Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and the seat of

Ystad Municipality Ystad Municipality ( sv, Ystads kommun) is a municipality in Scania County in southern Sweden. Its seat is the town of Ystad. The present municipality was created in 1971 by the amalgamation of the former ''City of Ystad'' with four surrounding ...

, in

Scania County 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 Skåne C ...

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 country located on ...

. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and tourist attraction. The detective series ''

Wallander Wallander may refer to: TV, film, books * Kurt Wallander, a fictional Swedish police inspector in novels by Henning Mankell :* ''Wallander'' (film series), Swedish-language television films of the Wallander stories starring Rolf Lassgård :* ''Wal ...

'', created by

Henning Mankell Henning Georg Mankell (; 3February 19485October 2015) was a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number of ...

, is set primarily in Ystad. In 1285, the town's name was written ''Ystath''. Its original meaning is not fully understood, but the ''y'' probably is related to an old word for the

yew tree Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus b ...

, while ''stad'' means ''town'' or ''place''.

History

After the time of

Absalon Absalon (21 March 1201) was a Danish statesman and prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Roskilde from 1158 to 1192 and archbishop of Lund List of (arch)bishops of Lund. Until the Danish Reformation the centre of a gr ...

, Bishop of Roskilde and Archbishop of

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

, peace was brought to the area in the 11th century, fishing families settled at the mouth of the river Vassa as herring fishing became the main source of trade. Ystad was not mentioned in documents until 1244, in a record of King Eric's visit to the town with his brother,

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepher ...

. A Franciscan monastery, ''Gråbrödraklostret'', was founded in 1267, and Ystad joined the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

in the 14th century. The charter of 1599 gave the town the right to

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

oxen. Ystad, together with all of

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...

, was transferred from

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 = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

to Sweden following the

Treaty of Roskilde The Treaty of Roskilde (concluded on 26 February ( OS), or 8 March 1658) ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde. After a devastating defeat, ...

in 1658. By 1866 Ystad had a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

connection and it was established as a

garrison A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...

town in the 1890s. After

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

services to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and to the Danish island of

Bornholm Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...

were opened.

Demographics

In 1658, Ystad's population was about 1,600 and, by 1850 it had reached 5,000. The increased importance brought by the railway and the garrison in the 1890s drove the population above 10,000.

In culture

In his novel ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'' (1897), August Strindberg describes Ystad like so:

The little town to which I now betook myself lies in the extreme south of Sweden, on the seacoast. It is an old pirates' and smugglers' haunt, in which exotic traces of all parts of the world have been left by various voyagers.

Ystad is the setting of the Swedish crime drama ''Wallander''.

Infrastructure

Economy

Some of the main industries of the town are trade, handicraft and tourism, derived from being one of the best-preserved medieval towns in the Scania province and its association with the Wallander detective novels.

Transport

The ferry port has services to the Danish island of

, to

Sassnitz Sassnitz (, before 1993 in german: Saßnitz) is a town on the Jasmund peninsula, Rügen Island, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The population as of 2012 was 9,498. Sassnitz is a well-known seaside resort and port town, and is ...

in Germany, and to

Świnoujście Świnoujście (; german: Swinemünde ; nds, Swienemünn; all three meaning "Świna ivermouth"; csb, Swina) is a city and seaport on the Baltic Sea and Szczecin Lagoon, located in the extreme north-west of Poland. Situated mainly on the islands o ...

, the latter forming part of the E65 road route south from Malmö. Ystad connects the Ystad Line and

Österlen Line The Österlen Line ( sv, Österlenbanan) is a long railway line between Ystad and Simrishamn in Skåne County, Sweden. The line is the remains of two former lines, the Malmö–Simrishamn Line and the Ystad–Eslöv Line. The Österlen Line r ...

railways. Passenger traffic runs between

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

and

Simrishamn Simrishamn (old da, Simmershavn) is a locality and the seat of Simrishamn Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 6,527 inhabitants in 2010. Despite its small population, Simrishamn is, for historical reasons, usually still referred to as a ''c ...

(operated by

Skåne Commuter Rail 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 Skåne ...

). Until December 2017, a direct train service linked Ystad to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

via the

Øresund Bridge The Öresund or Øresund Bridge ( da, Øresundsbroen ; sv, Öresundsbron ; hybrid name: ) is a combined railway and motorway bridge across the Øresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. It is the longest in Europe with both roadway and rai ...

(operated by Danish State Railways).

Sports

The most popular sport in Ystad is

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

, with two big clubs. Ystads IF is in

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

(the highest Swedish men's national league, ) whilst IFK Ystad is situated in Division 1 (the second highest league, ). Several famous handball players have played for these clubs, including

Per Carlén Per Carlén (born 19 November 1960, in Karlstad) is a former handball player and current coach. He is the father of Swedish national handball player Oscar Carlén and Swedish national football player Hilda Carlén. His most recent coachi ...

Media

The only newspaper published at present in Ystad is the ''Ystads Allehanda'', which also covers the neighbouring municipalities of

Skurup Skurup is a locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality i ...

