Skellefteå

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also Skellefteå, an album by The Wannadies.

Skellefteå is a city in Västerbotten in northern Sweden at 64°45′N 20°59′E. It has 35,000 inhabitants, and is the seat of Skellefteå Municipality, with 71,000 inhabitants.

1 History
2 Today
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Skellefteå is believed to have been inhabited from around 1000 AD by the Sami people and possibly partly Finnish people.

In the 14th century attempts were made to Christianize Skellefteå. Norrland was not Christianized until several hundred years after the rest of Sweden, and northern cities such as Skellefteå were largely unexplored. The reason for the sudden awakened interest was the fishing of salmon in the areas around Skellefteå, which was sparked by an increased demand of fish, due to stricter enforcement of the annual month long fasting by the Catholic Church whereby meat was substituted by fish.

The city itself is much younger, and in fact one of the youngest cities of Norrland. It was founded in 1845 by vicar Nils Nordlander.

[edit] Today

In the 20th century Skellefteå evolved to an industrial and mining city and many wooden houses were demolished to give room for brick buildings. The largest employer in Skellefteå is the mining company Boliden, with about 1,200 employees. Mining is done for gold, and Skellefteå is sometimes referred to as the Gold City.