History

Along with Uppsala, Lund is one of the oldest cities in Sweden. Lund's origins are unclear. Until recently, the town was thought to have been founded by King Canute the Great of Denmark around 1020.^[5] The area was then part of the kingdom of Denmark. However, recent archaeological discoveries suggest that the first settlement was founded around 990, at the present site of the village of Uppåkra.^{[citation needed]} It was later moved to its present location by King Sweyn I Forkbeard. The distance moved was only some five kilometres, but the new location of Lund, on a hill and on the other side of a ford, gave the new site considerable defensive advantages in comparison with Uppåkra, which is situated on the highest point of a rather large plain.

The city was made a see in 1048 and united with Dalby in 1060,^[6] and in 1103 became the seat of the archbishop for Scandinavia. The diocese of nearby Dalby was absorbed in 1066. Lund Cathedral was similarly founded in or shortly after 1103. In 1152, the Norwegian archdiocese of Nidaros was founded as a separate province of the church, independent of Lund. In 1164 Sweden also acquired an archbishop of its own, although he was nominally subordinate to the archbishop of Lund. It is still, as the diocese of Lund, a diocese in the Church of Sweden.