The destruction of the town of Vä was the motivation for the new town. Not only was the new town going to replace what was left of Vä (which had been burnt down and rebuilt several times), but it was also going to be an important commercial center and as such, strongly fortified. Thus Kristianstad became the first Scandinavian town to be founded according to the ideals of the Renaissance with a grid system, ramparts and bastions. It was fortified against Swedish attacks (remember Skåne was still under Danish rule). Kristianstad was split by Helge River, giving it two main sections and two city gates. Christian IV also built the town’s most expensive treasure, Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan (the Church of the Holy Trinity) — one of the more beautiful Renaissance churches. When Skåne became Swedish (in 1658 following the Treaty of Roskilde), Kristianstad lost its importance as a border fortification but kept playing an important role during the Skåne War; the fortress was in Danish hands between 1676 and 1678.
As Kristianstad’s significance as a fortress waned, it became instead an important military town, as major rebuilding began to create a military depot in southern Sweden. Soon Kristianstad’s ramparts were replaced by tree-lined boulevards just as in Paris. The beautiful Tivoliparken was laid out by a Danish landscape gardener and it features a rose garden with over one hundred different roses, an herb garden, ponds, several little fountains — one of which features a sculpture by Carl Milles (his own favorite it has been said) — as well as a café. A theater in the Art Nouveau style was built in 1906, adding further beauty to the city. During the last half of the 19th century a railway station, law court, county governor's house, Masonic lodge, town hall and school were built. Kristianstad is now the seat of Kristianstad Municipality and has about 33,083 inhabitants.
To this day, Kristianstad has kept its initial coat of arms of King Christian IV of Denmark, possibly the only city in the world with a coat of arms depicting a foreign king’s or queen’s coat of arms.

Comments

 

Written by tealeebee on 24 Nov 2009 08:56 AM

Some people locally actually refer to the shopping section in the center or town as "The Little Paris." Having been to the "Big Paris," I must concede that it's a far fetched exaggeration. Although the town's airport connects it well with the region, and Stockholm, the major highway, E22, is one of the most fatality-ridden stretches of highway in the nation. Evermore trafficed by commercial and passenger vehicles, the morbidity continues despite safety divider cables and surface improvements. On the other hand, if and when regular (i.e. hourly) commuter train service might be directly coupled to the bridge in Malmö, the city is certain to see a swift surge in commerce and population due to its attractive location, well established infrastructure and abundant available land.

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