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Kristianstad (Swedish pronunciation: [krɪˈɧanːsta], older spelling Christianstad) is a city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 35,711 inhabitants in 2010. During the last 15 years, it has gone from a garrison town to a developed commercial city, today attracting visitors in the summertime mainly from Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands.

The city was founded in 1614 by King Christian IV of Denmark , the city's name literally means 'Town of Christian', as a planned city after the burning of the nearby town of Vä and moving the city rights of the neighbouring town of Sölvesborg and Åhus to the new town. The purpose of the town was to safeguard the eastern half of the Danish province of Scania against any future raids from Sweden in the north, but also as a symbol of the power of Christian himself. One of these raids had sacked the nearby town of Vä in 1612. Vä then lost its charter and the people were moved to the new, better fortified city. The king also founded the town of Christianopel in eastern Blekinge to serve a similar purpose.

Sweden's lowest point, at 2.41 meters below mean sea level , is located in Kristianstad. Because of this, parts of the city have to be protected from flooding by a system of levees and water pumps. To expand the city, large areas of low-lying wetlands have had to be walled in, especially to the east. To prevent future flooding of the city center, the existing levees are in the process of being reinforced and new levees against both Helge å and Hammarsjön are under construction. An extensive system of ponds and dams is also under construction. The threat of flooding became substantial during late winter 2002, when the greater part of the public park Tivoliparken was under water. However, the wetlands around the city are starting to be regarded more as an asset, not least thanks to the creation of Kristianstads Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve . Today the Vattenriket is a Unesco biosphere reserve.

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