Lund, Sweden

In the cute Swedish town of Lund, people rarely go purposefully. Rather, they call in here as part of the popular cross-border route, which includes Copenhagen, Helsingborg, Helsingor and Malmö. And it’s worth visiting Lund – this is one of the oldest (over 1000 years old!) Cities in Sweden. Moreover, it is located very close to Malmö and is connected with it by rail. And Lund (translated from Swedish – “forest”) is located in Skåne, or Scania, a southern Swedish region with a rich agricultural tradition. Check TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA to learn more about Sweden.

For more than 4 centuries, Lund has been considered almost the main university city of Scandinavia. Still: for 90 thousand local residents there are as many as 40 thousand students. So you need to be prepared that a free multicultural atmosphere reigns in the city. And yet, students come here to study, and not to have parties – the city at night is rarely shaken by the thunder of young voices. Except after the exams.

How to get to Lund

The easiest way to get to Lund is to take the train in Copenhagen (how to get there is described here). Trains leave every 20 minutes. Ticket price from 50 SEK, travel time 45 minutes. The bus from Copenhagen to Lund costs about 254 SEK round trip, the journey takes 1 hour 30 minutes.

If you are planning a trip from Malmö (you can find out how to get to this city here), you should use a commuter train. Travel time: only 10-15 minutes, fare from 30 SEK. Trains run every 10 minutes. A bus ticket will cost 30-52 SEK, the journey will take 25 minutes. A taxi from Malmö to Lund will cost 395 SEK.

Accommodation in Lund

There are not too many accommodation options in Lund: after all, most tourists prefer to settle in the larger Malmö. But you can choose the right one. The average cost of a room in a simple hotel starts from 500 SEK and reaches 2300 SEK. The so-called holiday homes are very popular among tourists traveling by car. They are located in the lap of nature, about 10-15 km from the city, and cost about 2520 SEK for four.

What to see

The historic center of Lund does not occupy a very large area, literally a block, but it includes the main attractions: the Cathedral, the university campus and several squares surrounded by old buildings.

The first church in the city was built by the founder of Lund, the Danish Viking king Sven I Forkbeard in the 10th century. True, it is not known whether it was a direct descendant of the modern Lund Cathedral. One way or another, at the end of the 11th century, a temple in the Romanesque style already stood in the city. Soon it became the most important church of the Danish kingdom, and Lund received the status of the center of the Scandinavian archbishopric.

The heavy doors of the Lund Cathedral show Old Testament scenes by Karl Johan Difverman. A little higher is a pediment depicting Jesus Christ, King Canute IV of Denmark and St. Lawrence. A 15th-century clock hangs above the entrance, which plays a simple melody twice a day – at 12:00 and 15:00.

Inside the cathedral is dark and gloomy, the sun’s rays penetrate only through small windows. An even more mysterious atmosphere reigns in the crypt. This part of the church has not changed since 1123. There are several massive stone tombstones all over the crypt. The vault rests on a set of densely standing columns. One of them is tightly gripped by the Giant Finn, the mythical builder of the cathedral. They say that as long as Finn holds the building, nothing will happen to him. Probably, there is some truth in this, because despite the ups and downs of history, the church practically did not suffer.

In the course of history, relations between Denmark and Sweden became increasingly tense. In the end, the original Danish Lund went to the opponent. The new authorities decided to strengthen the self-consciousness of the inhabitants of Scania by opening a university in 1668.

Another important event in the life of the city took place in 1856, when the railway connection between Lund and Malmö was launched. The town began a strong economic growth. The symbiosis of active industrialization and the rich scientific traditions of the local university could not fail to produce results.

The small city has become the birthplace of world-famous companies: Tetra Pak, Ericsson, Alfa Laval, Gambro, Astra Zeneca.

What to do in Lund

Lund has a wide range of leisure activities: swimming and fishing in the cleanest rivers, dancing in youth nightclubs and interesting expositions of local museums. By the way, it is in Lund that the largest open-air museum in the region, Kulturen, is located. It is one of the oldest museums of its kind in the world. Kulturen consists of more than 30 buildings, and also presents a large collection of art, handicrafts, history and archeology from the Middle Ages to the 1930s.

Lund is ideal for cycling. There are more than 5,000 bicycle parking spaces and almost 160 km of dedicated trails. In general, about half of the city’s population travels on bikes every day, and the number of cars has not been growing for more than 10 years. There are bike rentals in the city.

Weather

Lund is located in the very south of Sweden. Thanks to the influence of the warm Gulf Stream, there is the most typical maritime climate with mild weather. Often cloudy, rainfall, strong wind blowing. Summer lasts from May to September, the average air temperature is +20…+23 °C. Winter is cool: -3…-4 °C.