Lyckeby is a

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 ...

Karlskrona Municipality Karlskrona Municipality (''Karlskrona kommun'') is a municipality in Blekinge County in South Sweden in southern Sweden. It borders to Emmaboda Municipality, Torsås Municipality and Ronneby Municipality. The city of Karlskrona is the seat of the ...

Blekinge County Blekinge County ( sv, Blekinge län) is a county or '' län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne, Kronoberg, Kalmar and the Baltic Sea. The capital is Karlskrona. It is the smallest of the present administrative count ...

, in southeastern

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 ...

, near the mouth of the Lyckeby River. The town was originally known as Lyckå.

History

The first recorded mention of the town was in 1449, when Claus Nielsen Sparre purchased lands on the southern edge of town, where he built an estate with a small castle. At the time,

Blekinge Blekinge (, old da, Bleking) is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's sec ...

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 ...

under Scanian Law, and Lyckeby became the seat of Lyckå

Län Län ( Swedish, ), lääni ( Finnish, ) and len ( Norwegian, ) refer to the administrative divisions used in Sweden and previously in Finland and Norway. The provinces of Finland were abolished on January 1, 2010. In Norway, the term was in use b ...

. Due to its location on the borderland between Denmark and Sweden, Lyckeby was often subject to raids and fighting between the two kingdoms. In 1507, Blekinge was raided by Sweden, and Lyckeby was plundered and set on fire. In 1545, under the orders of Danish King Christian II, the castle was rebuilt on its old foundations by

privy council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

member Ebbe Knudsen Ulfelt. It was intended to be a permanent residence that could better withstand attacks under an uprising. The reinforced castle was completed in 1560. However, in 1564, during the Northern Seven Years' War, Lyckeby was once again burnt down. In 1600, Lyckeby lost its

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

, because Christian IV preferred to focus on developing the recently founded Christianople. In 1601, the king ordered the castle to be torn down so that its stone could be used to fortify Christianople. After the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, Lyckeby was ceded to Sweden. In 1690, the town had become so poor it couldn't afford a priest, and in 1736, the church collapsed. Lyckeby later lent its name to Lyckeby Rural Municipality (''Lyckeby landskommun''), which was incorporated into

(''Karlskrona kommun'') in 1967.

Archaeology

In old Lyckeby, north of the castle, archaeological digs were undertaken in the early 1970s, and archaeologists found cobblestone roads and the remains of houses with field stone foundations.

Attractions

Attractions in Lyckeby include the town's cobblestone streets and the ruins of Lyckeby Castle (''Lyckå slott''). Lyckeby also features an old flour mill, Kronokvarnen, which was named a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

in 1998.

References

Blom, K. Arne, and Moen, Jan. (1983). ''Försvunna städer i Skåneland'' (in Swedish), Liber. {{authority control Populated places in Karlskrona Municipality