Sundsvall

Sundsvall is a city and a municipality in northern Sweden, in the county of Västernorrland. The municipality covers an area of 3206.0 km², with a population of 93126 and a population density of the community is 29 inhabitants per km².

The city of Sundsvall, chartered in 1621, port by the Gulf of Bothnia, located 395 km north of Stockholm. The city has burned down and been rebuilt four times. The first time, in 1721, it was set on fire by the Russian army during a war. The last fire, in 1888, was the largest conflagration in Sweden's history. It is presumed that the fire was caused by a flame from a steamship. After that fire, the city centre was rebuilt only with stone buildings. Sundsvall is consequently named the stone city.

According to one historian, Swedish industrialism started in Sundsvall when the Tunadal sawmill bought a steam-engine driven saw in 1849. In the early 20th century Sundsvall was a centre for all timber wood cutting activities in Sweden.

The first large Swedish strike was the "Sundsvall strike" in 1879. Still, social democrat and socialist sympathies are more prevalent in the Sundsvall region than in Sweden as a whole.

Today Sundsvall is not only dominated by cellulose, fibre and the aluminium production industry, but also by banks, insurance companies, telecommunication administration and a number of large public data processing centres such as the national social insurance board.

Sundsvall is one of the main campus sites of Mid-Sweden University College.

External links

• Sundsvall (http://www.sundsvall.se) - Official site