| Town walk in Helsingborg
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Town Walk in the Centre of Helsingborg
By Nordic standards Helsingborg is a very old town. A document from 1085 signed by king Knud the Holy shows that Helsingborg was a town even then. The position at the narrowest part of the Sound was important militarily as well as commercially. Early on Helsingborg became an important residence for the Danish king and from the castle with the tower, Kærnan, both sea and land could be monitored. The early buildings were up around Kærnan; but in the 15th century the area below the castle became more important.
The town has had two heydays, on in the Middle Ages and the other in connection with industrialization in the 19th century, when Helsingborg had an upturn like no other town in Sweden.
In this period Helsingborg once again became a ”royal” town, with he building of the king´s summer residence, Sofiero on the northern edge of town
During the Second World War Helsingborg came closer to the occupied Denmark and the town became a place of transit for soldiers and refugees.
The passage to Elsinore had left its mark on the town and this traffic was intensified after the Second World War. It is hard not to notice the heavy ferry traffic.
On our walk we will see traces of the medieval times, the upturn in the 19th century and the modernism of the 20th century.
Stortorget
Stortorget is an open square, which was not originally meant to be an open square. In the 1670s a large number of houses were demolished in connection with the Scanian War. The empty area between Kærnan and the beach was then used as a road for transportation and was turned into a square in the 1690s.
Around 1900 the town wanted to honour Magnus Stenbock in the name of nationalism with an equestrian statue. He was the man who definitively conquered the Danes in the battle of Helsingborg in 1710
The war and its consequences brought with it a profound decline for Helsingborg. The fact that Stenbock has become one of the town’s symbols is perhaps somewhat undeserved.
Around the year 1900 the square had the grandiose framing, which it still has today with magnificent buildings in different styles, often imitations of old architecture. We find examples of neo-Romanticism, neo-Baroque and neo-Classicism, but also Art Nouveau.
We walk along the old coast line before we turn towards Saint Mary’s Church, a stately memory of medieval architecture.
The Great Square (Stortorget) in Helsingborg | 
Magnus Stenbock |
Saint Mary´s Church
From the 12th century a Roman sandstone church was situated here, but in the 14th century it was replaced by a church in Gothic style.
The new Mary Church was finished in 1410 and dominated the town. The medieval architecture and the art treasures from the Middle Ages are striking, but new gems have surfaced in the course of time. In the 1650´s the Mary Church employed the famous organist Diderik Buxtehude.
We walk east towards Billeplatsen.
The Western Front of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The Vault of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The Altarpiece of the Church of Saint Mary |
Billeplatsen
Formerly Billegården was here. It was owned by State Counsellor Anders Bille. He was the vassal of Helsingborg Castle in the 17th century, but he was killed in the war against the Swedes in 1657. Billegården was destroyed in 1670.
Here was also the town´s old square and along here was one of the old medieval connecting roads between the lower and the upper part of the town. The upper part of town above the castle was the oldest part of Helsingborg. It was not until the 15th century that the lower part became significant, probably because of the rich herring fishery. Along the road between the upper and lower part of town a Dominican monastery was founded. There were a great number of monasteries in the Sound Region, but most of them were devastated in connection with the Reformation, which was implemented in Denmark in 1536.
We follow Storgatan to the upper part of Stortorget.
The Bille Yard |
The Medieval Town
In the 15th century Helsingborg’s powers increased as it was given municipal charter. The town was relatively wealthy, especially because of the rich herring fishery. The landing stage was placed on the beach, the “harbour” of the town. The castle with Kærnan was an important basis for the Danish royal power. The terraced steps to Kærnan were built in 1903 in a style, which can be characterized as “medieval imitation”
The model on the upper part of Stortorget shows, apart from the houses and the street network, Kærnan, the monastery, the churches and the ships´ bridge.
Kærnan was framed by churches. Closest in the wall around Kærnan was the round church St. Mikaels Chapel, to the North was the St. Clemens Church, to the East St. Petri Church, to the south St. Olof´s Church and in the lower part of town Church of St. Mary. Including the monastery’s church, St. Nicolai, there were consequently 6 churches.
To the North along Storgaten we leave Helsingborg’s first great period. In other places the Baroque period and the Age of Enlightenment were viewed as prominent periods, but in Helsingborg a decline set in, which culminated in the 18th century.
Along Storgatan we find Gamlegård (from 1711), the Henckel Estate (from 1681) and Jacob Hansen’s house (from 1641). They are examples of distinguished commoner houses, but clearly from a time, when Helsingborg more or less turned into a small town, which in part coincided with the Swedification of Scania in 1658. The Scanian War (1676-79) and the Battle of Helsingborg (1710) together with the raging of the plague was disastrous for Helsingborg.
Helsingborg in the Year 1400 | 
The Interior of Kärnan | 
Monasteries in the Towns | 
Henckelska gården | 
Jacob Hansen´s House |
The Tycho Brahe Monument
Before the decline of Helsingborg Tycho Brahe was active in the region. His father was a vassal on Helsingborg Castle and squire at Knutstorp in Kågerød. Tycho´s daughter is buried in the Mary Church.
On our way to Konsul Olsson´s square we can ponder the slumber Helsingborg had fallen into, when the town around year 1800 only had 1700 inhabitants. In the course of the 19th a growth of exceptional extent took place.
The Tycho Brahe Monument in Helsingborg |
Konsul Olsson´s Square
Helsingborg was once called the Town of the Consuls, mostly due of the initiative and enterprise of a few gentlemen. Consul Olsson ran his business to the North in Kullagatan in”Konsul Ohlssons Magasin”, which is now housing. He had his own house in one end of the warehouse building. The industrialization entailed a revolution for the town with a large number of new arrivals.
In the beginning of the 20th century the newspaper, Aftonbladet, described the development of the town like this: ”It is like a fairy tale that Helsingborg in less than a generation have gone from being ”a hole”, which made is living off a bit of overland trade and shipping, a bit of skilled trade and a lot of trickery, to become one of the largest and most beautiful cities in the realm blossoming as the fruit of the initiative and far-sightedness of a few men.”
And now we walk north to the concert house and the theatre.
Consul Olsson´s Granary |
Concert House and Theatre
Helsingborg’s rise brought with it the building of new public institutions. In the second half of the 19th century schools, theatre and sports centres (Olympia), church (Gustav Adolf´s Church) and a new town hall were built.
The new theatre just south of the Maria Church was a classic theatre building, where among others, Ingmar Bergman was theatre manager in the 40´s. This old theatre was demolished in the 1970´s (under protest) and was replaced by a new one close to the Concert House, which was built in the 1930´s.
The concert house, which is designed by Sven Markelius, is a monumental functionalistic gem.
The concert house and the theatre now form a spectacular cultural centre in the northern part of the inner city. Behind it the modern residential area North harbour with an esplanade and restaurants.
On our way back southwards we reach the newest cultural institution in Helsingborg.
The Concert House in Helsingborg |  |
Dunker´s Arts Centre
The industrialist, Henry Dunker, made a very large fortune en the 20th century. He willed it to Helsingborg for cultural purposes. The Arts Centre is the latest example of the fruits of his fortune. It is designed by the Danish architect, Kim Utzon, and the position by the sea, the almost square ground plan, a small patio house and the varied roofing, almost makes it a modern counterpart to Kronborg.
Dunker´s Arts Centre contains among other things an art museum and other exhibition rooms, historical exhibitions about Helsingborg, a music school, a concert hall and a theatre hall.
Another short walk and we are at the Stortorget´s extension towards the West.
Dunkers Kulturhus |
The Harbour Square with the Bernadotte Monument
A new dynasty on the Swedish throne came into existence and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte (later Karl XIV) first set foot on Swedish soil in Helsingborg in 1810.
Later on more royalty acquired a taste for Helsingborg and visited the town for shorter or longer periods of time.
Karl Johan lived in Ramløsa for several periods of time and his wife, Desideria, had a house named after her there.
Oscar II had a summer residence, Sofiero, built just north of town and King Gustav VI Adolf spent most of his summers at Sofiero with his family.
The Bernadotte Monument in Helsingborg | 
Bernadotte disembarks in Helsingborg |
The Ferry Station
Helsingborg-Elsinore is an ancient passage, but regular traffic in the form of a shipping route did not emerge until the mid 19th century. After the Second World War the ferry traffic became extremely intense. The old ferry station is now an entertainment centre and south of the harbour is a more modern junction. This junction is called “Knutpunkten”, which makes you think of Knud the Holy, who, almost a thousand years ago, declared that Helsingborg at that time was a town in the Danish realm.
Helsingborg´s Old Ferry Station |
Map and link
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Stortorget (Grand Square)
| | Via the text icon You will get a guide to a walk in the central parts of Helsingborg.
You can go to the left menu and find more information in the historic part of Øresundstid.
You return to the guide when You click on the title "Town Walk i Helsingborg" in the left meny. |
Magnus Stenbock in Helsingborg
The Swedish king was far away, so Magnus Stenbock, who was Scania´s general governor, organized the Swedish defence. He gathered a large army in Småland, as the Danes had entered Sweden all the way up to Karlshamn in Blekinge. Stenbock succeeded in gathering 16.000 men, who went into Scania in the end of January 1710. The Danes retreated towards Helsingborg and took up position north of town under the command of major general Rantzau.
