Härnösand () is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

and the seat of

Härnösand Municipality Härnösand Municipality () is a Municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Västernorrland County, northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Härnösand (pop. 18,000). The present municipality was formed in 1969 through the Amalgamation (politics), ...

Västernorrland County Västernorrland County () is a county ('' län'') in the north of Sweden. It is bordered by the counties of Gävleborg, Jämtland, Västerbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. The name ''Västernorrland'' means "Western Norrland", as it was in the ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

with 25,012 inhabitants in 2023. It is called "the gate to the

High Coast The High Coast () is a part of the coast of Sweden on the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Ångermanland province of northeast Sweden, centered in the area of the municipalities of Kramfors, Härnösand and Örnsköldsvik. It is notable as an area for ...

" because of the world heritage landscape just a few miles north of Härnösand. Härnösand is the seat of the Diocese of Härnösand, the County Governor residence and Västernorrland County Museum.

History

On 10 December 1885, Härnösand became the first town in Sweden with electric street lighting, following the Gådeå power station being taken into use.

Education

Härnösand is the seat of The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (''Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten''). The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) operates its training programme Sida Partnership Forum in Härnösand.

Industry

One of the biggest employers in Härnösand is the cable-TV and

Cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

Com Hem Com Hem was a Swedish brand owned by Tele2 AB which supplied Triple Play services that included cable television, broadband internet and fixed-line telephone. Founded in 1983 as Televerket Kabel-TV as part of the former state-owned Telever ...

Sports

The women's team of the

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

club Härnösands AIK plays in the highest division and the men's team has done. Their handballteam plays in division 2 and is called Brännans IF. The football club IF Älgarna plays in Division 2 Norrland. Curling has also been a successful sport in the city, Team Anette Norberg is from here. Anette has taken several medals in the sport, including Olympic gold. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that Sweden's only curling high school is located here. The high school started at 1989 and has since contributed several talented curlers to the world. Härnösand also has an ice hockey team AIK Hockey Härnösand that plays in division 1 in region norr.

Recreation

Härnösand is a fairly small town and some of the activities young people engage in are Kåken (), a youth centre provided by the municipality. The city also has an extensive selection of outdoor activities in the summer and wintertime. Wintertime people can go

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

( cross country and downhill), ice skating, etc. Summertime activities include climbing, kayaking, trekking, etc. The town also features a summertime beach Smitingen, which occasionally gets some surfable waves. Härnösand is each summer the site of one of the world's largest

airsoft Airsoft, also known as survival game () in Japan where it was popular, is a team sport, team-based shooting sport, shooting game in which participants eliminate opposing players out of play by shooting them with airsoft pellets, spherical plast ...

events, Berget.

Climate

Härnösand has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

( Dfb) with significant maritime influence, causing mild to warm summers and cold but not severe winters that are milder than areas further north. In the

Kvarken Kvarken ( (as opposed to South Kvarken); ) is the narrow region of the Gulf of Bothnia separating the Bothnian Bay (the inner part of the gulf) from the Bothnian Sea. The distance from the Sweden, Swedish mainland to the Mainland Finland, Finnish ...

area and further north the water is less salty and freezes easier, creating colder winter climate.

Notable people

* Alfhild Agrell, writer and playwright *

Anders Jonas Ångström Anders Jonas Ångström (; ; 13 August 1814 – 21 June 1874) was a Swedish physicist and one of the founders of the science of spectroscopy.P.Murdin (2000): "Angstrom" chapter in ''Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics''. Ångström is a ...

, physicist *

Albert Atterberg Albert Mauritz Atterberg (19 March 1846 – 4 April 1916) was a Swedish chemist and agricultural scientist who created the Atterberg limits, which are commonly referred to by geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists today. In Sweden, ...

, soil mechanics * Dagmar Beling (1929–2023), painter *

Nils Bohlin Nils Ivar Bohlin (17 July 1920 – 26 September 2002) was a Swedish mechanical engineer and inventor who invented the three-point safety belt while working at Volvo. Biography Born in Härnösand, Sweden, Bohlin received a diploma in mech ...

, inventor *

Lena Endre Lena Endre (born 8 July 1955) is a Swedish actress of film and television,* primarily in the Swedish and Norwegian markets, known for her parts in the Liv Ullmann film '' Trolösa'' (2000), and the ''Millennium'' series of films (e.g., ''The G ...

, Actor * Tomas Fischer, book publisher and businessman *

Anton Forsberg Anton Forsberg (born 27 November 1992) is a Swedish professional ice hockey goaltender for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the seventh round (188th overall) of the 2011 NHL ...

, ice hockey goaltender for the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. The Senators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Di ...

* Bo Holmberg, politician * Lasse Lindh, Musician * Johan Lundgren, businessman * Bertil Malmberg, writer *

Anette Norberg Anette Charlotte Norberg (born 12 November 1966) is a Swedish curler from Härnösand. She and her team were the Olympic women's curling champions in 2006 and 2010. After winning the 2006 Women's Curling tournament in Turin over Mirjam Ott's ...

, women's

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

Olympic gold medalist *

Carl Gustaf Nordin Carl Gustaf Nordin (born 2 January 1749 in Stockholm, died 14 March 1812 in Härnösand) was a Swedish statesman, historian and ecclesiastic. Early life In 1774, he was made docent of Gothic antiquities at Uppsala University in consequence of h ...

, statesman * Ulf Sandström, ice hockey player * Monica Sjöö, (December 31, 1938 – August 8, 2005), painter, writer and a radical anarcho/ eco-feminist and an exponent of the Goddess movement. * Frideborg Winblad, educator and administrator

References

External links

Härnösand official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnosand Härnösand County seats in Sweden Coastal cities and towns in Sweden Populated places in Härnösand Municipality Ångermanland Municipal seats of Västernorrland County Swedish municipal seats Diocese of Härnösand Cities in Sweden