Skåne - Ales Stenar, Ship Setting

Scania ( Skåne (help·info) in Swedish) is the southernmost of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces (landskap) of Sweden, constituting a peninsula on the southern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, and some adjacent islands. The modern administrative subdivision (län) Skåne County is almost, but not totally, congruent with the province. The largest city is Malmö, which is also the third largest in Sweden and the administrative centre of Skåne County.

To the north, Scania borders the provinces of Halland and Småland, to the north-east Blekinge, to the east and south the Baltic Sea, and to the west the Öresund strait. Since 2000 a road and railway bridge, the Øresund Bridge constitutes a fixed link to the Danish island of Zealand. It is part of the transnational Öresund Region.

The province, up until the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, formed part of the kingdom of Denmark. The transition to Sweden was later confirmed by the Treaty of Copenhagen 1660, the Peace of Lund 1679, the Peace of Travendal 1700. The last serious Danish attempt to retake the province failed in 1710, after the Battle of Helsingborg. The period 1658-1720 saw widespread violence by the Swedish military against the population. The region did not form part of Sweden proper until 1720, but had the status of conquered "foreign land" until that year. Until the early 19th century, a policy of forced assimilation was employed by the Swedish government in what until then had been a linguistically Danish region. Controversy relating to whether the Scanian dialects should be classified as Swedish remains to this day.

Skåne County (Skåne län) is the southernmost administrative county or län, of Sweden, basically corresponding to the historical province Scania. It borders the counties of Halland, Kronoberg and Blekinge. The seat of residence for the Skåne Governor is the town of Malmö. The headquarters of Region Skåne is the town of Kristianstad.

The present county was created in 1997 when Kristianstad County and Malmöhus County were merged.

Scania County covers around 3% of Sweden's total area, but its population of 1,250,000 comprises 13% of Sweden's total population.

Sweden (ⁱ/ˈswiːdən/ swee-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish:  Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.