Västra Götaland County
Västra Götaland County is a county or län on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second largest of Sweden's counties and it is subdivided into 49 municipalities, its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of Sweden's population. The formal capital and seat of the governor of Västra Götaland County is Gothenburg; the political capital and seat of the Västra Götaland Regional Council is Vänersborg. The county was established in 01 January 1998, when Älvsborg County and Bohus County and Skaraborg County were merged. Sweden's counties are of greater importance than its provinces; the counties are the main administrative units for politics and population counts. Due to its size and young age, the Västra Götaland County has no common inheritance. Of cultural and historical significance are the provinces that Västra Götaland County consists of: Västergötland, Bohuslän and Dalsland. There is an insignificant part of the province Halland within the county. In addition, the previous counties that were abolished in 1998 had been in use since the 17th century, therefore have some cultural and historical significance.
Västra Götaland County borders to the counties of Värmland, Örebro, Östergötland, Jönköping and Halland. It is bounded by the Norwegian county of Østfold, lakes Vättern and Vänern, as well as the strait of Skagerrak. Västra Götaland was created in 1998 by a merger of the three former counties of Gothenburg and Bohus County, Älvsborg County and Skaraborg County; the seat of residence for the Governors or Landshövding is Gothenburg, while the seat of political administration and power is Vänersborg. The Governor is the head of the County Administrative Länsstyrelse; the Västra Götaland Regional Council or Västra Götalandsregionen is an evolved County Council that for a trial period has assumed certain tasks from the County Administrative Board. Similar trial councils are applied for Gotland County; the arms for the County of Västra Götaland were granted in 1998. They are a combination of the provincial arms of Västergötland, Bohuslän and Dalsland and the arms of the city of Gothenburg; when the arms are shown with a royal crown they represent the County Administrative Board, the regional presence of government authority.
Blazon: "Quartered, I. the arms of Gothenburg, II. The arms of Bohuslän, III; the arms of Dalsland turned in courtoisie, IV. the arms of Västergötland." List of Västra Götaland Governors Region Västra Götaland Västra Götaland County Administrative Board Gothenburg Regional Association of Local Authorities Sjuhärad Regional Association of Local Authorities Skaraborg Regional Association of Local Authorities Fyrbodals Regional Association of Local Authorities
Amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation, they are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects. Amusement parks evolved from European fairs, pleasure gardens and large picnic areas, which were created for people's recreation. World's fairs and other types of international expositions influenced the emergence of the amusement park industry. Lake Compounce opened in 1846 and is considered the oldest continuously-operating amusement park in North America.
The first theme parks emerged in the mid-twentieth century with the opening of Santa Claus Land in 1946, Santa's Workshop in 1949, Disneyland in 1955. The amusement park evolved from three earlier traditions: traveling or periodic fairs, pleasure gardens and exhibitions such as world fairs; the oldest influence was the periodic fair of the Middle Ages - one of the earliest was the Bartholomew Fair in England from 1133. By the 18th and 19th centuries, they had evolved into places of entertainment for the masses, where the public could view freak shows, acrobatics and juggling, take part in competitions and walk through menageries. A wave of innovation in the 1860s and 1870s created mechanical rides, such as the steam-powered carousel, its derivatives, notably from Frederick Savage of King's Lynn, Norfolk whose fairground machinery was exported all over the world; this inaugurated the era of the modern funfair ride, as the working classes were able to spend their surplus wages on entertainment.
The second influence was the pleasure garden. An example of this is the world's oldest amusement park, opened in mainland Europe in 1583, it is located north of Copenhagen in Denmark. Another early garden was the Vauxhall Gardens, founded in 1661 in London. By the late 18th century, the site had an admission fee for its many attractions, it drew enormous crowds, with its paths noted for romantic assignations. Although the gardens were designed for the elites, they soon became places of great social diversity. Public firework displays were put on at Marylebone Gardens, Cremorne Gardens offered music and animal acrobatics displays. Prater in Vienna, began as a royal hunting ground, opened in 1766 for public enjoyment. There followed coffee-houses and cafés, which led to the beginnings of the Wurstelprater as an amusement park; the concept of a fixed park for amusement was further developed with the beginning of the world's fairs. The first World fair began in 1851 with the construction of the landmark Crystal Palace in London, England.
