#scania county

Forest (No. 177)

Ronneby, Sweden (six pics)

Trelleborg Municipality, Sweden (No. 2)

In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its Latin source venire ("to come") indicates, to emphasize the "coming to," or arrival at a landscape or architectural feature. In most cases, the trees planted in an avenue will be all of the same species or cultivar, so as to give uniform appearance along the full length of the avenue.

The French term allée is used for avenues planted in parks and landscape gardens, as well as boulevards such as the Grande Allée in Quebec City, Canada, and Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin.

To enhance the approach to mansions or manor houses, avenues were planted along the entrance drive. Sometimes the avenues are in double rows on each side of a road. Trees preferred for avenues were selected for their height and speed of growth, such as poplar, beech, lime, and horse chestnut. In the American antebellum era South, the southern live oak was typically used, because the trees created a beautiful shade canopy.

Sometimes tree avenues were designed to direct the eye toward some distinctive architectural building or feature, such as a chapels, gazebos, or architectural follies.

Disa Ting Stone Circle, Svarte 

Prehistorical stone circle in Svarte

Disas Ting is a rectangular stone setting in the village of Svarte, about 8 kilometers west of Ystad. The name Disas Ting originates from an ancient legend, where Disa, the goddess of fate, is sitting in court (Ting) someday.

The age of the monument could not yet be determined in detail, but Disas Ting's use as a burial place during the Iron Age has been proven by scientific studies of skeletal remains.

Another archaeological theory says, that Disas Ting could be the remains of a larger and much older megalithic tomb from the early Stone Age (3300 BC). These tombs consisted of rectangular arranged stones and were covered from a rectangular earth mound. This theory is supported by the fact that a Stone Age settlement was located nearby.

Baltic Sea, Southern Sweden (No. 3)

An arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea is enclosed by Sweden and Denmark to the west, Finland to the northeast, and the Baltic countries to the southeast.

It is about 1,600 km (990 mi) long, an average of 193 km (120 mi) wide, and an average of 55 metres (180 ft) deep. The maximum depth is 459 m (1,506 ft) which is on the Swedish side of the center. The surface area is about 349,644 km2 (134,998 sq mi)  and the volume is about 20,000 km3 (4,800 cu mi). The periphery amounts to about 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of coastline.

The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish inland seas by area, and occupies a basin (a Zungenbecken) formed by glacial erosion during the last few ice ages.

Countries that border the sea: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden.

Countries lands in the outer drainage basin: Belarus, Czech Republic, Norway, Slovakia, Ukraine.

The Baltic Sea drainage basin is roughly four times the surface area of the sea itself. About 48% of the region is forested, with Sweden and Finland containing the majority of the forest, especially around the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.

About 20% of the land is used for agriculture and pasture, mainly in Poland and around the edge of the Baltic Proper, in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. About 17% of the basin is unused open land with another 8% of wetlands. Most of the latter are in the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.

The rest of the land is heavily populated. About 85 million people live in the Baltic drainage basin, 15 million within 10 km (6 mi) of the coast and 29 million within 50 km (31 mi) of the coast. Around 22 million live in population centers of over 250,000. 90% of these are concentrated in the 10 km (6 mi) band around the coast. Of the nations containing all or part of the basin, Poland includes 45% of the 85 million, Russia 12%, Sweden 10% and the others less than 6% each.

Baltic Sea, Southern Sweden (No. 2)

Geographers widely agree that the preferred physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill and Langeland. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö; it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits is part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg and the Bay of Kiel are parts of the Baltic Sea. Another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden, and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. It's also the border between the shallow southern Øresund (with a typical depth of 5–10 meters only) and notably deeper water.

Drogden Sill (depth of 7 m (23 ft)) sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill (depth of 18 m (59 ft)), and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of heavy salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm and Gotland.

The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology. The remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen, and in species. Thus, statistically, the more of the entrance that is included in its definition, the healthier the Baltic appears; conversely, the more narrowly it is defined, the more endangered its biology appears.

Ystad (No. 3)

Our coast stretches for more than 100 kilometres from the mouth of the river, Julebodaån, in Simrishamn Municipality to Svarte in Ystad Municipality. In the south and north there are extensive sandy beaches and between them is a variety of natural landscapes, everything from coastal meadows and wooded shore terrain to cliffs and sandstone slabs. The landscape is strikingly beautiful and harmonically interspersed with genuine fishing communities and cultural heritage beaches. 

The bathing site, just east of Ystad, consists of about 1 kilometre of fine sand beach and includes five bathing jetties. Do not jump into the water from the jetties, as the water depth may vary depending on currents. It is easy to cycle here or you can take the local bus route 5 to the beach. By the bathing site is Hotell Ystad Saltsjöbad, which has a restaurant. Other facilities along the beach include cafés and other restaurants. There is also a playground in the vicinity as well as car parks. Toilets, situated by the car parks, are available from April to October. There are lifebuoys at the bathing site. Do not park your bike on Strandvägen. Bikes prevent access for emergency vehicles, which may need to use the road.

Ystad (No. 2)

In 1658, Ystad's population was about 1,600 and, by 1850 it had reached 5,000. The increased importance brought by the railway and the garrison in the 1890s drove the population above 10,000.

In his novel Inferno (1897), August Strindberg describes Ystad like so:

The little town to which I now betook myself lies in the extreme south of Sweden, on the seacoast. It is an old pirates' and smugglers' haunt, in which exotic traces of all parts of the world have been left by various voyagers.

Ystad is the setting of the Swedish crime drama Wallander.

One of Sweden's best preserved medieval monasteries, the Greyfriars Abbey, lies in Ystad. The town also has an additional large medieval church, the Church of the Virgin Mary (Mariakyrkan). Both are highly influenced by Gothic Hansa architecture (which can also be seen in churches around the Baltic Sea, for instance in Helsingborg, Malmö, and Rostock) and are among the best examples in Sweden of Brick Gothic. In addition, there are areas of surviving medieval town architecture, like the Latin school (built c. 1500) and several townhouses. The city is also included in the European Route of Brick Gothic. From the steeple of the Church of the Virgin Mary the Tower Watchman (tornväktaren or lurblåsaren) sounds his horn every 15 minutes from 21:15 to 01:00 to let the people of Ystad know that the town is safe from fire and enemies. The Tower Watchman also says a special line when sounding his horn: "The clock strikes .... (for example twelve). All is quiet! From fire and thieves may God preserve the town!" The tradition has existed since the eighteenth century.

Ystad (No. 1)

Ystad (older Danish: Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and tourist attraction. The detective series Wallander, created by Henning Mankell, is set primarily in Ystad.

In 1285, the town's name was written Ystath. Its original meaning is not fully understood, but the y probably is related to an old word for the yew tree, while stad means town or place.

After the time of Absalon, Bishop of Roskilde and Archbishop of Lund, peace was brought to the area in the 11th century, fishing families settled at the mouth of the river Vassa as herring fishing became the main source of trade. Ystad was not mentioned in documents until 1244, in a record of King Eric's visit to the town with his brother, Abel. A Franciscan monastery, Gråbrödraklostret, was founded in 1267, and Ystad joined the Hanseatic League in the 14th century.

The charter of 1599 gave the town the right to export oxen. Ystad, together with all of Scania, was transferred from Denmark to Sweden following the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658.

By 1866 Ystad had a railway connection and it was established as a garrison town in the 1890s. After World War II, ferry services to Poland and to the Danish island of Bornholm were opened.