Trelleborg Municipality

Trelleborg Municipality is a municipality and city in Scania in southernmost Sweden. It has a total population of 38,429, of which many live in village on the countryside and about 24,000 live in the city proper.

History

Trelleborg has been populated for at least one thousand years. In the 10th century or earlier, a Trelleborg (ring fortress) was built by Danish Vikings. It was rediscovered in the 1990's, and rebuilt, and now it hosts activities every summer.

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The first written mention of Trelleborg, in the scarce Swedish medieval sources, is from 1257, when Trelleborg and the adjacent city Malmö where presented as a wedding gift from the Danish royal family to the Swedish Prince Valdemar. It was soon reconquered by the Danes and it belonged to Denmark until 1658, when the entire district Terra Scania was lost to Sweden in a war.

Related Topics:
Malmö - Prince Valdemar - Terra Scania

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In the medieval times, Trelleborg had an important part in the herring fishing. At that time, this was conducted along the entire coastal line of Sweden, as the herring shoals where of such great numbers that it has been reporter how fishermen could stand at the shore and land in fish with nets. Trelleborg became an important merchant city as merchants from Germany came to trade herring. In April 1619, the Danish King decided that one merchant city on the coastal line was sufficient and revoked Trelleborg's status as a merchant city to favour Malmö.

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It did however occur that the Trellebogians continued with their business as a means of surviving. This was probably the start of the tradition of Trelleborgians being sly, wretched and only adhering their own rules.

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Not until 1840 was Trelleborg allowed to become a merchant city, and not until 1867 it regained its rights as a city of Sweden. Mostly this was thanks to the work of a few stubborn men, who had continuously been bothering the Swedish Riksdag with these requests ever since 1658.

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