February 28th 1710 the two armies clashed in the battle of Ringstorp outside Helsingborg, and it ended in a crushing Danish defeat, which Stenbock´s courier, Henrik Hammarberg reported to Stockholm.
Stenbock, Magnus | 
Message of the Victory of Magnus Stenbock | 
Memorial Stone for the Battle of Helsingborg | 
Fortification of the Swedish Coast | 
Helsingborg 2010 |
Helsingborg as Example
If you want to follow the development from historicism´s style imitation at the end of the century via jugend and art nouveau to the ideal of modernism, Helsingborg is a fine example. Helsingborg expanded heavily in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and a great need for new buildings was the result. The architectural styles, which marked this period were therefore richly represented in the town. Classic style imitation can be found to a great extent. At Stortorget´s (the great square) upper part is the medieval inspired terrace and around the square there are many style imitations, for instance the Scania Bank building (opposite the post office) with baroque imitations and the Trade Bank from 1904 with antique touches. The city architect Alfred Hellerström designed the Trade Bank and he also designed Helsingborg´s town hall and the university library in Lund, both in neo-gothic monumental style.
Alfred Hellerström was then inspired to design buildings in the jugend style, which immediately after the turn of the century had a short, but important influence on especially the upper-class milieu. Immediately before 1910 an entire villa neighbourhood in this style was built in the Olympia district. Besides Hellerström several other architects participated in the designing of these jugend style neighbourhoods, among them Carl Rosenius and Ola Anderson. The houses had round towers and round corners, arched frontons, varied window styles and many ornaments, altogether a clear break from the 19th century´s strict building styles.
A strange building, in the transition period between classicism and modernism is the crematorium from 1929. It was designed by Ragnar Östberg, who is mostly known as the architect behind the town hall in Stockholm. The dome of the crematorium, which inside is carried by classic columns, has a historicist element, but the smooth surface points towards a pure modernism.
The Terrace in Helsingborg | 
Scania Bank | 
The Art Nouveau District in Helsingborg | 
The Art Nouveau District in Helsingborg | 
The Art Nouveau District in Helsingborg |
The Art Nouveau District in Helsingborg | 
The Crematorium in Helsingborg | 
The Crematorium in Helsingborg |
The Age of the Exhibitions
The optimism for the future was clearly shown in the many world exhibitions, which were arranged and they were meant to show all that man now was able to make. These large, spectacular events went hand in hand with the fast industrial expansion in Europe. After the first world exhibition in London in 1851, Vienna followed in 1873 and Paris was next in 1889.
The display of goods, buildings and inventions were a kind of directory of the future, and some times unusual edifices left as monuments for the exhibitions, like for instance the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Also the North was seized with exhibition ardour and in the Sound region you could experience the so-called Industry and Art Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1872 and 1888. In Helsingborg Oscar II opened an Industry and Art Exhibition in June 1903 and at the same time opened the terrace stairs under Kärnan. Lund invited to an exhibition in 1907, where most of the town park was laid out.
The Industrial Exhibition in Helsingborg |
S:t Mary
| | The Church of St. Mary in Helsingborg has a long history. In its foundation it was finished in 1410. The church is, like its counterpart in Elsinore, built in Gothic style and contains a number of art treasures – many from the Middle Ages. |
The Church of St. Mary
The late medieval church is situated right in the centre of the old Helsingborg. In the Helsingborg of the 21th century it is not a dominating part of the town picture and can hardly be seen from the sea. It is actually a little difficult to see, but when you are standing in front of it, you have to admire the beauty of the thorough Gothic gilding style. If you go inside a great deal of Helsingborg´s late medieval church culture´s interior is preserved.
The Eastern Facade of the Church of St. Mary |
Gothic
The St. Mary Church was finished in 1410 after a long building period of about 100 years. It is built as a basilica and is almost a cathedral. The mid aisle is, like the great Gothic cathedrals in Europe, low and has no windows under the vault. The building style is often called half basilica or ”pseudo basilica”. The same characteristics can be seen on the other side of the Sound, where the Mary Church in Elsinore has the same architectural traits.
The Gothic characteristics are prominent, the pointed arched windows and the pointed vaults. This also can be seen in the gable doorsteps of the exterior and the external buttresses, which support the church.
The church replaced an earlier Roman sandstone church from the 12th century. And in comparison to the small houses of the time, it became a striking and dominant building in Helsingborg. There were other churches in town, but only Kärnan and the Nicolai Monastery were able to compete with the dominant St. Mary Church.
The Western Front of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The Buttresses of the St. Mary Church |
The Vault of the Church of Saint Mary |
Helsingborg in the Year 1400 |
The Art Treasures of the Middle Ages
The font is from the 14th century and cut from Gotland limestone. Originally it was painted and scientific examinations point towards fragments of red and blue oil paint.
The altarpiece is in remarkable good condition. It is painted around the time of the church´s inauguration in the period 1449-1452. Probably by a master from Stralsund. In the centre of the piece the scene with Mary and the newborn Jesus dominates. The motifs around are from the life of Christ as it is described in the New Testament.
The altarpiece, which is designed as some sort of cupboard can be closed at certain periods in the church year. During Lent, for example. Here the viewer must do without the sculptures and contents himself with looking on the motifs from Christ´s last days. One of these scenes shows how Jesus drives the merchants from the temple. An interesting detail here is that the appearance of some of the coins in this motif can be located in Stralsund. One detail which makes it probable that the altarpiece have been made n this town.
The triumph crucifix in Gothic style is from the latest Middle Ages. It is interesting that the foot of the cross says 1753. But it only states the time when the crucifix was repainted/restored. This is further complicated by the fact that the cross itself is of a later date that the crucifix. The originator of the crucifix is unknown, but experts assume that it is made in the southern part of Scandinavia.
The original plaster, which covered the church walls has later been removed. The walls now appear as brick walls. However, there are still remnants of the old plaster behind the altar, where there are still fragments of the old murals. Among them the saints: S:t Magnus and Brandanus. The murals are from the 15th century and are done by the so-called: Helsingborgmester, (Helsingborgmaster), whose somewhat better preserved murals can be seen in Brunnby Church in the Kulla peninsula.
From the Middle Ages are also the so-called piscinan at the bottom in the choir wall.
The Altarpiece of the Church of Saint Mary | 
The closed altar cabinet | 
The merchants are driven from the temple | 
St. Mary´s Church´s Crucifix | 
The Font of the Church of St. Mary |
The Mural of the Church of St. Mary | 
The Picscina of the Church of St. Mary |
A New Day Dawning
The tower was not finished before 1500. I.e. by the beginning of the century which was not only to change the church organisation and dogmatism in the North, but also the Middle Ages as it was later called.
However, the medieval origin of St. Mary Church is still very pronounced. Despite the later modernizations with pulpit, organ and rows of benches. The church is, rightfully so, characterized as an example of what the Middle Ages can display when it comes to stylish architecture, capable constructions and amazing craftsmanship.
Good Deeds
The altarpiece has a double portrait and three pictures above each other on the left side. The portrait shows a noble couple, perhaps the vassal of Helsingborg´s castle, Arild Urup and his wife Thale Thott. Their gold chains can identify them, which symbolize noble wealth and power.
The motif is, like in the dining hall in the Our Lady monastery in Elsinore, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The poor beggar Lazarus will get his reward in Heaven, while the rich man is tormented in Hell.The subtext says:
You Christians, whom God have given enough, consider the poor, who suffer grief, sickness, misery and distress, poverty and hunger for bread, with something in this collection box. Show your faith with good deeds and God in his Heaven will look agreeably upon you.
The old notion that God looks agreeably on good deeds seems to have outlived the reformation.
Nobel couple |
Sickness and Health
Epidemics were well-known since the black death in the middle of the 14th century, but in the latter half of the 16th century Elsinore was struck 13 times. It has been established that more or less local epidemics took place every other year. It was different forms of the plague, but also typhoid fever, cholera and children´s diseases took many lives. The priest and writer in Elsinore, Hans Christensen Sthen, wrote a comfort script after having lost eight children in one of the epidemics.
Tycho Brahe lost in 1576 a two-year-old daughter, after which he put up this plaque in the Mary Church in Helsingborg with this inscription:
Kirstine led, when she went away, her tender dust here.
She, who was once Tycho Brahe´s daughter.
She was just an insignificant inhabitant of this world.
But in that short time, she grew considerably. In spiritual goodness, she exceeded her gender, in good deeds her young age, in eloquence her contemporaries.
This is why nature has taken her back
So that she would not exceed the boundaries of the standards.
But still she lives; she has defeated the resistance of nature.
Instead of the short time, she now owns the period of eternity.
And improved by the Heavenly Good she rejects the Mortal,
as she through Christ have been admitted to Heaven.
Died in the Plague on September 24th
in 1576, lived for 2 years and 11 months, 11 days and 11 hours.
Death
The sooner the more dear
The later the bitterer
To Kirstine my beloved daughter
Lively and well-bred for her age,
Have I, the father, written this.
Tycho Brahe’s Daughter’s Epitaph |
Preaching at the Centre
With the Lutheran teaching as a point of departure far greater attention was directed at the interpretation of the texts in the bible, i.e. the preaching. The sermon of the priest was not unknown in the Catholic Church, but in the Lutheran church the sermon became the main attraction. It can be said that the service space was moved from the altar to the pulpit.
