page_title: Skövde
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Skövde / History
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Billingen sedd från öster med Skövde i förgrunden.
context_page_description: Skövde is a locality and urban centre in Skövde Municipality and Västra Götaland County, in the Västergötland in central Southern Sweden.
  Skövde is situated some 150 km northeast of Gothenburg, between Sweden's two largest lakes, Vänern and Vättern. It lies on the eastern slope of a low mountain ridge, Billingen, which cuts through the plain between the lakes. The Western Main Railway was built through Skövde in the 1850s, which gave the town a dramatic industrial and population boost.
  Today, Skövde is home to the headquarters for Skaraborg's District Court and is the Västra Götaland's fourth-largest urban area as well as Sweden's 32nd biggest locality with 34,466 inhabitants in 2010.
context_section_description: Skövde traces its history back to the Medieval Age. In Skövde's city coat of arms is the image of Saint Elin (also known as Saint Helena), who was considered a pious woman from Skövde. She was born about 1101, and was canonized in 1164.
  Of the medieval houses that once existed virtually nothing remains, as a fire in 1759 burned down the entire city except for some houses called Helensgården. After the fire, the city was rebuilt according to a grid pattern. The city only had a small population until the railway between Stockholm and Gothenburg was laid through the city, leading to an industrial and population boost.
caption: Billingen seen from the East with Skövde in the foreground.
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