Lidingö Municipality

Infobox_Kommun2
fullname=Lidingö kommun


county=Stockholm County
province=Uppland
capital=Lidingö


arearank=285th
area=30.77
arealand=30.49
populationrank=48th
population=42,889
densityrank=5th
populationdensity=1,407
website=http://www.lidingo.se/
footnotes=Area & population from SCB as of June 30, 2008

Lidingö Municipality ("Lidingö kommun" or "Lidingö stad") is a municipality just east of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Lidingö. The municipality is a part of Metropolitan Stockholm.

It is chiefly located on the island Lidingö, but also incorporates a few smaller islands in the surroundings, most notably the islets Fjäderholmarna within the Stockholm archipelago.

Being an island municipality it has not been amalgamated with any other entites. The small island of Tranholmen has, however, been transferred to Danderyd Municipality. The rural municipality was made a market town ("köping") in 1910, a city in 1926 and a unitary municipality in 1971.

The municipality prefers to refer to itself as "Lidingö stad" ("City of Lidingö"). This is a decision taken by the municipal assembly (kommunfullmäktige). It is purely nominal and has no effect on the administrative status of the municipality.

Geography

The island Lidingö is connected to the city of Stockholm by the two bridges of Lidingöbron. One is for cars and one for the Lidingöbanan suburban tramway and pedestrians. The bridges lead directly to Ropsten, a station of the Stockholm Metro.

Lidingö is for statistical purposes divided into three localities: Lidingö, Brevik and Sticklinge Udde. Because of the strait Lilla Värtan separating the island Lidingö from central Stockholm Lidingö statistically is not counted as a part of the Stockholm urban area.

History

Lidingö traces its history to at least 600 BC, from when remains have been found. According to legend, Lidingö was a place where the vikings would gather before setting sails to eastern areas. Therefore when the city arms was to be chosen in 1928 a viking ship became the motif, in the colors of the Swedish flag. Lidingö was first mentioned in writing in 1328, called "Lydhingö" when the entire island and the farms were owned by Bo Johnsson Grip. On a map from 1661 the island is called "Lijdingeöö".

Industry

The island itself hosts very few industries, a relatively well-known one being AGA AB, which established production on the island in 1912. Much of the populated land area is built with one-family houses; a total of 36% of the population, or 7 020 people (2006), live in such houses [http://www.lidingo.se/net/Lidingo+Stad+Ex/Om+staden/Statistik/Bost%e4der] and, to a large extent, commute to work in Stockholm or other municipalities of Greater Stockholm.

There are also quite a number conference mansions in the northern parts of the island, providing a part of the industry of Lidingö.

Lidingö is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Sweden.

The members of the famous Swedish pop group ABBA used to reside on Lidingö.

Politics

The island's politics has traditionally been dominated by the centre-right Moderate Party. They currently run the municipality in coalition with the Liberal People's Party.

Chairman of the municipal executive board is Paul Lindquist from the Moderate Party.

Election results

ister cities

In 1942, Lidingö created a committee to provide support for the people in Lojo in the southern part of Finland who suffered badly during World War II. An orphanage was opened in Lidingö and money was collected and sent to Lojo. The orphanage was closed in 1943 as most of the children then had returned to Finland. The money that was left over was used to provide food for the children in Lojo. Lidingö and Lojo still maintain a close relationship.

Another sister city is Alameda, California. The initiatve came from Alameda in 1959 and was part of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's people-to-people-movement. The purpose was to develop better understanding between people from different countries after World War II. Both Alameda and Lidingö are islands with a bridge connecting them to a big city.

As the Baltic states were liberated from the Soviet Union in 1990-1991, Lidingö looked for a new sister city in the area. Saldus in Latvia was selected. During the years, a number of environmental, cultural and other projects have been accomplished.

ee also

*List of islands of Sweden

External links

* [http://www.lidingo.se/ Lidingö Municipality] - Official site

References

*Much fact has been incorporated from the corresponding article on Swedish wikipedia.