A visible sign of this was that new and expensive pulpits were installed. There are a number of these still in existence and they can bee seen in the churches from the 16th and 17th centuries in the Sound region.
The Preaching | 
Lund´s Pulpit | 
Petri Pulpit | 
St. Mary Pulpit in Helsingborg |
New Organs
Diderich Buxtehude followed his father’s footsteps and became the organist in the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In 1660 he applied for and got the organist post in Elsinore´s Maria Church. Probably because this post was better paid and by taking it he came closer to the rest of his family. In the time up to 1668, where he went to Lübeck to apply for a post there, he lived in the same house as his mother and father. The house still stands.
Simultaneously the old Lorenz organs were modernized in a modern Baroque style, a style, which was represented musically by Diderich Buxtehude. The German organ builder did the modernization and he was the man behind the building and rebuilding of organs in Copenhagen, Elsinore, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo.
Diderich Buxtehude experienced and participated in a very active renewal of the music scene through the new building, which was made. Two years after he had moved to Elsinore he came back to Helsingborg to supervise the rebuilding of the organ in the Maria Church. This indicates that the Swedish takeover in Scania in 1658 did not affect the music scene right away.
The Maria Church in Helsingborg | 
Saint Anne Street in Elsinore | 
The Old Organ | 
Buxtehude | 
Choir Organ in the Mariakyrkan (Church of St, Mary) |
Diderik Buxtehude
| | Buxtehude ended his career as an organist in Lübeck in northern Germany. This picture is from there. Before Buxtehude was a good example of a Sound citizen, who worked on both sides of the Sound, in spite of war and trouble in the area. |
Buxtehude – A Sound Citizen
It is difficult to say how the man in the street experienced Scania´s abrupt transition to Sweden at the peace treaties in 1658 and 1660. In paragraph 9 in the Roskilde peace treaty it was stated that all estates in Scania had the right to maintain their distinctive cultural characteristics and inherited rights, so nothing prevented them from living as they had done before. Furthermore it was difficult to say how much nationality meant for the individual. Sweden as well as Denmark was at this time complex – in reality multinational states, which to some extent demanded some loyalty from their citizens, but hardly a national disposition in the modern sense. That came with Romanticism’s worship of the nation and the people at the end of the 18th century.
The example of the composer Diderich Buxtehude may illuminate this connection. Posterity has not succeeded in establishing where he was born – in Holstein, Elsinore or Helsingborg – in any case he was born in an area, which belonged to the Danish state around 1637. His father, Johannes Buxtehude came from Oldesloe in Holstein – to where he probably had emigrated originally. In 1638 he became an organist at the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In the years 1638-41 the father worked in Helsingborg and here Diderich had some childhood years. In 1642 the father was the organist at the St. Olai Church in Elsinore, where he was active until around 1670. Diderich Buxtehude thus spent his childhood and youth in Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Music with Class
During the first half of the 17th century the musical scene at the Danish court and in the major churches was of a very high standard. (It is to be remembered that the court and the churches at that time were the most important customers, when it came to music and thus the music scene evolved around these institutions). Names like Heinrich Schütz and John Dowland are still remembered. Schütz was a church musician in Copenhagen and there he established the court orchestra. Dowland, a famous lutanist and composer, was a court musician. He lived in Elsinore. Johann Lorentz worked during the first half of the 17th century as a royal organ builder and he built or rebuilt all the important organs in the Sound region in a quite conservative renaissance style, a style, which then were represented by Schütz and Dowland. One of the most important remnants of Lorentz´s activity is in the organ facade in the Holy Trinity Church in Kristianstad.
New Organs
Diderich Buxtehude followed his father’s footsteps and became the organist in the Maria Church in Helsingborg. In 1660 he applied for and got the organist post in Elsinore´s Maria Church. Probably because this post was better paid and by taking it he came closer to the rest of his family. In the time up to 1668, where he went to Lübeck to apply for a post there, he lived in the same house as his mother and father. The house still stands.
Simultaneously the old Lorenz organs were modernized in a modern Baroque style, a style, which was represented musically by Diderich Buxtehude. The German organ builder did the modernization and he was the man behind the building and rebuilding of organs in Copenhagen, Elsinore, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmo.
Diderich Buxtehude experienced and participated in a very active renewal of the music scene through the new building, which was made. Two years after he had moved to Elsinore he came back to Helsingborg to supervise the rebuilding of the organ in the Maria Church. This indicates that the Swedish takeover in Scania in 1658 did not affect the music scene right away.
The Maria Church in Helsingborg |
Saint Anne Street in Elsinore |
The Old Organ |
Buxtehude |
Choir Organ in the Mariakyrkan (Church of St, Mary) |
Connections over the Sound
In his time in Elsinore Buxtehude kept in close touch with Swedish as well as Danish officials. The only piece of music we know of that Buxtehude wrote in his time in Elsinore, is from 1665 and dedicated to Christoffer Schneider, a Swedish postmaster and later consul resident in Elsinore. From his time in Elsinore Buxtehude also was friendly with the Swedish court conductor and organist Gustav Büben. Perhaps it was on his request that Buxtehude composed the wedding cantata to the wedding between Carl XI Gustav and his Danish queen Hedvig Eleonora in 1680.
| |
 | | Large | Aperte mihi portas iustitiae, Elsinore 1665. (Diderik Buxtehude) |
| | Large | Aria sopra le Nozze di Sua Maesta il Re de Svecia (1680). Diderik Buxtehude |
In Lübeck
In 1668 Buxtehude moved to Lübeck, probably for career reasons, but also to get away from the meagre financial circumstances in the devastated Sound region. The three Maria Churches in Helsingborg, Elsinore and Lübeck are the main threads in his life. Even though he spent most of his active life in Lübeck and even though he achieved fame and honour there, he never forgot his roots by the Sound. That was why the periodical “Nova litteraria Maris Balthici” could claim in 1707: “He considered Denmark his native country” (Patriam agnoscit Daniam).
Diderich Buxtehude´s career as a composer and an organist culminated in Lübeck and great composers like Händel and Bach came and listened to his music. He was especially renowned for his “Lübecker Abendmusiken”, which were concerts in connection with the evensong before Christmas. He wrote new organ works for this every year.Monastery
| | Town monasteries in the Sound region before the Reformation.
|
The Monasteries Importence to Produktion
The monasteries had important tasks, when it came to the spreading of the Christian doctrine, but they also had great importance when it came to the introduction of new agricultural methods and cultural plants. Christianity was thus deeply rooted in the medieval agricultural society. Gradually many monasteries in Europe developed into real companies, where the main occupation was production. They produced and sold wine, animals, corn and even iron goods. This is why there were monastery reformers, who wanted to take the monasteries back to their original tasks.
The Cistercian Order
The Cistercian order from around the 12th century was such an order. It started in Citeaux (in Latin Cistercium) in France and its founder was Bernhard of Clairvaux. The archbishop Eskil in Lund was his personal friend and that could be the reason that Cistercian monasteries were founded very early on both sides of the Sound, in Herrevar in Scania in 1145 and in Esrum in Zealand in 1151. Sorø monastery, which was founded by the Benedictines in 1151, took on the Cistercians´ rules in 1161.
The immigrating monks, who founded the early Cistercian monasteries, took with them building traditions and this in connection with the order´s regulations on the appearance of the monastery, makes it plausible to talk of a Cistercian building style.
According to the rules the Cistercian monasteries had to be located in the villages and the monastery should participate in the work of clearing the forest and create new cultivations. The commitment to new cultivations also made these monasteries knowledge centres for modern agriculture methods.
Esrum Monastery | 
Bernard of Clairvaux | 
Cistercian monk |
New Piety
These reform monasteries aimed at a more heartfelt piety. The worshipping took on a more intimate character and was close to the ideas of the mysticism. The abbot in Äbelholt Monastery gave examples of this perception in his letters.
The Maria Cult
Another sign of the transition to a more heartfelt and intimate piety was the upturn of the Maria Cult in the monasteries in the 12th century. In the monasteries the monks saw life as a struggle against evil and the fear of the just God made them seek help from the motherly Mary, who prayed for the sinners. Archbishop Anders Sunesen wrote one of the many Mary hymns, which were performed with music. His paean to May was called Missus Gabriel de Coelis and the theme of the hymn is the Annunciation. It is about Mary´s intimate relationship with God, a relationship that is typical of the Mysticism.
The Monasteries´ Land
In the course of the Middle Ages churches and monasteries become large landowners like the king and the squires. The archbishopric in Lund, for instance, had more than 300 properties and all of Bornholm at its disposal. In the course of the Middle Ages the monasteries in Scania came to own more than 2000 properties. A large number of the estates were acquired as gifts, donated to the monasteries.
After Peter Bogorm (Pierre Le Mangueur) around the end of the 12th century invented Purgatory (Purgatore) they now operated with a state between heaven and hell, an hour of reckoning, whose length could be shortened by your own and purchased prayers and masses.
This increased the power of the church over the souls and added to the land and wealth of the churches and monasteries.
Originally there were strict rules about the right of inheritance of the church, but it was circumvented by the donation of soul gifts. Even though it was prohibited for the monks to buy land until 1216, it was circumvented, when landowners mortgaged an estate to the monastery, which then took over the land, if the mortgage wasn´t paid.
