[3] Karlshamn received a Royal Charter and city privileges in 1664, when King Charles X Gustav, in Swedish Karl, realized the strategic location near the Baltic Sea.

At the outlet of the stream Mieån was found a harbour and fishing village "Bodekull" and a farm "Bodetorp".

The king Charles X Gustav immediately inspected the coast and found here a tremendously beautiful and incomparable harbour.

The location attracted foreign merchants and in 1664 royal privileges were issued to establish a town named after the king, meaning "Karl's Port".

The intercontinental war of 1810 gave Karlshamn a rare possibility to trade goods and the citizens prospered.

Smith established production of aquavit in the town and built a new distillery in 1884 which was effective until 1893, whereafter it was converted into a sugar refinery.

Karlshamn is considered to situate in strategically sensitive area, about 50 kilometres from the Swedish main naval base at Karlskrona.

[4] Gazprom would lease Karlshamn's port to construct Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline after the national government dropped its objections.

"Karlshamns musikkår" is a concert band of wind instruments marching through the city center regularly during the summer season.

Karlshamn is the port where Karl Oskar and Kristina Nilsson and their family departed for America in 1850 in the well-known historical novel The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg.

The settlement of Bodekull naturally took place on the flat area between the steep rocks east and west of town.

During the early 19th century the merchants of the town experienced a boom which materialised in added storeys and more decorations on the facades.

Near Karlshamn, in the village of Gungvala, you can find Gungvalamasten, a 335 metre tall guyed mast for FM- and TV-transmission.

Karlshamn attracts visitors to the salmon fisheries in "Mörrumsån", to the rocky coastline and the Hällaryd archipelago and to the wooded hinterland.

It is an old farmstead with surrounding land now host to a variety of native animals such as European Bison, Crown Deer, Moose and wild boar amongst others.