Northern mist over Southern fields; the identity of a European regional landscape

The region of Scania (Skåne in Swedish), in southernmost Sweden, is in some ways a negation of Sweden proper – a nation iconographically characterized by its deep forests, small hamlets, and mountainous wilderness. Scania’s rural landscape is to a greater part an open, fertile agricultural plain. Unlike other open agricultural areas in the country it has a long non-Swedish history. The region was, and still is, an interface between continental Europe and the European north. This gives Scania a regional identity with a transitional brand that among other things is reflected in its regional landscape. Against this background the paper discusses some problems and aspects of how the landscape is treated in planning, in the heritage business, and how its identity is formed within and besides a Swedish national discourse.