The Dominicans and the Franciscans
Another group, which also reacted against the rich monasteries, were the mendicant order. But these had a quite different working method. Instead of withdrawing to contemplative and heartfelt piety the mendicant friars wanted to work for the public in an outgoing way. They preached, helped the poor and nursed the sick. In order to finance their activities the monks begged for money. This is why their monasteries were placed in the cities, where there were trade.
The most prominent mendicant orders were the Dominicans (the black monks) and the Franciscans (the grey monks). These orders had been founded by Domenicus (1170-1221) and Franciscus (1182-1226). A Dominican monastery was founded in Lund in 1222 – the first in the North and a Franciscan was founded in 1232. A Franciscan monastery was founded in Ystad and in 1270 a Dominican monastery was founded in Helsingborg, which was dedicated to St. Nicolaus.
Franciscan Monastery in Ystad |
The Mediaval Town
| | Kärnan in Helsingborg. The first castle complx was circular and is marked next to the tower.
In 1310 Erik Menved let build a new tower for the castle. This was square with very thick walls. The tower is more than 30 metres high. |
Castles
At the same time Erik Menved led a very aggressive policy and he strengthened the fortifications in the kingdom. This was evident in the Sound region, where a number of castles were renovated or built.
The old circular defence tower in Helsingborg was exchanged for the square Kärnan. This tower construction became a massive and impenetrable castle. The walls were more than 4 metres thick and the tower´s height was 30 metres. It had to be able to withstand the art of war of the times. Falsterbohus was also rebuilt and this castle also had a square tower. The rebuilding of these two castles started around 1310. Falsterbohus took over the tasks of the Skanør Castle and Helsingborg and Kärnan developed into the crown’s most important fortification in Scania. Erik Menved also expanded the Lindhold Castle in Southern Scania. This castle also had a square tower.
In Bornholm Hammershus is gradually developed into the largest castle in the North. In Vordingborg a castle complex is built to the defence of the country´s south border and in Kalundborg in in West Zealand the old fortification of Esbern Snare is enlarged. Finally in Valdemar Atterdag´s time (1340-1375) an administrative centre with a central castle is built in Gurre in North Zealand.
Castles | 
Kärnan, Helsingborg | 
Kärnan in Sections |
The Interior of Kärnan | 
Hammershus |
The Goose Tower | 
Vordinborg Castle | 
The Castle Hill | 
Gurre Castle | 
Gurre |
Gurre Complex | 
Gurre Castle |
The Expansion of Market Towns
The Scanian market lost more and more importance and the centre of gravity of the trade was moved from Skanør and Falsterbo to Malmo and Copenhagen. One idea behind of the Kalmar Union was that a united North would better withstand The Hanseates and king Erik of Pommern (1412-39) thus led a policy, which would strengthen the market towns of the Sound region. Several towns were given market towns rights, Helsingborg in 1414 and Elsinore in 1426. In addition Landskrona was founded in 1413, first of all to trade with Holland and England.
The Kalmar Union | 
The coronation of Erik of Pomerania |
Erik of Pommern and the Sound Duty
One idea behind of the Kalmar Union was that a united North would better withstand The Hanseates and king Erik of Pommern (1412-39) thus led a policy, which would strengthen the market towns of the Sound region. Several towns were given market towns rights, Helsingborg in 1414 and Elsinore in 1426. In addition Landskrona was founded in 1414, first of all to trade with Holland and England.
In 1429 the Sound duty was introduced, which was to compensate for the lost income form the Scanian market. It was natural that the charging of the duty was placed in the narrowest part of the Sound and therefore the fortification Krogen was built in Elsinore.
Helsingborg and Malmø
Helsingborg receives market town rights in 1414. Special provisions deal with the sale of herring in the autumn and the ferry passage between Helsingborg and Zealand. Helsingborg was, with its good situation and strong fortification, which was one of the royal fortifications along the coast, originally much larger than Elsinore, but in time Elsinore becomes, mainly because of its affiliation with the Sound Duty and the foreign trade, the third largest town in the realm after Copenhagen and Malmo. Malmo is a relatively new town and its original name, Elbogen, testifies to the hanseatic influence in the area.
Helsingborg | 
Landskrona | 
Malmo |
Helsingborg in the Year 1400 |
Helsingborg-Elsinore
Helsingborg and Elsinore had most in common of all the towns in the Sound region as the two towns had a joint market trade. Traders from Helsingborg were allowed to sell goods in Elsinore and vice versa. This was impossible in other towns. Traders from Lund, Landskrona and Helsingborg were not allowed to trade in each other´s towns.
That this was allowed in Helsingborg and Elsinore was due to the fact that they were dependant on each other. The accession of meat, butter and milk was larger in northwestern Scania than in North Zealand and thus the Helsingborg citizens needed customers and the Elsinore citizens needed these goods.Tycho Brahe
| | Tycho Brahe lived worked in Ven for 21 years (1576-97). He performed astronomical and meteorological experiments there, which he carefully noted, he performed chemical experiments, grew plants, made astronomical tools, drew maps, wrote poems and much more. With his versatility Tycho Brahe was a typical example of a renaissance man. |
Tycho Brahe - a Renaissance Man
In the year 1634, when a French messenger, Charles Ogier, after having visited Elsinore, left the town and travelled south towards Copenhagen, he saw the island Ven and this made him think of the world famous astronomer Tycho Brahe.
It is doubtful if you can perceive the almost square shape of Ven from the coast of Zealand, but it is no coincidence that Ogier noticed this. The symmetrical, well ordered and continuous appeals to the renaissance man, the scientist Tycho Brahe, who Danish standards is the best example of a universal genius in the spirit of the renaissance.
Map of Ven |
Childhood
Tycho Brahe was born a nobleman and it was therefore expected of him that he would make a career for himself as a landowner, warrior and perhaps member of parliament, as so many other in his family. Tycho had, however, a somewhat ambivalent relationship to his noble colleagues.
Tycho Brahe was born December 14th 1546 in the estate Knutstorp in Scania, but was literally abducted and raised with his childless uncle Jörgen Brahe in Tosterup in southeastern Scania. This was not uncommon within the aristocracy, as kin was more important that your own family. The Brahe family is portrayed in Kågeröd church, which was the patronage church of Knutstorp. The plaque is from 1613, after the death of Tycho Brahe. Tycho (the scholar) sits next to his father and after him you see the brothers, Sten, Axel, Jörgen and Knut. Next to the mother sit the sisters Lisbeth, Margareta, Kristina and finally Sophie Brahe, who was very close to Tycho.
Tycho Brahe | 
Knutstorp | 
Tosterup | 
Brahefamiljens epitafium |
Studies
At the age of six Tycho started school, which was not uncommon among the aristocracy. Uncommon was however the interests, which he developed. At the age of twelve he entered the University of Copenhagen, which at the same was open and marked by the renaissance humanist currents of the time.
We know, form his book collection, that he in this period was interested in astronomy. In his study travels in the beginning of the 1560´s he started, under cover of law studies, to practise this science. As travel companion Tycho had the commoner Anders Sørensen Vedel, who also was an important renaissance figure. He collected and published old Danish folksongs.
Anders Sørensen Vedel |
Astronomi
Nova Stella and the New Picture of the Universe
Tycho studied abroad and did not return to Denmark until the end of 1570. He spent his time with his uncle Sten Bille, who was very much interested in chemical and mechanical experiments.
In November 1572 Tycho Brahe observed in Herrevadskloster what he thought was a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. Strongly encouraged, but against his will, he published a book on the new star in 1573. It was controversial for a nobleman to engage in such matters and the book is prefaced with a number of arguments pro and against a publication.
The book, which was printed in a few copies in Copenhagen was written in Latin and contained apart from the thesis on the new star, an astrological and meteorological almanac for the year 1573, a thesis on a future lunar eclipse and finally a poem dedicated to the god Urania.
This may seem as a strange concoction, but in Tycho Brahe´s mind there was a connection between the different parts.
Nova Stella | 
Tycho Brahe´s picture of the world | 
Picture of the world |
The Importance of the Empirical Knowledge
Perhaps Tycho Brahe did not realize the importance of his observations. The leading astronomic perception was that the universe had been created by chance and that there had been no changes without God´s direct participation. Thus they perceived the universe af static. Therefore it was sensational that Tycho Brahe had discovered a change in the firmament and this discovery led to the conception of a dynamic universe. Via later publications he contributed to such a conception. The great importance of Tycho Brahe was his exact empirical observations. Experience had greater importance and the sense of a static cosmos retired.
Tycho Brahe showed that the universe is much greater than hitherto assumed and that it developed and changed continuously. However, he could not accept Kopernikus´ new picture of the universe with the sun and not the earth as the centre of the universe.
Tycho Brahe´s picture of the world | 
Obeservationsscene | 
Sextant | 
Notes |
The Comet
When Tycho Brahe a few years later in Ven in 1577, had studied a comet, he wrote down his observations in the small publication ”Om kometen”, which became another example that you could draw empirical conclusions.
The Astrologer
Tycho Brahe mixed empirical observations with astrological predictions. His astrological predictions he commented thus:
”... even if it is hidden for everybody to know the right reasons for future things, you can however, from the old experienced astrologers´ observations and knowledge, get some indications of things that these miracles in the sky and do and this can be done without any superstition at all.
