Oddevall

Uddevalla lies at the mouth of the Bäve River at the head of a long inlet in Bohuslän. The harbour gave the town access to the sea while roads reached inland across the borderlands. Originally a Norwegian town, it held urban privileges by the end of the fifteenth century and became a place of trade between neighbouring districts on both sides of the frontier.

The Treaty of Roskilde transferred Bohuslän to Sweden in 1658. Uddevalla's position had favoured trade across the old frontier, but it also left the town exposed in wartime. During the eighteenth century exports of timber and iron grew, and the great herring fishery after 1750 gave the port a further boost. By 1800 its population had reached roughly four thousand.