You are now in Southern Sweden,  near Copenhagen, Malmö, Trelleborg and the sea. - You are of course right: Copenhagen is not in Sweden. Copenhagen is the capital city of Denmark. Nevertheless, we like Copenhagen; it will do as a capital to us here in Southern Sweden: it is near, big enough and first of all, continental enough. The well-known figure, the always guarding soldier with his nice red uniform will do as a symbol for  Copenhagen. I have also chosen a lovely building of the many there are in this city. It is Rundetaarn (The Round Tower), built in 1642 by the king Christian IV, the last Danish king reigning over Scania (Skåne - Scandinavia in Latin). It is a rather high tower (34,8 m), nice to look at, but even to visit. It is open around the year, giving place to concerts, exhibitions and even contains an observatiorium.

The fastest way to Skåne from Copenhagen is the newly opened bridge: Öresundbron. It will take you 30 minutes to Malmö, the third biggest town in Sweden. The bridge was by the way opened on the 1 July 2000!

I must boast a bit: I was one of those who walked the bridge for a couple of weeks ago, on the only and very day it was allowed to be walked on; once in a lifetime! If you do not have a car, or do not want to go by train, there are still some boats left over the Öresund.

Scania is a nice place to live in. I have been living there for almost 30 years now. I was born  in Hungary, where I lived until 1972, when I moved to Sweden. I have been living in Sweden in a little town called Lundever since. I am in contact with Hungarians through the Hungarian association that has been around since 1947 in Lund and even through my main interest: research.

Lund used to be the capital of Denmark a  thousand years ago....It is a rather old and very picturesque city with a mediaeval touch. It is situated in Skåne (Scania in English) with 60 thousand regular inhabitans speaking their own language, the so called skånska. Skånska's existence is due to the fact that up to the time when  Karl X Gustav, king of Swedes, wanted the land of Scania very badly and took it 1658, Scania was a part of Denmark and the language is a mix between Danish and Swedish. Or something like that.

By the way, the final battle was just outside Lund, in 1676, and in that Scania was finally lost and became inavitably Swedish. In order to Swedenize the inhabitants of Scania as soon as possible, the king of all Swedes, Karl XI gave order that a university should be built in Lund. (Knowledge is power, as we know it.) His order was hastily carried out, so as a result, now we have a big University(built in 1668) with approx. 35 thousand students from all over the country and the world. Imagine (nearly) all of them on bike! It can make life a dangerous form of existence! But kind of fun too.

Domkyrkan, the  Cathedral  is older than the university: namely approx 800 years old. The big cathedral was built in order to give seat to the Bishop who had great power around those days during 12 - 13th century.

The Domkyrkan  has its own giant, called Finn. He built it on the request of a holy man, Laurentius, living in Lund at the beginning of Christian times in Scania. He became anyway the protector saint of Lund after this deed with the church: which was built by Finn as a result of good guess work from Laurentius, in a competion of guessing names. You can find Finn, the giant in the lower section of the church (krypta) where he has been for the past 800 years.... not alone of course, his wife Gerda and his child, Sölve have been keeping him company throuought the years. All in according to the belief of the people of those ancient times.

The cathedral was of course built as a catholic church but then it became the subject of reformation (16th century).

Another holy man, the catholic munk Dominique, founder of the Dominican order,  used to live in Lund around the 13th century. Lund was a rather important town in the North - already then!

Some of the old times you may meet at Kulturen, the open air museum in Lund. There you can have a notion of how people have been living before...

The sea is not so far away (8 km) and in summer-time you can have a dip - if you are not too peculiar about bath temperature... There are some really lovely places by the sea, such as Mölle. It is by the sea, not far from Kullen (North-West Scania) which is a very nice sea resort where you can climb cliffs, sit by the light house and enjoy the view over the Kattegat, eat a bit of fish, or a good cake and drink coffee or tea to it at the outdoor places around and you can even dive in the nice waters around. It is a very popular place to visit among Swedish people.

Besides, if you wish to see real old, mystical places, you can always visit Ales stenar (Ales' stones) is the equivalent to Stonehenge in England. Just as magnifique as the English version!

That's in short all I can tell you about this part of the world. If you want to know more  about Southern-Sweden,- or about the Hungarian language  in Sweden you are welcome to do so. Even in connection with questions regarding Hungarian traditions you are welcome to contact me at this address.

.