Tycho Brahe demonstrated his dissociation of superstition knowing well that the reputation and position of astrology was much debated, not least in the church and among the thinkers of the renaissance. But astrology still had a certain official status. The royal power demanded that Tycho Brahe make predictions and he drew up the horoscope of the crown prince.
The starting point in astrology was the fundamental observations about the influence of the planets, for instance that the sun provided heat and light and that the moon changed the level of the sea. Furthermore they saw that the alternation between summer and winter was dependant on the position of the planets. It is not strange that they attributed importance to the position of the planets. Although Tycho Brahe had doubts about superstition he attributed astrology an certain importance, an importance he later south to limit.
Horoscope |
The Creator
He even attributed the belief in God importance, but approached the idea that God was the initiator of the system, but he did not intervene in the course of history and could not be influenced by prayers or rites, i.e. a deistic perception.
Recognition
Tycho Brahe in time won great recognition and from 1574 he lectured at the University in Copenhagen, which was notable for an aristocrat. He was even offered the position as rector of the university, but refused. The offer still testified to the recognition, which was offered him, also on the part of the royal power.
Uraniborg in Ven
The renaissance prince Frederik II saw Tycho´s greatness and offered his support. February 18th 1567 he was awarded a yearly sum of 500 daler, a very large governmental support. The king had, during his inspections in the building site of Kronborg, come to think of the island Ven as a suitable place for Tychos activities. Tycho was offered the island on favourable terms, if it could prevent him from leaving Denmark. Tycho Brahe accepted.
A Symbolic Castle
The central part of the ground plan was made up of a square, which measured 60 feet, approximately 15,5 metres on every side. This square was divided by perpendicular corridors, which formed four smaller square rooms. The corridors also tied the central part with symmetrical extensions in the north and south and with symmetrical entrance portals in east and west.
The building consisted of two storeys, attic and basement. On the outside there were balconies, which were used for astronomical observations. The basement functioned as a chemical laboratory.
Astronomy and chemistry/medicine was the sciences he was to engage in and two statuette niches marked this over the entrance portals. Two short Latin inscriptions connected these allegorical works of art: Despiciendo suspicio och Suspiciendo despicio, which roughly means, ”When I look down, I look up” and ”When I look up, I look down”. The first maxim refers to the chemical experiments and the other undoubtedly on the astronomical observations. The deeper meaning is that chemistry and astronomy are connected.
Uranienborg | 
Ground plan |
Uraniborg - a View of Life
Uranienborg was not only Tycho Brahe´s home and workplace, but it also expressed architecturally and in other ways, the philosophy and the view of life, which characterized Tycho Brahe. A belief in research and the mapping of reality was to make us understand the cosmological connections.
A Renaissance Garden
The garden was, just like the castle, very symmetrical lay out. They also considered the practical use of a garden and planted fruit trees and sowed vegetables and herbs, which could be used in medical recipes.
We know that Tycho as well as his learned sister Sophie Brahe, who lived with him for long periods of time, devoted themselves to the manufacturing of medicinal preparations, in fact to such an extent, that the pharmacies in Copenhagen complained about the competition. It is very likely that Sophie Brahe participated in the lay out and the care taking of the garden, although there are no evidence of this.
The Garden | 
Ground plan |
Tycho Brahe leaves Ven
Tycho Brahe stayed in Ven for 21 years until 1597, when felt forced to leave Denmark. It is said that he had fallen out with the inhabitants in Ven, that he neglected his duties and that the new king Christian IV did not support him like Frederik II had done.
The circumstances surrounding Tycho Brahe´s fall are still unclear and much debated. Form Rostock Tycho Brhae wrote the kin in 1597 that he had not gone into exile and emphasized his loyalty. The king reproached him for having left without permission and pointed out several unsolved problems. He wrote of the peasants in Ven: ”There have been complaints about you from our poor subjects in Ven”. And of Tycho´s negligence of the church in Ven: ”...as the word of the baptism have been neglected with your knowledge for a long time against the use of the realm that is notorious for anybody”.
That Tycho Brahe did not take care of his estate obligations is probably correct, but one may wonder why the controversy with the peasants was brought up in a time, where it was the right of any lord of the manor to exploit his subjects and when the plight of the peasants was increased significantly.
The Exorcism
If it is true that they had omitted certain parts of the baptismal rite in Tycho Brahe´s time in Ven that could be a serious matter. The baptismal rites and especially the devil incantation, which was part of it, was one of the theological disputes of the time. Exorcism, a Catholic ritual, was still present in the Lutheranian church, but many did not like it and wanted to get rid of it. This was the view of the supporters of the Calvinistic reformation.
The conflict about the exorcism broke out seriously, when the priest Iver Bertelsen in Møn took out the incantation from the rite and was put on trial in 1567. Iver Bertelsen spent 3 year in prison, before Frederik II pardoned him. In 1588, during the regency of Christian IV a new case cropped up, when the priest at the Holy Spirit Church in Copenhagen, Jon Jacob Venusin, at a christening omitted the Devil incantation. Three weeks after this they issued in the king´s name and with threats of punishment a ban on ”resuscitating undue disputes”. Venusin, who came from Ven, where his father had been the vicar, was the brother-in-law of Tycho Brahe´s son-in-law.
Complaints
It was around this time that the king began to attack Tycho Brahe. Firstly the accusations were directed against the vicar in Ven for not having punished Tycho Brahe of his lack of Communion and his immoral behaviour. The allusion was Tycho Brahe´s life together with a non-aristocrat, something which was not illegal in itself. Last, but not least the priest was accused of having omitted the Devil incantation on the request of Tycho Brahe. The priest lost his job and the next time around the accusations were directed against Tycho Brahe himself.
Another complaint against Tycho Brahe was that he had produced medicine without the permission of the church.
Several Reasons
It was not only the dissatisfaction of the peasants and the dissatisfaction with the neglecting of his duties, which caused him to move. The suspicion of the church about his astrology, his medicine and not least his liberal religious views in a time of strict Lutheranian orthodoxy, may have been decisive.
Tycho Brahe´s correspondence with the king was not published until the king´s death in 1648. In 1597 Tycho wrote a poem of his break with Denmark. Here is a section of the poem:
”Denmark, what have I have for you to cast me off so cruelly?
How can you, my native land, treat me as an enemy?
I have lifted your name, it is mentioned far and wide with honour
how can you be angry that my work has encircled you with roses?
Tell me, which of your children have given you better things to own?
Are you angry that high in the vaulted arch, native country?
Your name I wrote in twinkling stars
Why thrust me aside? Sometime you will remember me.
In days to come my worth, my work will be understood,
By children of a later generation, everything that I gave for you to build”
Tycho Brahe died in Prague in 1601.The Consuls
| | In the course of the 19th century Helsingborg developed from a coastal situated city to an important – according to Swedish conditions – industrial and trade city. |
Helsingborg – swiftly
„For my part I am inclined to follow those, who put Helsingborg before all else. Not because it is not possible to find landscapes more grand, just as scenic and striking at first view, but because this one interests me more in the long run. The other Swedish landscapes have grandeur, are pleasant and what not; But they have no life, they have this primeval silence, this sacrosanct solemnity, which seems pathetic in the moment, but becomes suppressive at length; here you have a painting with figures, a moving, constant varied and renewed scene; it is a nature, which is not tiresome, but you can associate with it instead of just admiring it. Get up early one spring morning, when the sun is upon the Danish coast, in these gardens, boldly situated here and there in the changeable cut cliffs, under whose shadows Helsingborg is laid out; get up, if you will, and view the Sound! This ocean, which is but a river here! But a river with hundreds of ships, East- and West Indian Sea faring ships, Americans, Britons, line ships from Archangel, fruit ships from the Mediterranean! View this blackboard, so alone in kind, so full of colour and emotion, and so dramatic.”
Thus Patrik Sturzen-Becker depicted the small town of Helsingborg in 1851, a town, which then had around 4000 inhabitants.
Consul Olsson
At this time a young man from Fleninge worked as a shop assistant in town. This young, deeply religious man’s name was Petter Olsson and he once asked the vicar, Peter Wieselgren, if he could become a priest. Since this was an expensive education and Petter Olsson was poor, Wieselgren advised him to become a teacher instead. But Petter Olsson went another way. In 1853, the year the Crimean War broke out, he dared to start his own business in corn.
England, who was in the war on the side of the Turks against the Russians, did not get enough corn during the war and a great deal of Olsson’s corn stock went to London, where the horses needed power in order to pull trams, among other things. The profit was good, of course, and with the optimism of the future, which was a mark of the 19th century, Olsson began to build an empire. He also realized the need for good communications in order to transport corn to the storehouse in Kullagatan, where he also lived and he also realized that a good harbour in order to carry the oats to the horses in London. (He did not only have his home in the storehouse, but it was also used as church service hall for the revivalist meetings he held.)
Petter Olsson | 
Workers | 
he Harbour 1893-94 |
Consul Olsson´s Granary |
The Infrastructure
Through his municipal activities Consul Olsson could press the questions concerning improved communications. In the period 1865-85 he contributed to making it possible for Helsingborg to have railway lines in every direction. At first to Billeberga-Esløv, then to Hässleholm and to Åstorp and Värnamo. Thus the city was connected with the big railways and had railway lines to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. At the same time the harbour was enlarged and made deeper with more new basins and Sweden´s first train ferry connection to abroad was opened on the H-H- fairway in 1892.
