Vä is a former town in

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

, now a village in the

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

Kristianstad Kristianstad ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 41,198 inhabitants in 2023. Since the 1990s, the city has gone from being a garrison town to a developed commercial city, ...

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 ...

, ca 5 km southwest of the town of

History

The name stems from the old Danish word ''væ'', meaning "cult place" or "holy ground".

Vä Church Vä Church (), sometimes also called Saint Mary's Church in Vä (''Mariakyrkan i Vä'') is a well-preserved Romanesque architecture, Romanesque church in Vä, in the southern Swedish province of Scania. It belongs to the Church of Sweden and is a ...

is one of the oldest stone churches in Sweden, and contains some of the oldest and most monumental

church murals in Sweden Church murals or church wall paintings are mostly medieval paintings found in several Swedish churches. They usually adorn the vaults or walls of the buildings. In Swedish they are sometimes referred to as ''kalkmålningar'', literally "lime ...

. The first written mentioning of Vä as a town is from the 1250s, but already in the early 13th century, the place is mentioned in the

Danish Census Book The Danish Census Book or the Danish book of land taxation (, ) dates from the 13th century and consists of a number of separate manuscripts. The original manuscripts are now housed in the Danish National Archives (''Rigsarkivet'') in Copenhage ...

, by King

Valdemar Waldemar, Valdemar, Valdimar, or Woldemar is an Old High German given name. It consists of the elements ''wald-'' "power", "brightness" and ''-mar'' "fame". The name is considered the equivalent of the Latvian name Valdemārs, the Estonian name ...

. The town was burnt many times. Most notable are the burnings by

Karl Knutsson Karl Knutsson Bonde ( 1408–1470), also known as Charles VIII and called Charles I in Norwegian contexts, was King of Sweden (1448–1457, 1464–1465 and 1467–1470) and King of Norway (1449–1450). He rose in Swedish politics beca ...

in 1452, Svante Sture in 1509, in 1569 by the Swedish duke Charles (later king Charles IX). In 1612 the Swedish King

Gustaf II Adolf Gustavus Adolphus (9 December N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December15946 November Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as ...

burned Vä. Vä was the largest settlement within 24 Danish parishes which the young Swedish king burned down.Moberg, Vilhelm (1971).
History of the Swedish People Vol. 2: From Renaissance to Revolution
'. Transl. Paul Britten Austin, University of Minnesota Press, 2005, . (Swedish original: ''Min Svenska Historia II''. Nordstedt & Söners Förlag, 1971). The destroyed town was two years later replaced by ''Christianstad'' by the Danish king Christian IV of Denmark, Christian IV, which was built in 1614 on the island of ''Allø'', today's Kristianstad. The destroyed Væ lost its privileges as a town and became a substitute for the farmers from nearby villages of ''Næsby'' and ''Nosaby'', who had in their turn had to give up land to build Kristianstad, along with the former town of

Åhus Åhus () is the second largest urban areas in Sweden, locality in Kristianstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden, with 9,840 inhabitants in 2015, but the number triples during the summer due to tourists who come seeking the beaches and nature o ...

. Today, there are some remains of the former church buildings; in addition to the church, there is also an old wall with pillars and a brick cairn that was the old church of Saint Gertrude and remains of old streets.

References

Sources

Nordisk Familjebok

Salmonsens konversationslexikon
Populated places in Skåne County {{Skåne-geo-stub