Ronneby is a

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

and the seat of

Ronneby Municipality Ronneby Municipality () is a municipality in Blekinge County in South Sweden in southern Sweden. It borders to Tingsryd Municipality, Emmaboda Municipality, Karlskrona Municipality and Karlshamn Municipality. The town of Ronneby is the seat ...

Blekinge County Blekinge County () is a county or '' län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden ...

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 12,029 inhabitants in 2010. Ronneby is regarded as the heart of "the Garden of Sweden", and in 2005 the park "Brunnsparken" in Ronneby was voted Sweden's most beautiful park. 2006 the park was voted Europe's 4th most beautiful park. The church ''Heliga Kors kyrka'' was founded in the 12th century, modified and extended until the 15th century, and badly damaged during

Northern Seven Years' War The Northern Seven Years' War (also known as the ''Nordic Seven Years' War'', the ''First Northern War,'' the ''Seven Years' War of the North'' or the ''Seven Years War in Scandinavia'') was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden (1523–1611), K ...

in the 16th century.

History

The city's oldest surviving city privileges are from 1387. The first recorded spelling of the name (around the year 1300) is ''Rotnæby'', "the village upon the roaring (river)", so named because of the rapids on the spot. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, Ronneby was an important trading and shipping town. In 1564, Ronneby was the location of a bloody battle during the

between the Swedish and the Danish armies during which the Swedes under King

Erik XIV Erik XIV or Eric XIV (13 December 153326 February 1577) became King of Sweden following the death of his father, Gustav I, on 29 September 1560. During a 1568 rebellion against him, Erik was incarcerated by his half-brother John III. He w ...

besieged the city, killed many inhabitants ( Ronneby Bloodbath) and burnt it to the ground. Erik later reported that "The Water was red from blood of the Danes." The number of victims was heavily exaggerated, for different propagandistic reasons, by both sides. Following the

Treaty of Roskilde The Treaty of Roskilde was negotiated at Høje Taastrup Church and was concluded on 26 February ( OS) or 8 March 1658 ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish ci ...

in 1658, whereby Blekinge and other southern provinces became Swedish, a navy base was built in

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...

– east of Ronneby – which accordingly was granted city rights, while revoking the city rights of Ronneby. But Ronneby did attract some industries in the 18th century. Besides the industry, it also hosted the Ronneby

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

, with water believed to have healing qualities. The park around the spa can still be visited. The first source of

chalybeate Chalybeate () waters, also known as Iron oxide, ferruginous waters, are mineral spring waters containing salts of iron. Name The word ''chalybeate'' is derived from the Latin word for steel, , which follows from the Ancient Greek, Greek word ...

( ferruginous) water was found in May 1705. But the high period of the spa was in the 19th century. After a fire in 1864, Ronneby was rebuilt according to a check pattern, which is still the model of today. Ronneby finally regained its city title in 1882. From 1971 it is the seat of the larger

. In the 1970s, the local

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

club discovered a

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

off the coast of Ronneby that was eventually identified by archaeologists as ''

Gribshunden ''Gribshunden'' or ''Griffen'' (English language, English: "Griffin-Hound" or "Griffin"), also known by several variant names including ''Gribshund'', ''Gripshunden'', ''Gripshund'', ''Griff'', and ''Griffone'', was a Denmark, Danish warship, th ...

'', a 15th-century Danish

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...

. The shipwreck is significant as one of the best-preserved wreckages from the

early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

. In December 2013, it was revealed that Ronneby's municipal water supply was highly contaminated with

PFAS Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (also PFAS, PFASs, and informally referred to as "forever chemicals") are a group of synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds that have multiple fluorine atoms attached to an alkyl chain; there are 7 millio ...

, also known as "forever chemicals," with testing showing the highest levels of PFAS ever recorded in municipal drinking water.

Arms

Ronneby did use a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

with the letter R between a star and a crescent at least since 1542. In 1882, the arms were redesigned, with the R substituted with the Ronnebyå River. The same coat of arms is used today by the municipality.

Images

File:2006-06-12 7662 Ronneby Brunnspark.jpg, Rhododendron and lake in Brunnspark File:Ronneby Munktrappan.jpg, Monks stairs with Heliga Kors kyrka in the background File:Ronneby, Helga Korskyrkan, von Außen.JPG, Heliga Kors kyrka File:HeligaKorsKyrkan_Ronneby.jpg, Heliga Kors kyrka, window File:Ronneby, Helga Korskyrkan, zum Chor hin.JPG, Heliga Kors kyrka, view to chorus File:Ronneby, Helga Korskyrkan, Chor und Altar.JPG, Heliga Kors kyrka, paintings File:Ronneby, Helga Korskyrkan, Detail der Deckenmalerei im Chor.JPG, Heliga Kors kyrka, detail of paintings

Education

* Knut Hahn Secondary School, a school aimed primarily at students in their late teens. It was completely renovated in 2004, at a cost of well over 100 million SEK (roughly US$16 million). It is funded and run by the

. It features most of the national programmes, teaching arts, science, industrial work and economics among many other subjects. It has about 700 students. *

Blekinge Institute of Technology The Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH; ) is a public, state funded Sweden, Swedish institute of technology in Blekinge with 5,900 students (part-time, full-time) and offers about 30 educational programmes in 11 departments at two campuses loca ...

(moved to

in August 2010) Ronneby also has many schools for lower ages, all run by the municipality save for a secondary school which is run by a company, called Thoren Framtid.

Climate

Ronneby has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(''Cfb''), similar to most of Southern Sweden. The climate is very similar to neighbouring city

Karlshamn Karlshamn () is a locality and the seat of Karlshamn Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden. It had 13,576 inhabitants in 2015, out of 31,846 in the municipality. Karlshamn received a Royal Charter and city privileges in 1664, when King Charles ...

, but has a somewhat higher rainfall and cooler nights throughout the year at the site located inside the premises of the local airport.

Sports

These are two of the more prominent sports clubs in Ronneby: * Ronneby BK, association football *Fredriksbergs BK, bandy

Notable residents

* Josefina Wettergrund (1830–1903), writer * Messiah Marcolin, vocalist best known for his work in the Swedish doom metal band Candlemass

References

External links

*Collection o
Ronneby
links * {{Authority control Municipal seats of Blekinge County Swedish municipal seats Populated places in Ronneby Municipality Market towns in Sweden