Sölvesborg, Sweden - Sölvesborg Travel Guide - visiting Sölvesborg

Sölvesborg

Train station, Sölvesborg, Sweden (cc)

Sölvesborg

Sölvesborg is a small town with a population of approximately 8,000, located in the western part of Blekinge. However, for many years, it was the most important town in the province, principally due to its fortress that also gave the city its name (borg, in Swedish, means fortress). The fortress was built in the 13th century and the town grew up around it.

Sölvesborg has retained much of its medieval charm, with its delightful, narrow cobblestone streets and wooden houses. And this despite a disastrous fire in 1801 that rendered, albeit briefly, a third of the town's population homeless. The town nevertheless recovered and became an important producer of liquor during the 19th century.

Sölvesborg's principal point of interest is Ryssberget, a hill on the east side of town, created millions of years ago by glacial movements. Other than that, the town has the twin hills of Kanehall and Vitehall, located in one of the largest beech tree forests in Europe; the 12th-century Nicolai Church with its ancient runestones; and the Museum and Gallery located in the old warehouses at the harbor, which center on the history of the town and works by local artists respectively.

Sölvesborg dates from 1445.

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