The purpose of the exposition was to celebrate the industrial achievement of the nations of the world and it was designed to educate and entertain the visitors. American cities and business saw the world's fair as a way of demonstrating economic and industrial success; the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, Illinois was an early precursor to the modern amusement park. The fair was an enclosed site, that merged entertainment and education to entertain the masses, it set out to bedazzle the visitors, did so with a blaze of lights from the "White City." To make sure that the fair was a financial success, the planners included a dedicated amusement concessions area called the Midway Plaisance. Rides from this fair captured the imagination of the visitors and of amusement parks around the world, such as the first steel Ferris wheel, found in many other amusement areas, such as the Prater by 1896; the experience of the enclosed ideal city with wonder, rides and progress, was based on the creation of an illusory place.
The "midway" introduced at the Columbian Exposition would become a standard part of most amusement parks, fairs and circuses. The midway contained not only the rides, but other concessions and entertainments such as shooting galleries, penny arcades, games of chance and shows. Many modern amusement parks evolved from earlier pleasure resorts that had become popular with the public for day-trips or weekend holidays, for example, seaside areas such as Blackpool, United Kingdom and Coney Island, United States. In the United States, some amusement parks grew from picnic groves established along rivers and lakes that provided bathing and water sports, such as Lake Compounce in Connecticut, first established as a picturesque picnic park in 1846, Riverside Park in Massachusetts, founded in the 1870s along the Connecticut River; the trick was getting the public to the resort location. For Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, on the Atlantic Ocean, a horse-drawn streetcar line brought pleasure seekers to the beach beginning in 1829.
In 1875, a million passengers rode the Coney Island Railroad, in 1876 two million visited Coney Island. Hotels and amusements were built to accommodate both the upper classes and the working class at the beach; the first carousel was installed in the 1870s, the first roller coaster, the "Switchback Railway", in 1884. In England, Blackpo
Precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, sleet, snow and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates", thus and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called "showers."Moisture, lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain occurs. A stationary front is present near the area of freezing rain and serves as the foci for forcing and rising air.
Provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. The cloud droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops and descend toward the Earth where they will freeze on contact with exposed objects. Where warm water bodies are present, for example due to water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy. Thundersnow is possible within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. Most precipitation is caused by convection; the movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes.
Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, but over land it is only 715 millimetres. Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on other celestial bodies, e.g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most takes the form of frost, rather than rain or snow. Precipitation is a major component of the water cycle, is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year, 398,000 km3 of it over the oceans. Given the Earth's surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective and orographic rainfall.
Convective processes involve strong vertical motions that can cause the overturning of the atmosphere in that location within an hour and cause heavy precipitation, while stratiform processes involve weaker upward motions and less intense precipitation. Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Mixtures of different types of precipitation, including types in different categories, can fall simultaneously. Liquid forms of precipitation include drizzle. Rain or drizzle that freezes on contact within a subfreezing air mass is called "freezing rain" or "freezing drizzle". Frozen forms of precipitation include snow, ice needles, ice pellets and graupel; the dew point is the temperature to which a parcel must be cooled in order to become saturated, condenses to water. Water vapor begins to condense on condensation nuclei such as dust and salt in order to form clouds. An elevated portion of a frontal zone forces broad areas of lift, which form clouds decks such as altostratus or cirrostratus.