Tomelilla Tomelilla () is a locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a local ...

and

Sjöbo Sjöbo (; old da, Søbo) is a locality and the seat of Sjöbo Municipality in Skåne County, Sweden with 6,724 inhabitants in 2010. Overview Sjöbo started growing when it became a stop on the railway between Malmö (to the west) and Simrishamn ...

. The newspaper was founded in 1873.Ystads Allehanda site
/ref>

Places of interest

Bronze wagon for Vase or Vessel from bronze age Scania Sweden

One of Sweden's best preserved medieval monasteries, the Greyfriars Abbey, lies in Ystad. The town also has an additional large medieval church, the Church of the Virgin Mary (''Mariakyrkan''). Both are highly influenced by

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Hansa architecture (which can also be seen in churches around the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, for instance in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , , ) is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...

, and

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

) and are among the best examples in Sweden of

Brick Gothic Brick Gothic (german: Backsteingotik, pl, Gotyk ceglany, nl, Baksteengotiek) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resourc ...

. In addition, there are areas of surviving medieval town architecture, like the Latin school (built c. 1500) and several townhouses. The city is also included in the

European Route of Brick Gothic The European Route of Brick Gothic (EuRoB) is an association of cities, towns, regions, municipalities and institutions that have Brick Gothic buildings in their territory or have their headquarters in a Brick Gothic building. The network also incl ...

. From the steeple of the Church of the Virgin Mary the Tower Watchman (tornväktaren or lurblåsaren) sounds his horn every 15 minutes from 21:15 to 01:00 to let the people of Ystad know that the town is safe from fire and enemies. The Tower Watchman also says a special line when sounding his horn: "The clock strikes .... (for example twelve). All is quiet! From fire and thieves may God preserve the town!" The tradition has existed since the eighteenth century.

Notable residents

Richard Andersson Richard Andersson (born 28 March 1972) is a Swedish musician and the founding father of several neoclassical metalbands in Sweden including Majestic and Time Requiem. Biography As a kid, Andersson taught himself how to play the keyboard. At ...

(born 1972), musician and songwriter *

Malik Bendjelloul Malik Bendjelloul (14 September 1977 – 13 May 2014) was a Swedish documentary filmmaker, journalist and former child actor.Rohter, Larry (20 July 2012)Retrieved 26 February 2013.Axel Fredrik Bjurström (1846–1890) newspaper publisher, businessman * Rolf Holmgren (born 1946), actor and scriptwriter *

Ernst-Hugo Järegård Ernst-Hugo Alfred Järegård (12 December 1928 – 6 September 1998) was a Swedish actor. Biography Järegård was born in Ystad. He received his acting training at Malmö City Theatre. From 1962 he was an actor in Sweden's prominent Royal Dra ...

(1928–1998), actor *

Frans Jeppsson-Wall Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplo ...

(born 1998), singer * Börje Langefors (1915–2009), computer scientist *

Lykke Li Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (born 18 March 1986), known as Lykke Li (), is a Swedish singer. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and electronic. Her debut studio album, ''Youth Novels'', was released in 2008, and has been fol ...

(born 1986), singer-songwriter *

Sara Li Sheelah (formerly known as Caracola) is a Swedish girl group originally launched in 2006 with members Frida Karlsson, Emma Lewin and Emilie Rosén and later Sara Li in 2009 as a replacement for Frida when she left Caracola. As of 2014, Caracola ...

born Sara Linnea Larsson (born 1988), singer * Gunnar Malmquist (1893–1982), astronomer *

Anna Q. Nilsson Anna Quirentia Nilsson (March 30, 1888 – February 11, 1974) was a Swedish-American actress who achieved success in American silent movies. Early life Nilsson was born in Ystad, Sweden in 1888. Her middle name Quirentia is derived from her ...

(1888–1974), Swedish-born American actress *

Michael Saxell Michael Saxell (born 1 October 1956) is a singer-songwriter, composer, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He was born in Helsingborg, Sweden but has spent many years on the Canadian west coast. He composed music for the Colin Nutley m ...

(born 1956), songwriter, artist and producer *

Jahn Teigen Jahn Teigen (27 September 1949 – 24 February 2020) was a Norwegian singer, musician and comedian. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest three times, in 1978, 1982 and 1983, His given name was Jan; he added the silent H later. F ...

(1949–2020), Norwegian singer, musician and comedian *

Markus Persson Markus Alexej Persson (; born 1 June 1979), also known as Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is best known for creating the sandbox video game ''Minecraft'' and for founding the video game company Mojang in 2009. Pers ...

(born 1979), video game programmer and designer, creator of

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

References

External links

The Municipality´s official siteYstads Allehanda's site
* {{Authority control Populated places in Ystad Municipality Populated places in Skåne County Municipal seats of Skåne County Swedish municipal seats Port cities and towns of the Baltic Sea Populated places established in the 11th century Coastal cities and towns in Sweden 13th-century establishments in Skåne County Cities in Skåne County fi:Ystadin kunta