Östhammar is a locality and the seat of

Östhammar Municipality Östhammar Municipality () is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Uppsala County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city status in Sweden, city of Östhammar. The present municipality was created during the local governmen ...

Uppsala County Uppsala County () is a county or '' län'' on the eastern coast of Sweden, whose capital is the city of Uppsala. It borders the counties of Dalarna, Stockholm, Södermanland, Västmanland, Gävleborg, and the Baltic Sea. Province The nor ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

with 4,534 inhabitants in 2010. Today Östhammar Municipality is a part of

, but the area has historically been a part of Stockholm County.

History

Östhammar's

city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, ci ...

was granted by king Albert in 1368. During this period a castle called Östhammarshus was built, but already in 1434 the castle was burnt down by its Danish

vogt An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

, who fled to Denmark over the sea when faced with the Engelbrekt rebellion. By the late 15th century the

post-glacial rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound an ...

had made it hard to reach Östhammar by boat and its city status was transferred to

Öregrund Öregrund is a locality situated in Östhammar Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden. As of 2010, it had 1,555 inhabitants. It is located by the Baltic Sea, on the coast of Uppland. Despite its small population, Öregrund is still commonly referre ...

. Östhammar regained its city status in 1538, and moved closer to the sea. In 1651 Östhammar got a

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

, and in 1795 Östhammar was heavily damaged by fire. Between the early 17th century and the middle of the 19th century the fishing of

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

played a very important role in Östhammar's economy.

Sister cities

* Valka, Latvia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osthammar Municipal seats of Uppsala County Swedish municipal seats Coastal cities and towns in Sweden Populated places in Uppsala County Populated places in Östhammar Municipality 1368 establishments in Europe 14th-century establishments in Sweden