Stratus is a stable cloud deck which tends to form when a cool, stable air mass is trapped underneath a warm air mass. It can form due to the lifting of advection fog during breezy conditions. There are four main mechanisms for cooling the air to its dew point: adiabatic cooling, conductive cooling, radiational cooling, evaporative cooling. Adiabatic cooling occurs when air expands; the air can rise due to convection, large-scale atmospheric motions, or a physical barrier such as a mountain. Conductive cooling occurs when the air comes into contact with a colder surface by being blown from one surface to another, for example from a liquid water surface to colder land. Radiational cooling occurs due to the emission of infrared radiation, either by the air or by the surface underneath. Evaporative cooling occurs when moisture is added to the air through evaporation, which forces the air temperature to cool to its wet-bulb temperature, or until it reaches saturation; the main ways water vapor is added to the air are: wind convergence into areas of upward motion, precipitation or virga falling from above, daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans, water bodies or wet lan
Skara Municipality
Skara Municipality is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Skara; the area of the municipality consists of 16 original local government entities. The municipal reform of 1952 grouped them into four new entities. In 1971 the City of Skara was amalgamated with the rural municipalities to form the present unit. Ardala, pop. 745 Axvall, pop 1 164 Eggby, pop. 237 Skara, pop. 11 437 Varnhem, pop. 662Varnhem is renowned for its medieval monastery. Skaraborg County Diocese of Skara Skara Municipality - Official site
Vänern
Vänern is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Värmland in the southwest of the country. Geologically, the lake was formed after the Quaternary glaciation about 10,000 years ago. Due to the fact that ensuing post-glacial rebound surpassed concurrent sea-level rise, lake Vänern became a part of the Ancylus Lake that occupied the Baltic basin. Vänern was connected to Ancylus Lake by a strait at Närke. Further uplift made lakes such as Vättern became cut off from the Baltic; as a result, there are still species remaining from the ice age not encountered in freshwater lakes, such as the amphipod Monoporeia affinis. A Viking ship was found on the lake's bottom on May 6, 2009. A story told by the 13th-century Icelandic mythographer Snorri Sturluson in his Prose Edda about the origin of Mälaren was originally about Vänern: the Swedish king Gylfi promised a woman, Gefjon, as much land as four oxen could plough in a day and a night, but she used oxen from the land of the giants, moreover uprooted the land and dragged it into the sea, where it became the island of Zealand.
The Prose Edda says that'the inlets in the lake correspond to the headlands in Zealand'. The Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern was a 6th century battle recorded in the Norse sagas and referred to in the Old English epic Beowulf. In Beowulf, Vänern is stated to be near the location of the dragon's mound at Earnaness. Vänern covers an area of 5,655 km2, its surface is 44 m above sea level and it is on average 27 m deep. The maximum depth of the lake is 106 m; the water level of the lake is regulated by the Vargön Hydroelectric Power Station. Geographically, it is situated on the border between the Swedish regions of Götaland and Svealand, divided between several Swedish provinces: The western body of water is known as the Dalbosjön, with its main part belonging to Dalsland, its main tributary is Klarälven, which flows into the lake near the city of Karlstad, on the northern shore. Other tributaries include Byälven and Norsälven, it is drained to the south-west by Göta älv, which forms part of the Göta Canal waterway, to Lake Viken into Lake Vättern, southeast across Sweden.
The economic opportunities Vänern offers are illustrated by the surrounding towns, which have supported themselves for centuries by fishing and allowing easy transportation to other cities or west by Göta älv to the sea of Kattegat. This directly includes: Karlstad, Mariestad, Lidköping Vänersborg, Åmål, Säffle, indirectly Trollhättan; the Djurö archipelago surrounds the island of Djurö, in the middle of the lake, has been given national park status as Djurö National Park. The ridge Kinnekulle is a popular tourist attraction near the south-eastern shore of Vänern, it has the best view over the lake. Another nearby mountain is Halleberg. Environmental monitoring studies are conducted annually. In a 2002 report, the data showed no marked decrease in overall water quality, but a slight decrease in visibility due to an increase of algae. An increasing level of nitrogen had been problematic during the 1970s through 1990s, but is now being regulated and is at a steady level; some bays have problems with eutrophication and have become overgrown with algae and plant plankton.
Vänern has many different fish species. Locals and government officials try to enforce fishing preservation projects, due to threats to the fish habitat; these threats include water cultivation in the tributaries and the M74 syndrome. Sport fishing in Vänern is unregulated, both from the shore and from boats. Commercial fishing requires permission. In the open waters of Vänern, the most common fish is the smelt, dominating in the eastern Dalbosjön, where the average is 2,600 smelt per hectare; the second most common is the vendace most prominently in Dalbosjön, with 200–300 fish per hectare. The populations may vary between years, depending on temperature, water level and quality. Vänern has two sub-groups of land-locked Atlantic salmon known as Vänern salmon, they are native to spawn in the adjacent lakes. The first sub-group is named after the eastern tributary Gullspångsälven as the Gullspång salmon; the second is the Klarälv salmon spawning in the Klarälven. These sub-groups are related to Atlantic salmon of the Baltic Sea, they have developed in Vänern for over 9,000 years.
