Helsingborg, Sweden

Helsingborg sits on the southwest tip of Sweden, where roughly 150,000 residents live across a four-kilometre strait from the Danish city of Helsingør. On a hill above the harbour rises the 35-metre brick Kärnan, the sole surviving structure of the medieval Helsingborg Fortress, which still looks out toward Denmark. The town itself remained under Danish rule until 1658, when Skåne was ceded to Sweden and shifted the border north. Centuries later, the 1929 City Hall by architect Sven Markelius added a noted example of Nordic Classicism to the streets below. The threads between these two shores run deeper than the strait that separates them.