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History

Early history

Helsingborg is one of the oldest existing cities in Scandinavia. The Danish king Harald Blåtand probably constructed a small fortification, placed on the verge of landborgen, in the end of the 10th century to protect the crossing between Scania and Sealand. There had been settlements on the site during the bronze and early iron ages, although these dissapeared during the Viking age, probably due to an increase in piracy. The main trading post in the area during this time was instead the town of Köpinge a few kilometers to the south, along the Råå river. The establishment of the fortification, however, led to an increased settlement in it's vacinity and the city of Helsingborg started to grow, whith the demise of Köpinge as a result.

The name Helsingborg derives from the word helsing, an older word, meaning neck, describing the narrowing of the sound at this location, and borg, meaning fortress or natural stronghold. The first written account of Helsingborg comes from Njál's saga and takes place before the battle of Svolder in 999. This source is however a bit uncertain due to the fact that the earliest copy of the saga is from the 13th century, and that the author may have referred to the location as being at the then existing town of Helsingborg to help the reader. A confirmed source can however be found in a letter written by the German chronicler Adam of Bremen in 1070. Another source, which confirmes Helsingborg's status as town is a letter from the Danish king Canute the Holy, dating to the 21 of May, 1085. This date is therefore acknowledged as the founding date of the town.

Middle ages

The first churches was built in the 11th century and was named S:t Michael, S:t Clemens and S:t Peter. S:t Michael was a round church, placed by the fort and constructed in stone. S:t Clemens and S:t Peter was first constructed in wood, but was in the 12th century reconstructed in stone. At the same time a third church, S:t Olof was built and the fortification was replaced by a larger fortress consisting of a round tower with a vast oval stone wall around it, 150 by 180 meters in diameter, including the church of S:t Michael in the wall. As the city grew more permanent settlements was erected on the beach terrace below the verge of landborgen. Before this, this area was mostly inhabited by fishermen, but now it became the home of tradesmen and craftsmen as well. The small fisherman's church, dedicated to Saint Mary, which probably was built by the beach in the 13th centrury, was during the 14th and 15th centuries rebuilt as a large gothic brick church.

In 1313 Helsingborg Castle was reconstructed once more by the Danish king Erik Menved. The round keep was replaced by a square-based 100-feet high tower surrounded by a chemise and the outer wall was complemented with 15 defence towers. The reconstruction of the castle was part of a vast building programme by Erik Menved, which, upon his death, left Denmark with a large foreign debt. This debt eventually fell in the hands of German tradesman Johan of Plön, who held the provinces east of the Great Belt as pledge. This enraged the citizens of Scania, who rebelled against him with the support of the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson. In 1332 they laid siege on Helsingborg Castle, which did not fall, but Johan of Plön later seceded the provinces of Scania and Blekinge fo a pay of 34 000 mark silver. The provinces were under Swedish rule until 1360, when the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag invaded Scania. The last fortress to fall was Helsingborg Castle. Valdemar Atterdag had, in turn, many conflicts with the Hanseatic league, which prompted them to attack Helsingborg, once in 1362, without success, and later in 1368, where Helsingborg Castle was under siege for a whole year until the final battle was fought outside the city and where the Hanseatic forces were victorious. Valdemar was thus forced to secede Helsingborg, along with the cities of Malmö, Falsterbo and Skanör for a period of 15 years, from 1370 to 1385.

During the Kalmar Union Helsingborg often hosted the regents Margaret I and Eric of Pomerania. The latter built the fortress Krogen in the city of Helsingør, on the other side of the sound, but the Danish population became displeased with the reign of Eric and called for duke Christopher of Bavaria as king. In 1440 Christopher conquered Helsingborg Castle, the place where he had been born in 1416 and was proclaimed king of Denmark that same year. On the death of Christopher in 1448, the Union fell apart with the election of Karl Knutsson as king of Sweden. The Danish had elected Christian I as king and later he was also elected king of Norway. Karl Knutsson then tried to invade Norway, but when this was unsuccessfull he turned his forces on Scania. In 1452 the Swedish forces stood outside Helsingborg with 20 pieces of modern artillery. The walls of the fortress now proved to be outdated by the new technology and they soon fell, which led to the burning and looting of the city.

In 1526 the current king of Denmark, Frederick I, converted to protestantism. This gave the opportunity for several eveangelical congregations to be established in the city and in the 1530's the evangelical preachers succeeded in forcing the catholic clergy to leave Helsingborg. Upon the death of Frederick I in 1533, the supporters of the deposed catholic king Christian II, led by Count Christofer of Oldenburg, tried to reinstate him on the throne. However, the Jutland nobility proclaimed Frederick I's son, Christian III, as king. This led to a civil war i Denmark, called the Count's Feud. One of the decisive battles of the war stood outside Helsingborg in 1535, where an army supporting Count Christofer was defeated by a Swedish army, supporting Christian III. The forces of Count Christofer suffered a final defeat at the battle of Øksnebjerg that same year, and protestantism was reinstated in Denmark. In Helsingborg, this led to the demolition of the catholic churches of S:t Olof, S:t Peter and S:t Clemens in 1536 and the monastery of S:t Nicolai in 1556.