The enlargement of the harbour had en effect on the Helsingborg shipping business and at the end of the century the city had the third largest merchant navy. Petter Olsson started more industries, among them tileworks, the steam mill and the rubber factory, where Henry Dunker later would start the rubber shoe fabrication. He was enthusiastic about the development of the city, but also about Evangelical religion. The mission building on Kullagatan was built thanks to Petter Olsson. He was throughout his life faithful to his religious beliefs and said that he would make Helsingborg to “a city, which honoured God”. His large family spent the summers in the leisure villa “Öresundslyst” on the Danish side of the Sound.
Consul Persson
Another young man came from Allerum into town and also started to work in a shop. His name was Nils Persson and he was outgoing and sociable man. Even he dared to open his own business and started to import fertilizer, which he sold to the farmers. He started to speculate about the opportunities to manufacture on his own and soon founded “Fosfaten”, a fertilizer factory on the south side of town.
The profits were of course good and he expanded his empire, adding the copper works, where he used and processed by-products from the phosphate factory. He also started the team tile works, which was a lucky venture, since Helsingborg and Copenhagen were to build heavily in the latter part of the 19th century. (He manufactured red tile unlike Olsson´s yellow and in town they often discussed which areas the two gentlemen occupied, and yes, they could see it on the tile.) Persson donated an area on Södergatan next to the churchyard to the city, and this was to be used as graveyard, and the profits were to go to “pauvre honteux”, the needy in Helsingborg.
Nils Persson | 
The Phosphate Factory | 
The Industrial Area |
The Town of the Consuls
Olsson and Persson ruled the city. They had large industries, participated in the management of the city and also sat in the parliament. Important persons were often given consul titles and this title was given to Olsson as well as Persson. At the turn of the century Helsingborg was called “the city of consuls”. These two men were very similar, when it came to initiative and business, but privately they were opposites. While Olsson lived a simple life in his apartment next to his storehouse on Kullagatan, Persson led a dissipated life in the luxurious villa near the hospital. Olsson spent his leisure time studying the bible, while Persson visited Ramlösa. Olsson was a teetotaller, Persson was not.
Moving to Helsingborg
The two consuls´ businesses speeded up Helsingborg. Between 1860 and 1900 the population was increased five times and no other city in Sweden could show a population increase like that. In the years 1850-1920 the population of Helsingborg increased with 1149%, while the neighbouring city, Landskrona had an 493% increase and Lund a 346% increase. Malmo was close by with an increase of 867%. (The banishment of the Sound duty in 1857 also benefited Helsingborg on the expense of the nearest neighbouring city, Elsinore.)
It is said that the flow of people to Helsingborg at times was so heavy that the city´s registration office could not keep up. The vicar sometimes was so exhausted that he had to leave the pen. It is evident that the appearance of the city changed because of the active building activity. The trend of architecture at the end of the 19th century was richly represented in the city. The neo-classicism and the neo-renaissance are evident along Järnvägsgatan, Trädgårdsgatan and Drottninggatan, and the neo-Gothic style is exemplified in the Town Hall, the GA Church and the Nicolai School. The large influx of workers resulted in the building of a great deal of workmen’s houses, especially in the south part of town, where the industry was located.
A Clash of Style | 
The Town Hall in Helsingborg | 
The Gustav Adolf Church. |
Consul Trapp
Another man with a consul’s title deserves mention as he was engaged in preserving the old Helsingborg in the transformation process, which was taking place. Oscar Trapp, who lived in Frederiksdal, was interested in history and this interest combined with a municipal involvement resulted in the renovation and restoration of Kärnan, the Maria Church was renovated and excavations at some of the old middle age churches were carried out. He was also instrumental in the preservation of Jakob Hansen´s house from the 17th century. He was also the man behind Sweden´s flag. As a member of parliament he proposed that the flag should have certain nuances and not nuances of yellow and blue varying from flag to flag. His motion was carried and thus the Swedish flag in the 1906 law on the flag of the realm, got the colours it has today.
Oscar Trapp 1847-1916 | 
Fredriksdal | 
Oversæt |
The Consert House
| | Helsingborg´s concert house was opened in 1932. Sven Markelius´ building has several similarities to the students´ house he designed for the technical college in Stockholm. Helsingborg´s concert house is perhaps the best example of a monumental building in early functionalism in Sweden. |
Modernism and Functionalism
The Stockholm exhibition in 1930 marked the entry of the modern, functionalist style in Scandinavia. The exhibition had buildings by Gunnar Asplund, among others, done in white, with supporting concrete constructions and large windows in glass and steel. The focus of the exhibition was everyday needs and it showed many examples of different housing and modern interiors. The inspiration is clear in the Blidah Park in Copenhagen and Arne Jacobsen´s famous Bellavista neighbourhood at Bellevue at Strandvejen north of Copenhagen.
The perhaps most interesting example of early modernism in Sweden, is the concert house in Helsingborg, which was finished in 1932. It was designed by Sven Markelius and is very similar to the students´ house he designed for the technical college in Stockholm in 1930.
The project of the concert house itself is very interesting inasmuch as Markelius´ first proposal was clearly classicist, but eventually the proposal was reworked and ended finally with its present functionalist style with smooth, white plastered walls, large glass fronts to let in the light in the vestibule and semi circled wings with cloakroom and restaurant.
In Hornbæk on the North Zealand Coast you find the first examples of summer cottages in the late-romantic Viking style, but also the fashionable, functionalist seaside hotel from 1935.
Early Functionalism | 
Early Functionalist-inspired Architecture |
The Concert House in Helsingborg | 
Arne Jacobsen´s Bellavista | 
Arne Jacobsen´s Bellavista |
Oversæt | 
Kronborg Open Air Bath | 
Hornbæk Seaside Hotel |
Dunkers
| | Dunker´s Arts Centre in Helsingborg is a willed present form one of Sweden´s richest families. The fortune was made via the rubber cartel Tretorn, which had plants in Helsingborg as well as Elsinore.
The arts centre is designed by the Danish architect, Kim Utzon. |
The Galosh King
Dunker, the family that founded and developed the Tretorn-empire, came to Helsingborg from Denmark.
A new method to process raw rubber into a material, which was soft, waterproof and durable, gave opportunities for exploiting rubber industrially, for instance to produce galoshes, rubber shoes and other kinds of modern goods of quality.
“The rubber age” had arrived to the Sound. It turned out to be a fortune for the Dunker family, but later on also for the cultural life of the region.
The Rubber Age
Rubber had been used for a long time and it worked very well – as india rubber. The American Charles Goodyear discovered a method, which opened up for completely different possibilities for the utilization of rubber in 1839. He had succeeded in processing raw rubber into a material, which was soft, waterproof and durable. The method was called retreading , and was, technically the heating of a mixture of caoutchouc and sulphur.
This method gave completely new opportunities for exploiting rubber industrially.
One idea, among many others, was to produce a protecting shoe, which was to worn on elegant shoes when it rained. The galosh, the French name for overshoes, was born. The winters by the Sound would now be bearable with the new wind- and waterproof shoes. Galoshes became extremely popular and were manufactured all over the world. Sweden imported the new idea from Russia.
Johan Dunker – the Beginning
In Helsingborg there was a harbour master called Johan Dunker. He was originally from Schlesvig-Holstein. The Dunker family lived in Esbjerg, when the son, Henry, was born in 1870. Johan, who was active in the Helsingborg economic life, understood that the demand for rubber would increase. With the optimism for the future of the age in mind, he built a rubber factory in the expanding Helsingborg. With the support of Petter Olsson, among others, he founded Helsingborgs Rubber Factory Inc. in 1891.
Johan Dunker |
Henry Dunker – a Man for Development
Johan Dunker´s son, Henry, went to Russia to find know how for his new factory. In St. Petersborg he did not have much luck, but in Riga, which belonged to Russia at the time, he came into contact with a chemist, who was interested in developing the factory in Helsingborg. His name was Julius von Gerkan and he was instrumental, when it came to the quality of the Helsingborg galoshes.
Henry Dunker became a sub-manager in 1984 and after some troubles in the beginning the factory expanded. He worked for his position in relation to other rubber factories. Thus he took over the rubber factory, Velox, in Trelleborg of founded Trelleborg´s rubber factory in 1905, which became a part of Dunker´s expanding empire. One of his ideas was to start his own sales offices, and thus avoid selling via wholesale dealers. In that way he could gain control over a bigger part of the chain from producer to consumer.
Sales offices opened between 1910-20 in all parts of Sweden, but also abroad, for instance in Copenhagen in 1909, Berlin in 913 and Vienna in 1913. Not only the company expanded but also the range of goods. What began with galoshes and other kinds of rubber shoes, now continued with balls, bathing caps and tyres. Henry Dunker realized the value of specialisation and moved the production of tyres to Trelleborg.
Henry Dunker |
Cartel and Group
In order to obtain a better competition situation abroad and avoid competition in the home market, he established a cartel in 1912. The result was that the prices could be raised in Sweden and lowered abroad, which resulted in a higher profit.
During the depression of the 30´s many states wanted to protect their own production by way of customs duties and import prohibition. Henry Dunker built factories in Hamburg and Elsinore and could maintain production and sale in Germany and Denmark. The factory in Elsinore, which was founded in 1935, grew steadily and at the end of the 50´s it was the second largest place of work in the town with more than one thousand employees. The old “Helsingborg Rubber Factory Inc.” had grown into a multinational group and the company had changed its name into Tretorn Inc., in order to get rid of the provincial ring of the old name.
