Skellefteå

Skellefteå lies on the river of the same name near the Gulf of Bothnia. Its parish was the centre of a district of villages along the river and coast, where people combined small farms and livestock with hunting and fishing. Skellefteå is mentioned in a document of 1327, although the date at which its parish was founded is unknown.

Around the parish church grew Bonnstan, a church town whose history reaches back to the seventeenth century. Families from outlying farms kept cottages there for visits to church. The site also drew people to markets and court sessions, gathering inhabitants of the coast and interior at the old parish centre. The church town thus served a wide rural district long before a separate town was established downstream.