Lysekil Municipality

History

In Lysekil, humans have long left a mark on water, wood, soil, and stone.

With protected harbor surrounded by water and jutting out toward the fisheries of Kattegatt, The North Sea, and beyond, Lysekil has deep ties to the fishing and canning industry. Mirrored fish on the current municipal coat of arms and a jumping dolphin on that of 1895 show the absolute dominance of the sea on the area.

To many outsiders, especially those coming from Stockholm and the East coast whose ocean access was only the salty waters of the Baltic Sea, The granite beach and sweet water of Gullmarsfjorden made Lysekil a famous bathing location in 19th century. Kallbadhuset (the cold bathing house), a somewhat exclusive, and very popular wooden bathing house dating from 1847 still stands in operation. Local rumor has it that once upon a time the King of Sweden would visit the Lysekil bathing house and specifically ask that the commoners of the town be allowed enter the wooden walls of Kallbadhuset because he 'liked' the everyday people of Lysekil (whom otherwise were not welcome inside the Bathing house compound.

Traditionally fishing, sailing, farming, stone-cutting, and forestry formed the largest chunk of the local economy and continue today; however, petroleum products refining (Preemraff in Lyse,) light industry (Husqvarna in Brastad,) and local and international tourism (especially during the summertime,) all form a large part in the economy of the municipality.

Herring fishing

Herring fishing has played a big role in the history of Lysekil. For some reason the herring always returned close to the coastline in Bohuslän for longer periods of time and therefore made it easier for large amounts of fish to be caught. Herring fishing was popular already during the middle ages but most known is the periods of 1556-1589, 1747-1809 and 1877-1906. During these years, sales of salted herring resulted in hundreds of thousands of exports all over the world.

In Lysekil there are traces of old herring fisheries in several places, most of them on Härnäset, stora skeppsholmen and Saltö, as well as several factory buildings left where the herring was prepared and packaged.

Listed buildings

The municipality of Lysekil has three listed buildings. A listed building (byggnadsminne) is a building that is legally protected and preserved because of its cultural and historical significance. The county administrative board (Länsstyrelsen) and the Swedish national heritage board (Riksantikvarieämbetet) decides which buildings become listed buildings. The three buildings are:

• Curmanska villorna
• Wilhelmsons villa
• Härnäsets folkets hus

Other buildings and areas of cultural and historical heritage in Lysekil are protected through detailed development plans under control of the municipality. Some of those places can for example be found in the old town area (Gamlestan), Fiskebäckskil and Östersidan.

Demographics

This is a demographic table based on Lysekil Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.

In total there were 14,245 residents, including 11,346 Swedish citizens of voting age. 47.5% voted for the left coalition and 51.1% for the right coalition. Indicators are in percentage points except population totals and income.

Government and politics

Distribution of the 31 seats in the municipal council after the 2018 election:

• Social Democratic Party 8
• Lysekilspartiet 7
• Sweden Democrats 4
• Moderate Party 3
• Liberal People's Party 2
• Communist Party 2
• Centre Party 2
• Left Party 2
• Green Party 1