Tretorn Factory in Elsinore | 
Tretorn poster from 1939 |
The Richest Man in Sweden
The demand for rubber products was enormous. From being used only as india rubber, the range of goods grew via rubber shoes to tyres, bicycle tyres, rain clothes, balls, gym shoes, rubber bands, weather strips - the list was almost endless, and the 30´s and 40´s were rightly called “the rubber age”. The fruits of this success made “the galosh king”, Henry Dunker to the richest man in Sweden.
Henry Dunker´s villa, ”Hevea”, which was built in the 20´s in northern Helsingborg, gives an insight to the environment of the well-to-do.
Villa Hevea | 
The Working Class District | 
Shower Room |
Dunker, the Employer
The management skills of Henry Dunker can be described as tough on the tough, but somewhat softer on the weak. The higher the position in the company, the more Dunker demanded. He was no friend of unions and strikes either, and naturally he did not engage himself in big business in order to play the part of the benefactor.
When he established a private kindergarten in 1911, it was in order to employ more women. In the 1930´s most of the employees in the company in Helsingborg were women.
The Unions | 
The Nursery |
The Municipality as Heir
From time to time Dunker displayed good will and released somebody from debt, but that was only his own workers. The staff in his villa, Hevea, liked him.
Dunker´s fortune was, at his death, willed to the Helsingborg municipality and his villa was made into a nursing home. In that way his money was given back to the people in town. Without these means it would not have been possible for Helsingborg to offer its citizens the theatre and arts centre, which now adorns the town. However, one should not forget the thousands of people who worked and slaved in dirty and evil-smelling factories.
Dunker´s Arts Centre |
Bernadotte
| | Even royalty had summer residences. This is Sofiero by the Sound coast north of Helsingborg, which the Swedish royal family bought privately. The Swedish crown prince Oscar, Karl XV´s brother, decided in the 1860´s to build a summer residence to himself and his family just north of Helsingborg. |
The Napoleon War
In spite of the federation of neutrality Sweden and Denmark took different sides during the Napoleonic war and it came to minor incidents between the two parties in 1808-09 and later in 1813. After the dethroning of the Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf a Danish Prince Christian August was elected heir to the throne, but after his sudden death a former French general Bernadotte took the throne. Bernadotte converted to the Protestantism on the Swedish consulate in Elsinore and then travelled across the Sound.
The outcome of the Napoleonic wars meant that Sweden lost Finland in 1809 and Denmark lost Norway, which instead was united with Sweden in 1814. Norway’s transition to Sweden entailed that the mutual relationship was cooled down, but in the course of a few decades the contact was increased considerably among other things because of the improvement of the means of communication.
Monument in memory of Christian August | 
The Swedish consulate in Elsinore | 
The Swedish consulate in Elsinore |
Bernadotte disembarks in Helsingborg |
The Bernadotte Monument in Helsingborg |
Sofiero
In the 1860´s the Swedish crown prince, Oscar, Karl XV´s brother, decided to build a summer residence for himself and his family just north of Helsingborg. One may wonder why he chose Helsingborg. Certainly, the Bernadottes had always had a certain affection for this town ever since Karl Johan went ashore there in 1810. The royal family often visited Helsingborg and Ramlösa and perhaps they felt at home here. Furthermore it is possible that being close to Denmark was tempting during the time of Scandinavism and the idea of a union between the countries could be an opportunity to have a summer castle near Denmark. Or maybe his grandson Gustav VI Adolf was right, when he said that the boat interested Oscar simply was drawn to the sea and boats and that the intensive boat traffic on the Sound was particularly tempting. After some efforts he succeeded in getting the estate, “Skabelycke”, which was named Sofiero after Oscar´s wife, Sofia. One building was constructed, designed by and engineer by the name of Forsell and who had previously designed railway stations. Many feel that this is the reason that Sofiero more looks like a railway station than a royal castle.
When Karl died in 1872, Sofiero became a place fit for royalty and king Oscar II extended the castle, an extension, which was finished in 1876. But it still could not match the Danish counterpart, Fredensborg, but it is to be remembered that it was not a state castle, but en entirely private building. In any case the area was revived until the death of Gustav VI Adolf almost 100 years later, when Sofiero stopped being a royal summer castle.
Among the leisure activities that Oscar II liked the most was the yearly hare hunting on Hven and many inhabitants on Hven still talk about these hunts. But even though Sofiero was a private summer residence, it was also used for official duties. Tsars, royalty, presidents and prime ministers from higher politics visited here. In addition to these state visits they had government meetings here in the summer and Sofiero thus had a more official status than the present royal summer residence in Borgholm on Öland.
Sofiero Castle | 
Oscar and Sofia with the children | 
Gustav Adolf and Margaretha | 
Interior from Sofiero | 
Hare hunting in Hven |
Old Ferry Station in Helsingborg
| | The old ferry station in Helsingborg was built in the same Viking style, which can be seen in some of the stations of the coastal railway in North Zealand. A tangible influence from the national Romanticism of the 19th century. |
A Common Cultural Area
You could say that Zealand had two cultural areas; a southwestern area, which consisted of cultivated plains and a northeastern with forests.
Scania similarly had three cultural areas; one southern with plains, which had been cultivated early, one northern with forest areas and forest settlements and small woods, which have been named “national settlements”. In this area and in North Zealand new cultivation areas were created through the clearing of forest and in these areas the place name ending –röd/ryd is common. The cultivation pattern in northwestern Scania and in North Zealand was similar. It must be added that the contacts between Scania and Zealand was most intense between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
The place names can be traced to “the throat” (hals), by which they meant the narrowest part of the Sound. The people around the North Sound was called “halsinger” and both towns were called “halsingarnas borg” and “halsingarnas öre” (beach). The importance the area around “halsen” had for the contacts between Zealand and Scania was early attested by Adam of Bremen in his work “De hamburgska ärkebiskoparnas historia” (1070). He noted that you could “sail to Scania from many places in Zealand. The shortest distance is from Helsingborg, where the narrowest part of the Sound is called Halsen and where the population is called halsingar”.
One may establish from this that North Zealand and north western Scania very early were quite homogeneous
Three Cultural Areas | 
New Settlements in Zealand | 
Settlements in Scania |
The New Infrastructure
An important factor in this was the gradually improved infrastructure, especially the steam ships and railways. Elsinore was the first provincial town, which was visited by Denmark’s first steam ferry, “Caledonia” as early as 1819. Throughout the 1920´s and 30´s there was irregular traffic along the coast. At the end of 1842 there was a permanent steam ship connection via the ferry “Hamlet” between Elsinore and Copenhagen. In 1945 the service also included Helsingborg. Moreover, from 1856 there was a permanent connection between Elsinore and Helsingborg.
This meant that it was possible to transport family members and luggage over greater distances. The steam ships landed at various places along the way from where people were rowed ashore to the desired summer residences. With the steam ships and the railway connection between Copenhagen and Elsinore via Hillerød it was possible for the head of the family to travel to the city and take care of business in the summertime too.
Caledonia | 
Hamlet | 
Ophelia | 
Vedbæk´s Harbour | 
The North Railway |
The North Railway | 
Train Timetable | 
The Hornbæk Railway | 
Klampenborg |
Historicisme og nationalromantik
The predominant architectural direction in the 19th century is the so-called Historicism, where architecture and building restoration borrow style elements from different earlier periods in an attempt to find a modern idiom. In the second half of the 19th century a direction with affiliation to the Scandinavian and national romantic currents are developed. This style refers to the shared past, the Viking Age, but is also has a tight connection to the skønvirke style of the time.
The new building of Marienlyst Seaside Hotel from 1897 was, especially with the characteristic tower, which disappeared in the 1930´s, built in the characteristic building style of the time with extensive use of wood for house end constructions and eaves and ornamental traits from the Viking Age. The style is also known as “Skønvirke”(“Liberty” or “Modern Style”) and is connected with late-romanticism with a Scandinavian stamp. It is found in Aalgaarde Seaside Hotel, Dragør Seaside Hotel and the first real summer house building activities in Ålsgårde and Hornbæk from around the beginning of the century.
If you go to Falsterbo in Scania the style can be found and even in Ramlösa there are examples of the Viking Age style and late-romantic wooden constructions. Furthermore the style can be found in a number of official buildings. The old ferry station in Helsingborg is a good example and Østerport Railway Station and other stations along the coast is a pure exhibition of this style.
Marienlyst Seaside Hotel | 
Summer House in Hornbæk |
Helsingborg´s Old Ferry Station | 
Villa Svea | 
Villa Dana |
Klampenborg Station | 
Ålsgårde Seaside Hotel | 
Viking Style Arild | 
Viking House | 
Log house |
Østerport Station | 
Roof and Spire |
No Passports
At midnight in July 12th 1952 the passport free conditions were introduced between the Nordic countries and the following day there was a lot a activity in the Sound, when 55.000 passengers and almost 4000 cars crossed the Sound on the ferries. The passport free conditions and the increasing motoring resulted in a further need of ferries. Gradually the ferry traffic developed into pleasure traffic parallel to the business traffic.
