Lysekil Municipality (''Lysekils kommun'') is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

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 ...

in western

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 ...

. Its seat is located in the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Lysekil Lysekil () is a locality and the seat of Lysekil Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 7,600 inhabitants in 2018. Situated on the south tip of Stångenäs peninsula at the mouth of Gullmarn fjord, it has two nature reserve ...

. The present municipality was formed in 1971, when the ''City of Lysekil'' (instituted as such in 1903) was amalgamated with Stångenäs and the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

of Skaftö.

Geography

Lysekil Municipality borders to the municipalities of Sotenäs (in the north-west),

Munkedal Munkedal is a locality and the seat of Munkedal Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 3,718 inhabitants in 2010. Joakim Andersson, an ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on ...

(north) and

Uddevalla Uddevalla (old no, Oddevold) is a town and the seat of Uddevalla Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. In 2015, it had a population of 34 781. It is located at a bay of the south-eastern part of Skagerrak. The beaches of Uddevalla ar ...

(east). The

is located on the southern tip of the municipality, by the

Kattegatt The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden i ...

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean chan ...

. The bay to the east, marking the border to Uddevalla, is called

Gullmarsfjorden Gullmarn, also known as Gullmarsfjorden or Gullmaren, is a threshold fjord in the middle of Bohuslän Archipelago on the west coast of Sweden. It is the largest of the Bohuslän fjords with a length of and a width ranging from . At its mouth, t ...

, or Gullmarn. It is

's only true

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...

. It is 25 km long, between 1–3 km wide, with a maximum depth of 118.5 meters. The depth at the mouth is only 20–40 meters on average, leading to a distinctive

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military ...

life in the fjord. Gullmaren is currently Sweden's only marine nature preservation area, and is home to several marine research institutes due to it being an easily studied

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

. Some of the municipal islets are considered part of the Gothenburg archipelago. Many islets are like small communities by themselves, with interesting histories of trading,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

and stone quarrying in addition to their scenic nature.

Localities

(seat), 7,300 inhabitants * Brastad, 1,800 * Lyse, 1,700 * Brodalen, 1,050 * Grundsund, 627 *

Fiskebäckskil Fiskebäckskil is a locality in Lysekil Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden, at the mouth of the Gullmarn fjord. It had 379 inhabitants in 2010. Once primarily a fishing community, it transformed into a shipping community in the 19th ce ...

, 438 *

Rixö Rixö is a locality situated in Lysekil Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 357 inhabitants in 2010. History The settlement grew up around the granite quarry and stonemasonry industry in the shore of Brofjorden. The industry ...

, 357

History

In Lysekil, humans have long left a mark on water, wood, soil, and stone. With protected harbor surrounded by water and jutting out toward the fisheries of Kattegatt, The North Sea, and beyond, Lysekil has deep ties to the

and canning industry. Mirrored fish on the current municipal

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 a jumping dolphin on that of 1895 show the absolute dominance of the sea on the area. To many outsiders, especially those coming from Stockholm and the East coast whose ocean access was only the salty waters of the Baltic Sea, The granite beach and sweet water of Gullmarsfjorden made

a famous bathing location in 19th century. Kallbadhuset (the cold bathing house), a somewhat exclusive, and very popular wooden bathing house dating from 1847 still stands in operation. Local rumor has it that once upon a time the King of Sweden would visit the Lysekil bathing house and specifically ask that the commoners of the town be allowed enter the wooden walls of Kallbadhuset because he 'liked' the everyday people of Lysekil (whom otherwise were not welcome inside the Bathing house compound. Traditionally fishing, sailing, farming, stone-cutting, and forestry formed the largest chunk of the local economy and continue today; however, petroleum products refining (Preemraff in Lyse,) light industry (Husqvarna in Brastad,) and local and international

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

(especially during the summertime,) all form a large part in the economy of the municipality.

Herring fishing

Herring fishing has played a big role in the history of Lysekil. For some reason the herring always returned close to the coastline in

Bohuslän Bohuslän (; da, Bohuslen; no, Båhuslen) is a Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North ...

for longer periods of time and therefore made it easier for large amounts of fish to be caught. Herring fishing was popular already during the middle ages but most known is the periods of 1556-1589, 1747-1809 and 1877-1906. During these years, sales of salted herring resulted in hundreds of thousands of exports all over the world. In Lysekil there are traces of old herring fisheries in several places, most of them on Härnäset, stora skeppsholmen and Saltö, as well as several factory buildings left where the herring was prepared and packaged.

Listed buildings

The municipality of Lysekil has three listed buildings. A listed building (

byggnadsminne A listed building in Sweden ( sv, byggnadsminne) enjoys the strongest legal cultural and historical protection available. Listed buildings range widely from Medieval castles to a cinema from the 1950s. The listing is not restricted to buildings ...

) is a building that is legally protected and preserved because of its cultural and historical significance. The county administrative board ( Länsstyrelsen) and the Swedish national heritage board ( Riksantikvarieämbetet) decides which buildings become listed buildings. The three buildings are: * Curmanska villorna * Wilhelmsons villa * Härnäsets folkets hus Other buildings and areas of cultural and historical heritage in Lysekil are protected through detailed development plans under control of the municipality. Some of those places can for example be found in the old town area (Gamlestan),

and Östersidan.

Government and politics

Distribution of the 31 seats in the municipal council after the 2018 election: *

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

8 *Lysekilspartiet 7 * Sweden Democrats 4 *

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic ...

3 * Liberal People's Party 2 *

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

2 * Centre Party 2 * Left Party 2 *

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

References

*Official page *Articles Lysekil and :sv:Gullmarsfjorden on Swedish Wikipedia

External links

Lysekil Municipality
- Official site

- From

Nordisk Familjebok ''Nordisk familjebok'' (, "Nordic Family Book") is a Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. Despite their co ...

(1903) {{authority control Municipalities of Västra Götaland County Gothenburg and Bohus