Lysekil Municipality

Infobox_Kommun2
fullname=Lysekils kommun


county=Västra Götaland County
province=Bohuslän
capital=Lysekil


arearank=250th
area=210.73
arealand=209.93
populationrank=152nd
population=14,631
densityrank=76th
populationdensity=69.7
website=http://www.lysekil.se/
footnotes=Area & population from SCB as of December 31, 2006

Lysekil Municipality ("Lysekils kommun") is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Lysekil.

The present municipality was formed in 1971, when the "City of Lysekil" (instituted as such in 1903) was amalgamated with Stångenäs and the island of Skaftö.

Geography

Lysekil Municipality borders to the municipalities of Sotenäs (in the north-west), Munkedal (north) and Uddevalla (east). The city of Lysekil is located on the southern tip of the municipality, by the Kattegatt strait.

The bay to the east, marking the border to Uddevalla, is called Gullmarsfjorden, or Gullmaren. It is one of Sweden's most distinctive fjords: 25 km long, between 1-3 km wide, with a maximum depth of 118.5 meters. The depth at the mouth is only 20-40 meters on average, leading to a distinctive marine life in the fjord. Gullmaren is currently Sweden's only marine nature preservation area.

Some of the municipal islets are considered part of the Gothenburg archipelago. Many islets are like small communities by themselves, with interesting histories of trading, fishing and stone quarrying in addition to their scenic nature.

History

Due to its geographical location, the industry has always been dominated by fishing, which also shows on its coat of arms. Lysekil was mainly known as a bathing location in Sweden in the 19th century, due to its popular bathing house dating from 1847.

Today tourism plays an important part in the economy of the municipality.

Localities

*Lysekil (seat), 7,300 inhabitants
*Brastad, 1,800
*Lyse, 1,700
*Brodalen, 1,050
*Fiskebäckskil, 438

Things to do

In Lysekil you can do quite a lot as a tourist in the summer. You can visit "Havets Hus" ("The House of the Ocean"), which is an aquatic museum that has most of the different ocean animals and plants living around the coast.

If you are the beach type, you can go to Pinnevik, a nice local beach, which offers a good sand beach that is child friendly.

You can take a walk in Stångehuvud, a nature park located not far from Pinnevik. On these rocks grows an amazing amount of different plants. In the summer there is even a guide.

ister cities

Lysekil Municipality has three sister cities:
*Tvedestrand, Norway
*Hirtshals, Denmark
*Hirvensalmi, Finland

It also has one city it sponsors:
*Jöelähtme Kula, Estonia

External links

* [http://www.lysekil.se Lysekil Municipality] - Official site
*sv icon [http://runeberg.org/nfbq/0061.html Article Lysekil] - From Nordisk Familjebok (1903)

References

*Official page
*Articles Lysekil and on Swedish Wikipedia