Sjöbo Municipality
Sjöbo Municipality is a
Swedish municipality in
Skåne in southernmost
Sweden where the market town
Sjöbo (pop. 6,000) is seat.
Sjöbo started growing when it became a halt on the railway between
Malmö (to the west) and
Simrishamn (on the east) in the early 19th century. Today the town can not be reached by rail, but a road through central Skåne also crosses the municipality and town, while another large road from east to west also crosses it.
Sjöbo is one of the municipalities created during the municipal reform in the 1970s.
The municipality reached into the publics eye in 1988 by declaring reluctant to accept refugees, after a referendum gave a majority of 67% votes. Most other municipalities in Sweden accepted refugees that came from troubled countries such as former
Yugoslavia and
Iraq.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was an immigration crisis in Sweden. The number of asylum seekers increased, and the share of Nordics among newcomers fell from two-thirds to one-third. High unemployment and the fiscal burdens on local governments which were obliged to integrate refugees, and the refusal of the city of Sjobo to accept refugees in 1987, led to the adoption of a combined immigration and integration system in the Aliens Act of 1989. [from Migration News, in what looks to be a review on the book Mechanisms of Immigration Control. A Comparative Analysis of European Regulation Policies, by Brochmann, Grete and Tomas Hammar. (Eds. 1999) Berg Publishers (http://www.berg.demon.co.uk/)] |
The streets are long and straight in Sjöbo town |
|
The Old Church of Södra Åsum, just north of Sjöbo town |
The town of Sjöbo is flat terrained with many small houses and three long strait streets stretching through it, leading to larger roads.
Within the limits of the municipality lays the main part of
Vombsjön, which is the largest lake of southern Skåne and notable for being the water source of Malmö. Located in north western municipality, some parts belong to
Lund Municipality. It offers fishing for
European perch,
pike,
pikeperch and
eel.
There are at least five (largely) authentic medieval churches from the
12th century in the municipality. They are notable for not having undergone severe restaurations that was suffered by many others churches in Scania once the population began growing in the second half of 19th century and
Helgo Zetterwall was hired to expand on them.
Anyway, the churches in Södra Åsum, Tolånga, Björka, Blentarp and Everlöv are all interesting. The one in Everlöv hosts fascinating paintings in the ceiling. Recently, a sixth church, in Illstorp, also had its old ceiling paintings uncovered.
Apart from religious activities, there is the annual festival
Sjöbo marknad , translate to
Sjöbo fair, that was first held in
1864, and is now held in late July, attracting some 100,000 visitors; one of the largest country fairs in Sweden. It has
carousels and is otherwise noted for its pottery commerce.
* Info about Sjöbo Refugee question from a Nationalistic website:
Sweden the exterme Way From
bgf.nu* Geography & Activities: Tourist broshure
Sjöbo Kommun, (2005), available at the tourist office in Swedish English and German.
*
Towns of Scania*
Sjöbo - Official site
