> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://naivenotions.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Strömstad—The Town on the Other Side of the Border - URL: https://naivenotions.com/stromstad-the-town-on-the-other-side-of-the-border/ - Published: 2026-08-20T09:00:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T09:00:39.000Z - Description: Small towns can be very charming. Places you have visited a 100 times can offer interesting stories, if investigated a bit. - Author: trondh - Tags: Places For many of us in Norway who live close to the Swedish border, our neighbouring country is first and foremost a place to go shopping. Many food products are cheaper there, and the difference is particularly noticeable when it comes to certain kinds of meat, household goods, soft drinks, beer and wine. For many Norwegians, crossing the border to shop has simply become part of everyday life. Nowhere is this more obvious than around the small town of Strömstad. Nordby Shoppingcenter, only a few kilometres from the Norwegian border, is one of the largest shopping centres in the Nordic countries, attracting around 6.9 million visitors every year. By comparison, the entire municipality of Strömstad has only a little over 13,000 permanent residents. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that the town itself tends to disappear somewhat behind all the shopping. But if you manage to look beyond the shopping centres, the parking lots and the shopping carts filled with bacon and soft drinks, Strömstad is actually a rather lovely little town. And its history shows that the relationship between Strömstad and Norway has always been considerably more complicated than today’s cross-border shopping might suggest. ## **A Town Created to Keep the Norwegians Away** Strömstad began as a small timber-shipping port in the sixteenth century, then known as **Strömmen**. At the time, the area was part of the Danish-Norwegian kingdom. This changed dramatically after the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, when Bohuslän was transferred from Denmark-Norway to Sweden. The Swedish state suddenly found itself in possession of a new border region facing Norway, but without a proper trading town in the area. The problem was that the local population continued doing what came naturally: they travelled to Fredrikshald, today’s Halden, to do their business. The Swedish authorities wanted to put an end to this leakage of trade across the border. In 1667, Strömstad was therefore granted the rights of a market town, and on 15 April 1676 King Charles XI formally confirmed its town privileges. There is a certain historical irony here. Strömstad was developed as a town partly to prevent people from doing business with the Norwegians. Today, few Swedish towns are more dependent on Norwegian customers. The establishment of the new Swedish border town was far from peaceful, however. In 1675, Strömstad was burned by Norwegian forces under the Danish-Norwegian general Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve. When Charles XI formally confirmed the town’s privileges the following year, Strömstad was actually under Norwegian control. A few decades later, the town again became central to the struggle between the two countries. Between 1716 and 1718, Charles XII used Strömstad as his military headquarters during his campaigns against Norway. The Swedish king’s final campaign famously ended at Fredriksten Fortress in Halden, where he was shot and killed in 1718. Strömstad was, quite literally, situated in the middle of the long struggle for power between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. ## **From Herring to Health Resort** Towards the end of the eighteenth century, however, something quite different began to happen. The Bohuslän coast entered what became known as the great herring period. Fishing expanded dramatically, and Strömstad grew quickly. From a population of only around 300 in the middle of the eighteenth century, the town had more than 1,100 inhabitants by about 1805. At the same time, Strömstad began to become known for something that would give the town an entirely new identity. Mineral-rich water believed to have beneficial effects on health was discovered around **Lejonkällan**. During the 1780s, facilities for sea bathing and warm baths were established in the town, making Strömstad one of Sweden’s earliest seaside health resorts. It was the beginning of a remarkable transformation. A military border post gradually became a place where members of the upper classes came to rest and recover. The border was not entirely peaceful yet. During the so-called **Lingonberry War** of 1788, a Danish-Norwegian army crossed Svinesund and occupied Strömstad for a short period. Compared with earlier conflicts, however, the occupation passed relatively peacefully. After the Napoleonic Wars and the establishment of the union between Sweden and Norway in 1814, a much calmer period began. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5630.JPEG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5639.JPEG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5646.JPEG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5651.JPEG) ## **Kings, Seaweed Baths and Summer Society** During the nineteenth century, Strömstad developed a reputation as a fashionable spa town. Crown Prince Oscar, later King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, visited Strömstad several times. His stays helped make the town popular among wealthy families from both Sweden and Norway. People came here to bathe in the sea, take warm seaweed baths, drink mineral water and participate in the social life of the resort. It is difficult not to picture the contrast. Only a few generations earlier, Swedish and Norwegian soldiers had fought over the town. Now people from Stockholm and Christiania came here to stroll by the water and meet one another in the *societetshus*, the social centre of the fashionable bathing resort. At the same time, Strömstad was far more than a holiday destination. It also developed into a maritime town, with a considerable fleet of smaller vessels transporting goods along the coast. The sea was both work and leisure. ## **The Railway Changes the Town** Around 1900, Strömstad entered another phase of its development. Between 1901 and 1905, the Bohus railway line was extended northwards to the town. The railway made Strömstad far more accessible and connected it more closely with the rest of Sweden. It also changed the physical appearance of the town. Previously, the sea had reached all the way up to the old wooden buildings around the harbour. With the arrival of the railway, parts of the waterfront had to be reclaimed to make room for tracks and the station. Industry also became increasingly important. Granite quarrying expanded considerably in the area around Strömstad, particularly at Krokstrand. Later, mechanical workshops and the canning industry became important sources of employment. The old spa town had become a modern Swedish small town. When the first Svinesund Bridge opened in 1946, the connection with Norway became closer than ever. People and goods could now move far more easily across the border by car. The consequences would eventually be enormous. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5670.JPEG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5671.JPEG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/2c/8c2ce2c7-5879-4029-9e66-946c52079641/content/images/2026/08/DSCF5673.JPEG) ## **The Town That Became Norwegian Again** From the 1980s onwards, the economy of Strömstad has increasingly been shaped by commerce, tourism and its proximity to Norway. Differences in prices between the two countries encouraged ever greater amounts of cross-border shopping. Large shopping centres appeared along the E6 motorway, and Nordby developed into a commercial machine of a scale that was almost absurd compared with the small municipality in which it is located. When the new Svinesund Bridge opened in 2005, followed by the completion of the four-lane E6, the distance between Strömstad and the Norwegian towns to the north became smaller still. From much of Østfold, the journey now takes just over half an hour. Norwegians buy holiday homes here, fill the guest harbours during the summer, work in the area and account for a considerable share of local trade. And so, in a curious way, the circle was completed. Strömstad was established as a Swedish town partly because the authorities wanted to stop people from travelling to Norway to do their shopping. More than 350 years later, much of the town’s economy depends on Norwegians travelling in the opposite direction. This history–I think–makes Strömstad more interesting than the town first appears.