The history of the Danish and the Scanian people led to assimilation and integration of various aspects of life such as the architectural designs, the lifestyle, as well as cultural practices.
Before the time when Sweden overthrew the Danish regime from Scania, the architectural designs followed the Danish mode of building, even though there was impending scarcity of wood. The traditional Scanian architecture was commonly referred to as half-timbering and relied on wood materials.
Some of the towns that embraced this mode of building include Ystad and over 300 houses are still present to this day.
The structures date back to as early as 1050 during the construction of the first Lund Cathedral. Various towns in Scania developed during the Viking era.
The Viking-king Sweyn Forkbeard facilitated the growth of the city of Lund and most of the architectural designs emerged during the construction of churches.
The Role Of Denmark
The Danish used the Scanian crafts men from prosperity of the region. One example of a milestone that the Danish achieved was to create the first largest mint located in Lund to produce coins.
The coins first appeared in the 870 AD. The period that followed saw the increase in building activities and many churches constructed had a crow-stepped gable as a design for that time.
The Danish king was the force behind the construction designs before the 16th century when there was a reformation era to change and improve the designs of houses. Some of the designs are as explained below.
Romanesque Style
This Danish style emerged in the 9th century and was mainly for churches and none of these structures survived to this age because timber was the main building material.
Romanesque evolved to the 12th and 13th century where the structures involved the use of stones for construction.
The windows were small and round in shape.An example of the structure built in this era in Scania includes the Lund Cathedral.
Gothic Style
The style emerged between the 13th and 15th centuries and the buildings had high cross vaults.
The windows appeared much enlarged from the previous styles.
In Scania, Glimmingehus (1499–1506) is a structure representing this era and Jens Holgersen from Denmark launched the building.
Half-Timbered Buildings
This middle age period introduced the half-timbered structures in Scania.
The Danish introduced this architectural design, and it was before the inversion of the Swedish domestic colonisation of Scania.
An example of the building that came up using this design is Ystad found in Scania.
Few houses that had this design still survive to date and act as tourist attraction for people to understand the evolution of architectural designs.
Renaissance
The Swedish had already taken control of the Skåneland and the leadership Christian IV inspired the design.
The French castles were also a force to reckon with because it helped the Scandinavian countries to use such designs to construct the castles.
Big buildings used these designs while people in the villages preferred the half-timbered designs.
Baroque, Rococo, And Neoclassical
The Danish architectural designs occurred in the order: Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical. All the three styles occurred in 1700s but the 19th century ushered in a design called Classicism, Historicism, and then Modernism.
After that, buildings became more ultra-modern and urbanised to fit the current state of buildings.