Schwedt/Oder
Description
Schwedt is a town in northeastern Brandenburg, Germany. With the official status of a Große kreisangehörige Stadt (major district town), it is the largest town of the Uckermark district, located near the Oder River close to the border with Poland.OverviewThe formerly agrarian town today has one of the largest oil refineries in Europe. Most industries were located in the remote area during socialist rule in the 1960s and 1970s.Large residential areas were built for the workers moving to Schwedt. About 9% of the town's flats are in prefab concrete buildings dating from the era. As many jobs were lost after German reunification and the return to market economy, Schwedt has lost a quarter of its population since 1990. In recent decades, Schwedt became a model town for the demolition of Plattenbau housing to combat urban decay.GeographySchwedt is situated in the east of the historic Uckermark region stretching from the Oder to the Havel River. It is situated on an sandur at the western edge of the Oder floodplain running along the German-Polish border, which in 1995 was declared as the Lower Oder Valley National Park nature reserve. Across the river and the border, about 10km to the southeast, is the Polish town of Chojna (formerly Königsberg in der Neumark). The nearest German towns are Angermünde (about 18km to the west) and Gartz (18km down the Oder).
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