) Halland came under the
Scanian Law and participated in the Scanian
Thing, one of three Things electing the Danish king. Local assemblies took place in
Getinge.
Halland was the scene of considerable military action from the 13th century and on as
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
,
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
and to some degree
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
fought for supremacy in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...
. The many wars made the province poor. Not only were material damages caused by military action, but the social impact of the fighting was devastating; people lacked the motivation to invest in their land and properties as it was likely to be destroyed anyway.
The county was the site of combat and plunder three times during the 13th Century: in 1256
Haakon IV of Norway
Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 ...
invaded, followed by
Magnus III of Sweden in 1277 and
Eric VI of Denmark in 1294. The county came to be split in two parts for the next century, with the river
Ätran forming a boundary. The lords of the two parts succeeded each other in a high tempo.
As the
Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union ( Danish, Norwegian, and sv, Kalmarunionen; fi, Kalmarin unioni; la, Unio Calmariensis) was a personal union in Scandinavia, agreed at Kalmar in Sweden, that from 1397 to 1523 joined under a single monarch the three kingdo ...
was formed, Halland came for a brief period of time to be centrally located. According to the union treaty, the king was to be elected in
Halmstad
Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of the Nissan river, in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County. The ...
.
During the rebellion of
Engelbrekt in 1434 the fortress in
Falkenberg was burnt down and two years later was captured by the Swedes. The Swedo-Danish struggles in the early 16th century came to affect the province as well, as in 1519 when the border regions were sacked by the Swedes as a vengeance for similar Danish action in
Västergötland
Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden.
Väs ...
.
The Danish civil war called the
Count's Feud in 1534–1536, the
Northern Seven Years' War between Denmark-Norway and Sweden in 1563–1570 and the
Kalmar War between Denmark-Norway and Sweden in 1611–1613 all affected Halland. One of the major battles of the Northern Seven Years' War, the
battle of Axtorna, took place in Halland.
After 1645
Halland was temporarily (for a period of 30 years) transferred to Sweden in 1645 under the terms of the
Second Treaty of Brömsebro. The conquest was later made permanent by the ceding of the province in the
Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The last battle in Halland took place in
Fyllebro on 17 August 1676, during the
Scanian War
The Scanian War ( da, Skånske Krig, , sv, Skånska kriget, german: Schonischer Krieg) was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden. It was fought from 1675 to 1679 mainly on Scanian soil, ...
.
The more peaceful conditions that followed meant that the province could start to develop again. The 19th century saw the farming develop quickly to become one of the more efficient in the country by the end of the century. Parts of the province did however remain poor and
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...
and blown sand remained a problem for much of the century. The county did therefore see a lot of
emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...
, continuing well into the 20th century.
The 20th century has seen the province becoming one of the fastest growing in Sweden, as it has doubled its population since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. This is in part due to the northern parts, such as
Kungsbacka
Kungsbacka () (old da, Kongsbakke) is a locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 19,057 inhabitants in 2010.
It is one of the most affluent parts of Sweden, in part due to its simultaneous proximity to th ...
and
Onsala
Onsala () is a locality situated in Kungsbacka Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 11,951 inhabitants in 2010. It is also a 14 km long peninsula on the west coast of Sweden, facing Kattegat, south of Gothenburg. It dates back to the ag ...
, more or less becoming
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...
s of
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
.
Cities
During Danish rule, privileges to towns in Halland were granted to:
*
Falkenberg (1558)
*
Halmstad
Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of the Nissan river, in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County. The ...
(1307)
*
Kungsbacka
Kungsbacka () (old da, Kongsbakke) is a locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 19,057 inhabitants in 2010.
It is one of the most affluent parts of Sweden, in part due to its simultaneous proximity to th ...
(approximately 1400)
*
Laholm (approximately 1200)
*
Varberg
Varberg () is a locality and the seat of Varberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 35,782 inhabitants in 2019.
Varberg and all of Halland are well known for their "typical west coast" sandy beaches. In Varberg the coast changes from ...
(approximately 1100)
Such
privileges have no official significance nowadays.
Hundreds
Hundreds of Sweden were provincial divisions until the early 20th century, when they lost importance. Halland's hundreds were:
Faurås Hundred,
Fjäre Hundred,
Halmstad Hundred,
Himle Hundred
Himle Hundred ( sv, Himle härad) was a hundred in Halland, Sweden. The origin of its name is uncertain
It was composed of the following parishes (all now in Varberg Municipality): Grimeton, Gödestad, Hunnestad, Lindberg, Nösslinge, Rolfs ...
,
Höks Hundred,
Tönnersjö Hundred,
Viske Hundred and
Årstad Hundred.
Culture
The
language varieties spoken in Halland are together called ''halländska'', though they belong to two main dialectal groups. In northern Halland a variation of the
Götaland dialect is spoken and in the south the spoken language is a variety of
Scanian.
Sights
The
Varberg Fortress was built in the 13th century and improved with higher walls in the 15th century.
Dukes of Halland
As early as the 13th century, southern Halland was given as duchy to a branch of the Danish royal family. In the 14th century, it was given to various relatives and friends of Danish and Swedish royal families, such as
Benedict, Duke of Halland
Duke Benedict of Halland and Finland (c. 1330 – c. 1360), aka ''Bengt Algotsson'', was a medieval Swedish lord, and royal favourite.
He was born to a family who descended from Svantepolk of Skarsholm and his wife Benedikta Sunadotter. Svante ...
1353–1357.
Since 1772 Swedish royal princes have been nominated dukes of provinces without political significance. Such a title was held by
Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland (1912–1997), who was survived by his wife
Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland (1976–2013), and currently is held by Prince Julian (since 2021).
Sports
Football in the province is administered by
Hallands Fotbollförbund. Team handball is also popular, with
HK Drott
HK Drott Halmstad is a handball club, based in Halmstad, Sweden. The club has won the Swedish Championship eleven times, last in 2013.
Together with Redbergslids IK, HK Drott have dominated Swedish handball between 1984 and 2003. This club has ...
,
HK Aranäs and
HK Varberg.
References
Sources
*''Kungsvägen genom Halland – Bidrag till halländsk kulturhistoria och underlag för vägminnesvårdsprogram. Stellan Haverling. 1996. Gothenburg: Vägverket''
External links
Halland– Tourist site
{{Coord, 56, 45, N, 13, 00, E, region:SE_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title
Provinces of Sweden