Kalmar

Kalmar (population 59,308) is a municipality in southeastern Sweden, on the mainland's coast of the Baltic Sea, strategically watching over the narrow sound to the large island �land, since the 1970s connected by the �land bridge. Kalmar is situated in the province Smalandia and is the capital of Kalmar county.

In the Middle Ages, Kalmar was Sweden's southernmost harbor, since the coasts of today's southern and western Sweden were then part of Denmark. A union treaty between Sweden and Denmark-Norway was entered in Kalmar in 1397, making Queen Margaret I of Denmark the monarch of all Scandinavia, called the Kalmar Union. Sweden left this union in 1523 and counts its independence since that time.

In more recent times, Kalmar has been an industrial city with Kalmar Mekaniska Verkstad making steam engines and large machinery. Today the city has a college and a research facility for Telia. Kalmar Castle is a powerful "fist of granite" from the 16th century, Scandinavia's most well kept renaissance castle.

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Counties of Sweden | Sweden