[1] Hässleholm was gradually developed from 1860 in connection with the construction of the main Stockholm-to-Malmö railway line.

East of the town center is the hometown park ("hembygdspark") with a statue called "Snapphanen", by the sculptor Axel Ebbe [sv].

The statue reminds of the area's history as a center for Scanian insurgents during the 17th-century struggles between Sweden and Denmark.

In 2023, Hässleholm businessman Oddvar Lönnerkrantz told news site Frilagt that Sweden Democrat mayor, Hanna Nilsson had tried to hire him to force a local resident to drop his appeal of the city council's purchase of a building for an elderly care home.

[2] As a result of these accusations, the Moderate Party and Christian Democrats pulled out of Hässleholm's coalition government, and called on Nilsson to resign.