The Dano-Swedish wars

In the 1630's Danish and Swedish interests clashed in northern Germany. The danes disliked the increased Swedish influence on the Baltic area and the swedes regarded Denmark as an obsticle to their aspirations. The tensions led to the invasion of Denmark by Sweden in 1643. This was the start of a long period of war between the two countries, which proved to be devastating to the city of Helsingborg. In 1644 the Swedish commander Gustav Horn invaded the city and lay it in ruins. A peace agreement was eventually negotiated and the Swedish armies withdrew. With a new invasion of Denmark in 1657 by king Karl X Gustaf and the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, the danes surrendered the Scanian Provinces to Sweden and Helsingborg found itself under Swedish rule. In an attempt to reclaim the provinces, Denmark invaded Scania in 1676, landing at Råå, south of Helsingborg, starting the Scanian War. The city surrendered to the Danish army, but after the battle of Lund it was reconquered by Sweden. Helsingborg was conquered by the danes yet again in 1678, this time by cunning; a false letter was sent to the Swedish commander at the castle, claiming to be fron the Swedish king Karl XI, telling him to surrender the city to the Danish army, which he did. In 1679 the city was under siege by Swedish forces, but this was lifted when the negotiations of peace became known. After the treaty the danish forces withdrew. The war had left Helsingborg in ruins, with only a few domestic buildings spared from the destruction.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Sweden came into difficulties during the Great Northern War. After the battle of Poltava in 1709 the Swedish army was in ruins. Denmark siezed the opportunity and declared war on Sweden. That same year yet another fleet landed Danish troops at Råå. Trying to spare the city from destruction, the town council surrendered to the Danish king. The guvernor of Scania, Magnus Stenbock, had withdrawn to Småland, were he desperately assembled a new Swedish army. When the army was found strong enough he marched into Scania. The two armies met north of Helsingborg, where the Danish army was thoroughly beaten. The remaining Danish forces fled into the city and entrenched themselves behing the city walls. Deeming it too costly, Stenbock refrained from invading the city, giving the danes time to escape. During the escape the Danish army slaughtered all of their horses and emptied the cities food supplies. The rotting corpses poisoned the cities drinking water and between 1710 and 1711 Helsingborg was ravaged by the plague.

Peace, stagnation and recovery

Due to the fast surrender to the Danish king by the city, Magnus Stenbock mistrusted the population of Helsingborg. He proposed that the old keep called Kärnan should be blown up and that the fishing communities south of the city should be torn down. The Swedish government, however, did not comply with these proposals, although they did agree that the fortifications of the city should be torn down, and so they were. After the plague epidemic the population of the city was a mere 700 inhabitants and at the treaty of 1720 Sweden gave up their exemption from the Sound Dues. With the dues being in effect and all trade with Denmark cut off, the trading decreased heavily in Helsingborg. Not having a real harbour of its own, the city to a great extent relied on merchandise from the Danish city of Helsingør. This now disappeared, and instead it gave rise to a large amount of smuggling. At this point Helsingborg was reduced to a small provincial town. During the 18th century the magistrate had replaced the council as the administrative body, consisting of four councilors and one mayor. The magistrate became more and more professional, consisting of councilors with no other means of support than their office. They instead got their income from lands owned by the city.

At the end of the century Helsingborg slowly started to recover from it's hardships and a few industries started to take form. One of the first larger industries was a faience and porcelain factory to the north of the city, in operation between 1766 and 1774. In 1799 Count Erik Ruuth founded a pottery and foundry, ofter referred to as "Ruuthska bruket" in the southern parts of the city, which was the cities largest industry for a long period of time. In 1832 the city got it's first real harbour, an important step in the progress of Helsingborg.

Industrialism and expansion

The second half of the 19th Century saw a remarkable recovery in Helsingborg, with the largest population growth in percent in Sweden. Between 1850 and 1900, the population grew from 4,140 to 24,670, an increase of 600 percent. The growth came as a result from the industrial expansion and people moving to the city in search for employment. One substantial factor in the expansion was the lifting of the Sound Dues by an international agreement in 1857, which made the harbour of Helsingborg an important point of export. The main export at this time was grain, mainly to Great Britain. To transport the grain to the harbour from the countryside several railways were laid out, the first in 1865 to Eslöv, followed by a rail to Hässleholm in 1875 and finally one to Ängelholm and onwards to Halmstad in 1885. Every established line meant that more merchandise was transported to Helsingborg, and the harbour was therefore expanded, first in 1867, now the Inner Harbour, in 1880 the Southern Harbour was completed, and in 1891 the Northern Harbour.

The expanded communications were to a large extent the brainchild of industrialist Petter Olsson, who himself traded in grain, and were to become the richest man in Helsingborg. He was the first of a line of businessmen who made their fortune in the growing city, many of them were also politically active, and some awarded with the honorary title of "Consul", among them Petter Olsson. Consul Olsson expanded his business with many other companies, for example he bought Ruuthska bruket in 1869, founded a steam-powered mill in 1884 and jute factory in 1896, as well as being a financier for several other business. Another prominent industrialist was Consul Nils Persson, who originally made his fortune from importing guano, but later expanded the business to a chemical factory producing fertilizer and sulfuric acid. He also founded a brickwork in 1873 and a copper factory in 1886. Several other industries were also established at the time, most prominently Helsingborg Rubberworks in 1891, later known as Tretorn, but also brands as Zoégas and Ramlösa. The importance of the harbour also led to Helsingborg emerging as an important city for ship transport, with the establishment of several shipowner companies. During the first half of the 20th Century Helsingborg was the third largest city for ship businesses after Stockholm and Göteborg. At the hight of the expansion, the city hosted an exhibition of industry and craftsmanship in 1903, accompanied by the inauguration of the city's new tram-system. Helsingborg had now started to grow to the edges of surrounding municipalities, which led to the incorporation of most of Helsingborg rural municipality (the city was called City of Helsingborg) in 1905, and some more in 1907. Even more parts of the rural municipality was incorporated in 1914 and the rest in 1918 along with the entire municipality of Raus.