Gråen is a small artificial

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

island in

Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; ; ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Denmark–Sweden border, Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width var ...

, originally constructed during the 18th century both in order to protect

Landskrona Landskrona is a town in Scania, Sweden. Located on the shores of the Öresund, it occupies a natural port, which has lent the town at first military and subsequent commercial significance. Ferries operate from Landskrona to the island of Ven, an ...

harbour and for military reasons related to the nearby

Landskrona Citadel Landskrona Citadel ( or ''Landskrona slott'') is situated in Landskrona, Scania, southern Sweden. Much of the original work is intact. Examples remain of all major parts of the fortification, which is uncommon in such an accessible area. The moat ...

. A smaller allotments area is located on the island, and access is only by boat. Most of its 50 acres is a

bird sanctuary An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. In addition, sanctuaries are an experimental staging ground for transformative human–animal relations. There are five types of ...

and there are strong trespassing rules between 15 March and 1 August. Only a very few authorised ornithologists are allowed inside the sanctuary during the breeding season (the allotment area is excluded). File:Gråen at Landskrona Harbour.jpg, Gråen in January 2018, seen from a quay at Landskrona harbour. The wind turbines are located around "the Plaster Island", the small tower to the right is from the 18th century and is called "Kruttornet" ("the Gun Powder tower") File:Gråen Allotment Area.jpg, Gråen allotment area in January 2018 with the shipyard

Öresundsvarvet Öresundsvarvet was a Swedish shipyard in Landskrona that was established in 1915 and largely phased out between 1980 and 1982. Foundation Öresundsvarvet was constituted on 16 December 1915 by Gothenburg shipbuilder, Arthur Du Rietz. During a ...

in the background

Fauna

The breeding birds includes various

gulls Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and Skimmer (bird), skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gul ...

mute swan The mute swan (''Cygnus olor'') is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurasia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home to ...

s and other water-related birds. Since the early 1980s a

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...

colony (''Phalacrocorax carbo'') has existed. Unlike some similar colonies at other places in Sweden, these birds have never been disliked by Landskrona's population.

Gipsön

The island's southern part, Gipsön or "The Plaster Island", is an enlargement from the late 1970s, created by the chemical industry Supra AB. The shallow water was surrounded by stones and then filled with

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

, a residue from a process of making fertilizers. The factory was, in its beginning in 1882, located on the island but later moved to the land side of the harbour. Until this part of Gråen was created, all the plaster was dumped in the sea.

Sights

Gråen från Venfärjan.jpg, Gråen with the old gunpowder tower as seen from the

Ven Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises an area of , and its popul ...

ferry Gråen, Landskrona.jpg, Allotments on Gråen

References

{{Reflist Artificial islands of Sweden Ports and harbours of Sweden Listed buildings in Skåne County Geography of Landskrona Military history of Landskrona 18th-century establishments in Malmöhus County