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1 History

It is believed that the name Gävle stems from the word gavel, referring to the high banks of the river Gavleån which runs through Gävle that were called gavel in Swedish. The oldest settlement was called Gavle-ägarna in Swedish, which means Gavel-owners. This name was eventually shortened to Gavle, then Gefle, and finally Gävle.

For a long time Gävle consisted solely of small, low, turf or shingle roofed, wooden buildings. Boat-houses lined the banks of Gavleån , Lillån , and Islandsån . Untill the 1700s the town was built, as was the practice then, around the three most important buildings; the church, the regional palace, and the town hall.

Over the last 300 years Gävle has been ablaze on three different occasions. After the fire of 1776 the town was transformed to straight streets and rectangular city blocks. The number of stone and brick houses started also started to increase.

The biggest town fire occurred 1869 when out of a population of around 10,000 approximately 8,000 inhabitants lost their homes, and about 350 farmsA farm is the basic unit in agriculture. It is a section of land devoted to the production and management of food, either produce or livestock. It may be an enterprise owned and operated by a single individual, family, or community, or it may be owned by were destroyed. Almost the whole town north of Gavleån was burnt down. All the buildings south of Gavleån were saved. An area of the old town between the museum and the library has been preserved to this day as a reserve - Gamla Gefle .

After the catastrophy of the fire Gävle developed it's characteristic grid plan with large esplanadesAn esplanade is a raised walkway area. Although an esplanade can be anywhere, almost all are alongside the sea, a tidal river or other large water body. This allows people to walk along the sea front, usually for recreational purposes, whatever the state and green areas. It is now a green town with wide avenuesAn avenue can mean any of the following: Most commonly, it refers to two parallel lines of trees specially planted as a landscape feature. See Avenue (landscape). It is also a specialist term in archaeology referring to lines of stones. See Avenue (archae. Stopping the spread of future town fires was the main idea behind this development.

An extensive redevelopment of the central town area was started during the 1950s. Around 1970 Gävle became a large urbanUrban is in or having to do with cities, as distinct from rural areas. In terms of music, urban music and urban radio are synonymous with the terms rap or hip hop and Rhythm and blues, which typically originates in urban areas. In these contexts the term district when it was united with the nearby municipalities of Valbo, Hamrånge , Hedesunda, and Hille . New suburbs like Stigslund , Sätra , Andersberg , and Bomhus have grown up around the central town.