Sollentuna Hundred () was a

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Uppland Uppland is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The name literally ...

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 ...

. It encompassed the present-day

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Järfälla, Sollentuna, and

Sundbyberg Sundbyberg Municipality ( or ''Sundbybergs stad'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden, just north of the capital Stockholm. Sundbyberg is wholly within the Stockholm urban area and has a 100% urban population. Sundbybe ...

as well as parts of

Upplands Väsby Municipality Upplands Väsby Municipality () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden, with a population of 38,963 (2010). Its seat is located in the town of Upplands Väsby. The municipality was created in connection with the municipal r ...

( Eds socken) and

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

(

Bromma Bromma () is a Boroughs of Stockholm, borough (''stadsdelsområde'') in the western part of Stockholm, Sweden, forming part of the Stockholm Municipality. Bromma is primarily made up of Bromma Parish and Västerled Parish. The fourth largest airpo ...

and

Spånga Spånga is a community and parish in the borough of Spånga-Tensta in Stockholm County, Sweden. Background Spånga was an independent municipality until January 1, 1949, when most of it was merged with the City of Stockholm, with smaller ...

socken Socken ( or ) is the name used for a part of a counties of Sweden, county in Sweden. In Denmark, similar areas are known as , in Norway or and in Finland or . A is a rural area formed around a church, typically in the Middle Ages. A socken ...

). All are now part of Stockholm County. The hundred had three ''

köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word '' kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Munic ...

ar''— Sollentuna Köping, Sundbybergs Köping, and Hässelby Villastads Köping—and a number of '' municipalsamhällen''. Most of the hundred is now part of the

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

, but the larger part of in the remainder is in

Upplands Väsby Upplands Väsby () is a locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 48,907 inhabitants in 2020. History The municipality has a long history with clear traces of settlements from the pre-Christian time ...

. The total area was around 197 km² and the population in 1916 was 20,727 people.

Geography

Sollentuna Hundred was located directly west of

, in the borough of

between Ulvsundasjön, Görväln, and

Edsviken Edsviken is an elongated, narrow inlet of the Baltic Sea running through the Swedish municipalities of Danderyd, Solna and Sollentuna in Stockholm County. Edsviken ranges from Stocksund and Bergshamra, Solna in the south to Edsberg in the no ...

. Its easternmost parts lay in present-day central Stockholm (for example, the Essingen Islands). The geography is characteristic of the

Mälaren Valley The Mälaren Valley (), occasionally referred to as Stockholm-Mälaren Region (''Stockholm-mälarregionen''), is the easternmost part of Svealand, the catchment area of Lake Mälaren and the surrounding municipalities. The term is often used int ...

area: fertile

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

soils in valleys divided by ridges of glacial

till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

, and lakes such as Norrviken and

. The hundred was crossed by the Stockholmsåsen

esker An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Amer ...

, which also serves as the

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

between

Mälaren Mälaren ( , , or ), historically referred to as Lake Malar in English, is the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden (after Vänern and Vättern). Its area is and its greatest depth is 64 m (210 ft). Mälaren spans from east to west. The l ...

and Östersjön. The area is still noted for its natural beauty, particularly in the Järvafältet area, from whence the Bällstaån stream flows into Bällstaviken. Sollentuna Hundred was bordered to the south by the

fjard A fjard (, ) is a large open space of water between groups of islands or mainland in archipelagos. Fjards can be found along sea coasts, in freshwater lakes or in rivers. Fjard and fjord were originally the same word, and they generally meant sa ...

s of Näsfjärden and Lövstafjärden in

, with Färentuna Hundred located across the lake. Bro Hundred lay to the west, Ärlinghundra Hundred to the north, Vallentuna Hundred and Danderyd Ship District in the east, as well as Stockholm City and Svartlösa Hundred to the southeast.

History

Sollentuna Hundred was one of the "eight hundreds" that composed the

mediaeval 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 t ...

Uppland ''folkland'' of

Attundaland Attundaland (or the land of the eight hundreds) was the name given to the southeastern part of the present day province of Uppland, north of Stockholm. Its name refers to its role of providing 800 men and 32 ships for the leidang of the Swedish ...

. The name, similar to that of neighbouring Vallentuna Hundred, was written as ''Sollendahundæri'' in the 14th century; the ''-enda-'' in the name signifies a place at the end of a lake. Sollentuna Church is indeed located by Norrviken lake, but it is also entirely possible that ''Sollenda'' paraphrases a much older word, perhaps meaning ''swamp'' or ''marshland'', altered to imitate the name of the neighbouring hundred. The local '' ting'' originally met in Granby in Spånga socken, but moved to

Barkarby Barkarby, also known as Barkarbystaden is an area in Järfälla Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden, and part of the contiguously built-up Stockholm urban area. It is currently undergoing a large urban development through the Barkarbystaden pro ...

in the 17th century, and finally to

Rotebro Rotebro () is a neighbourhood of Sollentuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden, and is part of Stockholm. It is divided into two parts, Rotsunda and Gillbo, by the railway. Rotebro is located in the northernmost part of Sollentuna Municipal ...

in the 20th century. The hundred was long an important area for local and regional commerce. Roads leading to

Bergslagen Bergslagen is a historical, cultural, and linguistic region located north of Lake Mälaren in northern Svealand, Sweden, traditionally known as a mining district. In Bergslagen, the mining and metallurgic industries have been important since t ...

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, and

Roslagen Roslagen is the name of the coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the Stockholm archipelago. Historically, it was the name for all the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, including the eastern par ...

crossed the isthmus between Norrviken and Edsviken. The lakes were crossed by important shipping routes, and there was also a harbour since the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

. In the 12th century, churches were founded in Sollentuna, Järfälla,

, and

. The hundred grew around these churches, growing from a few lone farms to a number of small villages. The majority of the population worked in agriculture until well towards the end of the 19th century. At that time, the

Mälaren Line The Mälaren Line () is a railway line from Stockholm via Västerås to Örebro in Sweden. The section from Stockholm to Kolbäck and from Valskog to Arboga has double track. The line was upgraded to high-speed in 2005. The line is mostly used ...

and Northern Main Line railways were built, and a number of station towns cropped up within the hundred, many of which today are part of the suburbs of

: for example,

, Bromsten,

Jakobsberg Jakobsberg is a suburban area (pop. ca 32 643 in the year 2022) within Stockholm urban area, and the seat of Järfälla Municipality, Stockholm County in Sweden. Jakobsberg, Järfälla's commercial and administrative centre, grew up around ...

, Tureberg,

, and

. Sollentuna Hundred's proximity to the capital had a profound effect on its development and expansion in the first half of the 20th century. In 1916, Bromma socken and its towns were incorporated into the city, and Spånga socken followed suit in 1949.

Sockens

Sollentuna Hundred was originally composed of five sockens: * Bromma socken (became part of the

City of Stockholm Stockholm Municipality () or the City of Stockholm () is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It has the largest population of the 290 municipalities of the country, but one of the smallest areas, making it the second most ...

in 1916) * Eds socken * Järfälla socken * Sollentuna socken * Spånga socken (became part of the

in 1949)

Administrative and judicial divisions

The hundred was part of Stockholm County since 1715 and also between the periods that it was part of

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 ...

(1634-1639, 1648–1651, 1654–1714). The sockens in the hundred were part of the following

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

s: *1720-1852: Bailiwick of Sollentuna, Vallentuna, and Danderyd *1853-1881: Bailiwick of Sollentuna, Vallentuna, Färentuna, and Danderyd *1882-1885: Bailiwick of Färentuna and Sollentuna *1886-1966: Bailiwick of Svartsjö bailiwick (incl. Spånga socken until 1945 and Järfälla socken until 1948) *1946-1948: Bailiwick of Spånga (Spånga socken) *1949-1966: Bailiwick of Sundbyberg (Järfälla socken) *1967–present: Bailiwick of Sollentuna *1967–present: Bailiwick of Jakobsberg (Järfälla socken) The sockens were also part of the following ''domsagor'' (judicial districts), ''tingslag'', and ''tingsrätter'' (district courts): *1844-1915: Södra Roslag ''domsaga'', with **1844-1906: Sollentuna Hundred ''tingslag'' **1907-1915: ''Tingslag'' of Södra Roslag ''domsaga'' *1916-1976: Sollentuna and Färentuna ''domsaga'' (until 1952 for Eds socken) **1916-1951/1970: ''Tingslag'' of Sollentuna and Färentuna ''domsaga'' *1952-1976: Western Stockholm County ''domsaga'' (for Eds socken) with **1952-1970: ''Tingslag'' of Western Stockholm County ''domsaga'' *1977–present: Sollentuna ''domsaga'' with ''Sollentuna tingsrätt'' (Sollentuna and Eds sockens) *1977–present: Jakobsberg ''domsaga'' with ''Jakobsbergs tingsrätt'' (Järfälla socken)

Sources

*''

Nordisk familjebok (, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...

'', 2nd ed., vol. 26, 1917 *
Beskrifning öfver Stockholms län
', (accessed 9 March 2009) *
Svensk Etymologisk Ordbok
', (accessed 11 March 2009) *
Sollentuna - en lång historia
', (accessed 11 March 2009) *
Historisk landskapsanalys - Länsstyrelsen i Stockholms län
{dead link, date=May 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes '' (accessed 11 March 2009) * National Archives Database for information on administrative and legal divisions

Geography

History

Sockens

Administrative and judicial divisions

Sources

See also