They are notable in. These large lake salmon are known to weigh some 18 kg; the world's largest lake salmon, exceeding 20 kg, was caught in Vänern. There are other species of salmonids in the connecting rivers; the most important large fish in the lake are zander. The most important small fish is the stickleback. Vänern has five distinguished species of whitefish: Coregonus pallasii Lacustrine fluvial whitefish Coregonus maxillaris (popula
Skara Cathedral
Skara Cathedral is a church in the Swedish town of Skara. The cathedral is the seat for the bishop of the Church of Sweden Diocese of Skara, its history is traced from the 10th century, but its current appearance in the Gothic style is from the 13th century. The choir dates back to the early 13th century, whilst the transept and nave took shape a century later; the cathedral was damaged and restored on several occasions, making its current appearance a rather modern building. In the 1760s, it was given a baroque southern facade, between 1886 and 1894 it underwent a dramatic restoration that gave it its current style and shape; the flat twin towers were given pointed Gothic spires. The flat towers made the local people think of a pair of upside-down trowsers, earning the cathedral the colloquial nickname "the britches of Skara"; the 37 mosaic stained glass windows were created by the artist Bo Beskow in cooperation with glazier Gustav Ringström between 1945 and 1976. The motifs are biblical, but the two Swedish saints Bridget of Sweden and Helena of Skövde are depicted.
No windows from the medieval church have been preserved. There are four bells in the two towers on the west side; the northern tower contains the large bell, cast in 1725 and enlarged in 1785, whilst three smaller bells hang in the southern tower. The church has a medieval crypt, found in 1949 after having been buried under stones since the 13th century. A grave, containing a skeleton, was found in the crypt, within the oldest part of the cathedral; some remains of the original 10th century structure can still be seen in the crypt. The church is 65 metres long and the towers reach a height of 63 metres. Wideen, Harald, n.d.: Skara Domkyrka, kort historik och vägledning Skara Cathedral official page
Helgo Zettervall
Helgo Nikolaus Zettervall, older spelling Zetterwall, was a Swedish architect and professor of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. He is best known for other buildings around Sweden. Zettervall was a proponent of Gothic Revival architecture and is most associated with his design of the plans for the extensive restoration of Lund Cathedral during the late 19th century. Zettervall was born at Lidköping in Sweden, he attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander and graduated during 1860. In 1862, he conducted a study trip to 1862 made a trip to Germany and Italy, he was chief of Board superintendent for the administration of state buildings from 1882–97. Zettervall was the chief architect in the restoration of old buildings and churches in Sweden during the period 1860–90. Among other commissions, Zettervall designed the plans for the renovation of Lund Cathedral and Uppsala Cathedral, he was appointed to several other large scale restorations including Linköping Cathedral, Skara Cathedral and Uppsala Cathedral, as well as the Kalmar Castle.
Oscar Fredrik Church in Gothenburg was constructed on the basis of plans drawn by Helgo Zetterwall. The church was inaugurated on April 2, 1893 and is a prime example of Northern European Gothic Revival architecture. Zettervall was the main proponent of Gothic Revival architecture of church buildings, his influence has been criticized for his restoration principles. His restorations were not intended to bring back old looks, but according to Zettervall to restore them according to the ideals in the style they were built in. In 1861, he married Ida Anna Christina Lagergren, he was father to architect Folke Zettervall. He became an honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters and Antiquities in 1884 and in 1897 was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, he died in Stockholm during 1907 and was buried in the family plot at Norra begravningsplatsen Eugène Viollet-le-Duc George Gilbert Scott Bodin, Anders Zettervall i Lund: arkitektur och stadsbyggnad i 1800-talet https://web.archive.org/web/20130210024129/http://www.byggnadsvard.se/byggnadskultur/zettervalls-villor-och-bost%C3%A4llen http://130.242.34.243/webarkdok/detalj.asp?id=590
Radviliškis, Lithuania[8]
Eidsvoll, Norway
Sorø, Denmark
Fljótsdalshérað, Iceland
Zeven, Germany
