Halmstad

Seaport and capital of Halland county in southwest Sweden; population (1996 est) 54,200. It is situated at the mouth of the River Nissa, on the eastern shore of the Kattegat strait. The town manufactures beer, wood pulp, jute, and paper. The chief exports are granite, timber, and butter.

Six post-cubist artists met in the town in the late 1920s and became known as the Halmstad Group. Their distinctive form of Nordic surrealism was strongly influenced by the county's landscape.