Ronneby

Ronneby grew beside a river in Blekinge, near the Baltic coast. Its oldest surviving town privileges date from 1387, when the region belonged to Denmark, and in the Middle Ages it was an important trading and shipping town. During the Northern Seven Years' War, Swedish forces under Erik XIV took Ronneby in 1564, killing many inhabitants and burning the town. Contemporary accounts on both sides exaggerated the number of victims. Blekinge passed to Sweden under the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Swedish crown later founded the naval town of Karlskrona to the east and withdrew Ronneby's town privileges. Ronneby nevertheless attracted industries in the eighteenth century; a mineral spring discovered in 1705 also gave rise to a spa.