Routes | 
Helsingborg´s Dagblad, July 13th 1952 |
Pleasure Boats
In the 50´s the Copenhagen boats became a clear element in the Scanian harbours. The little white boat ”Saint Ibb” had taken ”moonlight trips” from Copenhagen to Ven, Helsingborg and Mölle. ”Stadt Kiel sailed Helsingborg/Landskrona and Copenhagen for many years, but the shipping company, who really picked up speed was the Viking Boats. Their boats sailed the Sound from 1955 to 1968. They mainly sailed from Copenhagen to Landskrona and Helsingborg, but sometimes also to Malmo and Ven. Above all they were used for pleasure traffic. The ferry ticket wasn’t always that important and they gave out free tickets everywhere. Many had so many free tickets that they were impossible to use. It was evident that that it was the food and the drink, which provided income for the shipping company.
Saint Ibb | 
Knut Viking |
The Scarlett-Boats
At this time the so-called Scarlett-boats sailed between Landskrona and Copenhagen. Their history is special. In Denmark after the war there was a lack of American dollars, which made i impossible to get American goods and American films. Thus the Danes missed the Hollywood film ”Gone With the Wind”, which was shown in Swedish cinemas in 1939. A Danish ship owner, Jørgen Jensen, had the brilliant idea of starting a cinema line. Ships were provided in 1949 for this cinema transport, which sometimes was combined with a Bakken (Danish amusement park) transport. They sailed the Swedes to Bellevue, so they could go to Bakken. And then they sailed to Copenhagen to collect Danes to cinemas in Sweden.
To begin with they went to Palladium in Malmo, where ”Gone With the Wind” was shown, but form the summer of 1949 the cinema trips went to Landskrona. While the films were showed the Swedes were taken home from Bellevue and when the Swedes were taken home the film had ended and the Danes was sailed to Copenhagen. On the way food and drink were served at low costs and there was life music and dancing.
This traffic was the background for the so-called Scarlett boats, which trafficked Landskrona and Tuborg until 1980. Scarlett O´Hara in the film ”Gone with the Wind” gave names to the boats, for instance Hanne Scarlett, Lilli Scarlett and Dana Scarlett.
The Sound Law
Many boats were floating restaurants and there was a lot of drinking. The restaurant owners in the Sound towns protested against the unfair competition as the boats could serve tax-free alcohol. In addition it was known to be quite lively onboard and the Danish and Swedish governments decided in 1961 to lessen the attraction of these pleasure trips. The Sound law, limitations in the alcohol sale were introduced and in the performing of live music. The amount of alcohol and the amount of cigarettes had to be in proportion with the number of passengers. After that the customs authorities often thought that the number of passengers did not correspond to the amount of alcohol that was sold and the number of Copenhagen boats diminished considerably.
Form Monopoly to Competition in the H-H-Line
Even Adam of Bremen established that the shortest distance between Scania and Zealand is at Helsingborg and it was not strange that the most intensive traffic landed there.
The traffic on the H-H-Line in the beginning of the 50´s was run entirely by the DSB (Danish State Railways), but in 1955 there was competition. It was the Swedish company Linjebuss (LB), who with its first ferry, Betula, began its epoch on the Sound. Betula was owned by the Swedish Sugar Factories Ltd. and sailed sugar beet cargoes between Mörbylånga in Öland and Begkvara at the Småland coast. This transport was seasonally adjusted to say the least and at other times the boat could be sued at the H-H- Line as a car ferry. Primula, Carola, Betula II, Regula and Ursula followed up Betula. The LB boats became popular and the concept of ”touring” was introduced as the name for a passage with the serving of food.
The LB-ferries was for a long time considered more cosy with their high salons, who had a nice view of the Sound, in comparison to DSB´s ”basement ferries”, where you had to sit below the car deck. On the LB you glided, but on the DSB you glided. In Helsingborg the basement ferries were called ”the U-boats”. DSB did not build a boat with salons above the car deck until 1967. It was ”Najaden”, and later the sister-ferry ”Kärnan”, ”Kronborg” and ”Holger Danske”. With this the DSB had seriously entered the competition. Another company would enter the H-H-traffic, and that was the so-called Sundbusserne”, which started traffic in March 1958. They solely aimed at the passenger traffic.
Elsinore Harbour 1955 | 
Primula | 
Najaden | 
Sundbusserne |
Enormous Traffic all Over the Sound
The Sound traffic increased and the harbours in the Sound had really become lively by the end of the 1950´s.
In the 1960´s the DSB ferries Dan, Helsingør, Helsingborg, Svea, Kronborg and Kärnan sailed the Sound. The LB ferries were at that time Betula and Primula and the Sundbusserne Henrik I, Jeppe, Pendula and Pernille. In addition the route to Snekkersten was trafficked by Freia and Mols. Helsingborg-Copenhagen was trafficked by Gay Viking, Rolf Viking, Laboe, Lucullus, Stadt Kiel and Sankt Ibb.
At this time 20 ships sailed between Helsingborg and harbours on the other side of the Sound. The number of boats, lines and travellers were impressing at the end of the 50´s and the beginning of the 60´s. In the H-H-line approximately 8 millions passenger were transported in 1961. In 1962 after the introduction of the Sound law, the passenger number in the H-H-line increased to 8,5 millions, but the traffic in Copenhagen diminished, i.e. the traffic that was entirely pleasure trips.
Between Malmø and Copenhagen the train ferry Malmøhus sailed, the most elegant boat in the Sound, and the Sound company´s Absalon, Gripen and Ørnen. These three were called ”the big boats”. From 1957 the Centrum Line or, as it was called initially, the New Copenhagen Line, sailed between Malmø and Copenhagen with more boats, among them the old Kalmarsund I, which had renamed Kirsten Piil and had been used on the line Helsingborg-Copenhagen, Sundpilen and MS Alte Liebe, renamed Ørestad. That same year ”Limhamn” and ”Dragør” trafficked the line Limhamn-Dragør and the route Landskrona-Tuborg was trafficked by the Scarlett-lines. This description of the traffic around 1960 does not cover all the facts, but the question is if the 1955-60 was not the most intensive, when it comes to the number of boats on the Sound.
Snekkersten Harbour | 
The Train Ferry Malmøhus | 
Absalon |
Concentration in the H-H-line
Gradually as the motoring gained more importance the ferry traffic was concentrated more and more to the north Sound, where the distance across the water was the shortest. As the great Europe roads from Gothenburg and Stockholm met in Helsingborg, it became natural to take the closest way to Denmark. When the train ferry Malmøhus was closed down in the middle of the 80´s, there were only ferries left between Limhamn and Dragør in the south Sound parallel to the hydrofoil boats between Malmø and Copenhagen.
In 1972 more than 11 millions passenger sailed between Helsingborg and Elsinore and in 1998 more than 13 millions passengers sailed the H-H-line. It was like transporting the whole Danish and Swedish population in just one year!
The following conversation between a man from Helsingborg and a man from Elsinore took place in the middle of the 70´s.
- I think that Helsingborg is the largest passenger harbour in the world.
- I see!
- Do you know which is the second largest?
- Could that be New York?
- No!
- Could it be London?
- No!
- Could it be Dover or Calais?
- No!
- I give up, which is it?
-Elsinore!
- But then Elsinore is as big as Helsingborg!
- No... We have boats for Snekkersten!
The Future
Today (2003) the H-H-Line is trafficked by three companies. The number of boats is small in comparison with the golden days around 1960, but the number of passengers is still impressive, in spite of the emergence of the Sound Bridge. In 2002 12 millions persons travelled with the ferries between Elsinore and Helsingborg and these cities are the only ones that still have boat traffic across the Sound. The large ferries Tycho Brahe, Aurora and Hamlet have a whole different capacity than the boats in the 50´s and 60´s.
But there are those, who plan for a tunnel between Helsingborg and Elsinore.
Tycho Brahe |
How Far Has the Integration Across the Sound Reached?
Even though the commuting across the Sound, from Scania to Zealand, is growing, it is from a low level in comparison to the commutation you see between the municipalities on both sides of the Sound.
One sign of the attraction power of the region is that both the Copenhagen region and Scania from the middle of the 1990´s have experienced a population growth of approximately 3-4% per year. Such growth figures are perhaps not to the credit of the Sound integration, but the fact remains, no matter the cause, that the Sound region have become more attractive to live and work in.
This conclusion is further strengthened if you study the regional BNP (the so-called BRP) for the Copenhagen region, Scania and the whole Sound region. BRP for the regions shows from the year 2001, a larger growth than the average for BNP i Denmark and Sweden as a whole.
At the time of the bridge opening, July 1st, 200o, there was a lot of optimism with regards to the integrated Sound region. Today most people realize that the integrations process will take longer than expected. The economic recess after the crash of the IT-sector form the year 2000 is of course a part of the explanation. But there are also explanations, which more Sound related and they point to concrete obstacles for a quick integration. 1. The price to cross the Sound. 2. Different laws and regulations for taxation in the labour market areas. 3. Differences in culture and mentality between Danish and Swedish.
It is not possible to decide which of these factors hinder the integration the most. It depends on which areas you look at.
One positive conclusion can be drawn: The Sound integration and every other aspects of living and working at the Sound have during the last ten years become a theme, which always emerges in the discussion, when the development in the Copenhagen region and Scania are discussed.
The H-H-Line |
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