Marcel Burger - Third time's the charm

Malmö is Sweden's gateway to/from Europe and has a strong multicultural atmosphere. The city of 325,000 people has transformed itself from an industrial heavyweight to a cultural hub. Until 1998 it even lacked real higher education - with the academic town of Lund only a 15-minutes drive away - but that has changed since.

Simply known as The Bridge since the 2011-2018 Nordic noir for TV, the Öresundsbron connects Denmark and Sweden. Spanning 7,8 kilometres (4.3 miles) it is the second longest combined road/rail bridge in Europe. On the Danish side the bridge flows onto the artificial island of Peberholm and than into a 4-kilometre long tunnel. The entire fixed link is 15.9 kilometres (9.3 miles). It was opened in 1999.

Malmö's continuous urge to renew itself has been at the expense of the authentic character of some neighborhoods. Yet the city managed to maintain an interesting mix of old and new, with the Turning Torso as a modern calling card - towering 190 metres (623 feet) over the Öresund and clearly visible from Denmark on the other side of the narrow sound. Västra Hamnen is the growth center of the city, with a mixture of different architectural styles and so-called sustainable homes to reduce the burden on the environment.

I've been visiting Malmö many times in the past two decades. Sometimes with, sometimes without a camera. I've illustrated my selection of photographs partly with texts published in my travel guide book on Sweden published in 2008, translated from Dutch, and new words.

The Inre hamnen seen when one approaches from the sea. The dominating tower building is the Tornhuset, the port authority office from 1910 designed by Harald Boklund in the typical National Romantic style of heavy brick walls and high, steep tiled roofs. Since 2015 it is home to the World Maritime University.

Inre hamnen

Inre hamnen (Inner harbour) is the oldest part of Malmö as a seafaring city. Nowadays it has an interesting mixture of late 18th and early 19th Century buildings combined with more contemporary architecture. As for boat traffic, since ferry boats to nearby Copenhagen in Denmark start going in 2002, the Inre hamnen has turned into more or less a sleeping harbour.

Just behind the bridge on the left hand side the Börshuset. It was never used for trading, but served as the Customs House (Stora Tullhuset) from 1879 to 1979. Today it is an office building.

View towards University bridge and the Malmö Inner Lighttower. The latter was built in 1878 but is already a non-functional landmark since 1932.

In and around Malmö Central Station (Centralstationen)

Malmö Central Station and its surrounding area have undergone an impressive transition in the past 20 years. Parts of the station building have been turned into a food court, and new architectonic landmarks have been put up near it. Trains no longer run above ground to Copenhagen, as it was at the turn of the Millennium, but start underground. This makes the Danish capital reachable by train in about half an hour.

A quiet moment in the Malmö Centralstation Food Court

Towering 85 metres (278 feet) with 25 floors is the centre piece of the Malmö Live area, the Clarion Hotel & Congress.

Introduced in 2014 are the extra long busses of Malmöexpressen (MEX). The 24 metres (79 feet) gas-electric "bus trams" are made by Van Hool in Belgium.

Gamla Väster (The Old West)

Just west of Malmö's main square is arguable the cutest area of the city: Gamla Väster (The Old West). Especially the street Jakob Nilsgatan is very picturesque, with colourful houses. As living quarter for the less fortunate it escaped the 1970s and 1980s wave of destruction that city planners let loose on many Swedish inner cities.

All photos in this series are taken at Jakob Nilsgatan at different times.

Stortorget (The Main Square)

One cannot really miss Stortorget (The Main Square). The then Mayor Jörgen Kock established it as a market square in 1536, and it immediately become one of Northern Europe's biggest. Nowadays it is partly parking lot, partly a place for protests and partly the starting point for a city walk or a new chapter in life - as it has the old city hall right at it.

Wedding parties on the steps of the city hall are a common sight at Stortorget in Malmö. Photo from 2015.

The Lion's Passage at Main Square

Reflections of Malmö's Main Square in 2015.

The Flensburgska huset from 1595, located a bit south of the Main Square, is one of the oldest buildings in Malmö that survived the onslaught by city planners during the 1970s and 1980s.

Gustav Adolfs Torg (Gustav Adolf's Square)

Named after King Gustav IV, the royal that wanted to turn Malmö into Sweden's second capital before he was deposed. It is now a market square, central bus stop and meeting point. Gstav Adolfs Torg is also the connection between the old town, and enlengthment of the main shopping street towards Triangeln square, 450 metres (1,475 feet) further south.

Flower stand on an autumnish Gustav Adolf's Square

Triangeltorget, the small square at the end of the main Malmö shopping street cluster that begins at Stortorget (main square) further north.

Holmgången is a cute shortcut a few hundred metres south of Gustav Adolfstorg.

Västra hamnen (The Western Harbour) and the Turning Torso

At the beginning of this Millennium Västra hamnen (the Western Harbour) was very much a place of the future. Build on former industrial lands around the once big Kockum's shipyard, a new residential area has risen ever since. With modern, Varied architecture, views and walking paths along the Öresund water, marinas, swimming spots and small and medium-sized businesses.

Not to be missed is the enormous apartment tower that is visible as far away as Denmark: Santiago Calatrava's Turning Torso. The building is 190 m (623 feet) high and was completed in 2005. The architect was inspired by a self-made sculpture: Twisting Torso. The building rotates 90 degrees on its axis from bottom to top and has 54 floors. If you have money to spare, you can book a conference room at 179 m above sea level, with fantastic views when the weather is good. The residential complex does not have a public observatory.

Ribersborgsstranden (The Ribersborg's Beach)

Ribersborgsstranden is a two-kilometer-long sandy beach with piers and green belt on the southwest side of the city centre, popular for swimming, barbecuing, sunbathing or exercising. The surrounding green belt is also popular. The beach offers 5 long and 5 shorter piers, with at pier no.1 closest to the city the wooden Kallbadhuset (Cold Bath House) connected by land via a 150-metres-long jetty offers a hot sauna and ... a cold jump into the Öresund.

The Kallbadhuset (Cold Bath House) at Pier 1 of Ribersborgsstranden in Malmö.