Norrbotten

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Norrbotten
Norrbotten vapen.svg Location of Norrbotten in Sweden
Basic data
Part of the country (landsdel) : Norrland
Province (län) : Norrbotten County
Surface: 28,100 km²
Residents: 192,759
(December 31, 2008)
Population density: 7 inhabitants per km²
Highest elevation: Vitberget 594  m
Largest lake: Miekojärvi
Gammelstad church village near Luleå, a world heritage site

Norrbotten is one of the historical provinces ( Swedish landskap ) of Sweden . Norrbotten has only been part of the landskap since the beginning of the 19th century , when it was separated from Västerbotten . It is located in northern Sweden and borders Finland in the north and east , Västerbotten in the south and Lapland in the west and northwest .

geography

Norrbotten stretches from Piteå along the Baltic coast to the north and also includes the river valleys of the Kalix and Torneälven from the north . The province lies for the most part in the flat coastal landscape; its highest point is the Vitberget in the west at Vidsel at 594 m . In front of the coast is an archipelago belt that is up to 40 kilometers wide. Larger cities from south to north are Piteå , Luleå , Kalix and Haparanda .

Despite its location by the sea, the province of Norrbotten has a continental climate with large temperature differences between the seasons (mean temperature in July is 15˚ to 16˚C and in January -10 bei to -14˚C) and low rainfall (400 to 600 mm / year).

history

With the retreat of the glaciers after the last ice age around 9000 years ago, people came to Norrbotten who settled on the coast. Fishing and hunting formed the economic basis for the population, and reindeer herding began long after the birth of Christ. The Norrbottn culture group is an independent culture from the Stone Age. A peasant culture emerged from 1000 AD.

The first written sources come from the 14th century. The borders between Russia and Sweden in northern Scandinavia were still unclear at the time. In the 1320s and 1330s, colonization of the Pite and Luleälven river valleys was initiated and the area was thus placed under Swedish rule.

In the early 17th century, the coastal towns of Piteå and Luleå were established to facilitate trade and strengthen state control. Metallurgical plants were built in the north of the province.

Industrialization of the region began in the 19th century. Forestry and the wood processing industry gained in importance, as did the iron processing industry after the development of the ore deposits in Lapland. The construction of the main railway line Stockholm - Boden and the ore railway from Boden via Kiruna to Narvik made Boden an important transport hub. In 1901, construction of the Boden fortress began.

The first half of the 20th century was marked by a surge in industrialization. Steel mills, pulp mills and sawmills were established in the coastal cities. At the same time, agriculture shrank and the rural population moved to the cities.

Landscape symbols

Web links

Commons : Norrbotten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Norrbotten  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

swell

  1. ↑ Folkmängd i landskapen ( Memento from August 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )