Skövde

Skövde? / I [ ɧœv ˌ en] is a town in the Swedish province of Västra Götaland County and the historic province of Västergötland.

It is the capital of the homonymous municipality and is 24 km east of Skara and 170 km north-east of Gothenburg in the center of the region ( and former province ) Skaraborg.

History

The origins of the city can be traced back to a medieval place of pilgrimage, but the city had until the 19th century only minor importance. After 1850 Skövde developed due to the laying of the railway line between Stockholm and Gothenburg, the city one of the most important cities of Västergötland. Skövde became an important garrison town with several regiments, but also industrial companies established production plants in Skövde, such as Volvo, Rockwool, inter alia, In the 80s of the 20th century, a University of Skövde was founded.

Cityscape

After a fire in 1759, in which the medieval town was destroyed (only a wooden building called Helénsstugan was spared from the fire ), the city was rebuilt on a regular plan again. The districts with the oldest buildings today are from the second half of the 19th century and reflect the economic boom of this period.

Economy and infrastructure

Skövde is today an important industrial city, a commercial center for the region and a service center, mainly due to the university and the regional hospital. In addition, home to the Swedish Rescue Training Centre Skövde ( SRTC ). In the more than 125,000 m² of exercise grounds of the former Räddningsverket among others theoretical and practical training for emergency responders by firefighters, emergency services and military from all over Europe offered. A major advantage of the location is that the exercise equipment can be fired with solid fuels and not only with gas. Therefore, use a lot of forces such as from the Netherlands the system and more and more German BOS units interested in a training at the SRTC in Skövde.

The city is the seat of Västtrafik, the second largest transport network in Sweden.

Traffic

Skövde has a station on the Västra stambana.

Sports

Skövde has two handball teams, playing in the highest Swedish league, the Elitserien. Sports clubs include:

• Skovde ( handball)
• Skövde HF ( handball)
• Skövde AIK ( football)

Home ground of handball clubs is the Arena Skövde.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Stefan Adamsson, Swedish cyclist
• Alfred Grenander, Swedish architect
• Helena Jansson, Swedish orienteer
• Carl August Kronlund, Swedish curler
• Johan Mårtensson, Swedish footballer
• Tim Skold, Swedish musician

Garrison

In Skövde are the School of the Army ( Markstridsskolan ), Panzer Regiment ( Skaraborgs active elements ) 4 and the Logistics Regiment ( Trängregementet ) 2 in the garrison. The city is thus an important site of heavily discounted Swedish army.