title: Argonauts

text: Putting to sea from there, they were hindered from touching at Crete by Talos. Some say that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that he was given to Minos by Hephaestus; he was a brazen man, but some say that he was a bull. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles, and a bronze nail was rammed home at the end of the vein. This Talos kept guard, running round the island thrice every day; wherefore, when he saw the Argo standing inshore, he pelted it as usual with stones. His death was brought about by the wiles of Medea, whether, as some say, she drove him mad by drugs, or, as others say, she promised to make him immortal and then drew out the nail, so that all the ichor gushed out and he died. But some say that Poeas shot him dead in the ankle.


title: Argonauts

text: After tarrying a single night there, they put in to Aigina to draw water, and a contest arose among them concerning the drawing of the water. Thence they sailed betwixt Euboea and Locris and came to Iolcus, having completed the whole voyage in four months.


title: Argonauts

text: Sozomen wrote that when the Argonauts left from the Aeetes, they returned from a different route, crossed the sea of Scythia, sailed through some of the rivers there, and when they were near the shores of Italy, they built a city in order to stay at the winter, which they called Emona (), part of modern-day Ljubljana in Slovenia. At summer, with the assistance of the locals, they dragged the Argo to the Aquilis river (), which falls into the Eridanus. The Eridanus itself falls into the Adriatic sea.


title: Argonauts

text: Zosimus wrote that after they left from the Aeetes, they arrived at the mouth of the Ister river which it discharges itself into the Black Sea and they went up that river against the stream, by the help of oars and convenient gales of wind. After they managed to do it, they built the city of Emona as a memorial of their arrival there. Afterwards placing the Argo, on machines they drew it as far as the sea-side and from there they went at the Thessalian shore.


title: Argonauts

text: Pliny the Elder wrote that some writers claim that the Argo came down some river into the Adriatic sea, not far from Tergeste but that river is now unknown. While other writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister river, then along the Savus river, and then to Nauportus which is lying between the Emona and the Alps.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is the Federation of International Bandy (FIB).


title: Bandy

text: The playing surface, called a bandy field or bandy rink, is a sheet of ice which measures 90–110 meters by 45–65 meters – about the size of a football pitch. The field is considerably larger than the ice rinks commonly used for ice hockey, rink bandy, or figure skating. The goal cage used in bandy is 3.5 m (11 ft) wide and 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) high and is the largest one used by any organized winter team sport.


title: Bandy

text: The sport has a common background with association football (soccer), ice hockey, and field hockey. Bandy's origins are debatable, but its first rules were organized and published in England in 1882.


title: Bandy

text: Internationally, bandy's strongest nations in both men's and women's competitions at present are Sweden and Russia with both countries having established professional men's bandy leagues. In Russia it is estimated that more than one million people play bandy. The sport also has organised league play and dedicated fans in other countries, most notably Finland, Norway, and Kazakhstan. The premier international bandy competition for men is the Bandy World Championship and the premier international bandy competition for women is the Women's Bandy World Championship.


title: Bandy

text: In 2001, bandy was recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Both traditional eleven-a-side bandy and rink bandy (which is played on a smaller rink) are recognized by the IOC. Based on the number of participating athletes, the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) has claimed bandy is the world's second-most participated winter sport after ice hockey but is unclear how many participants are male and how many are female.


title: Bandy

text: The earliest origin of the sport is debated. Though many Russians see their old countrymen as the creators of the sport – reflected by the unofficial title for bandy, "Russian hockey" (русский хоккей) – Russia, England, Wales, and the Netherlands (informally called "Holland") each had sports or pastimes, such as bando, which can be seen as forerunners of the present sport.


title: Bandy

text: The sport's first published set of organized rules were codified in 1882 in England by Charles Goodman Tebbutt of the Bury Fen Bandy Club. When the international federation was founded in 1955, it came about after a compromise between Russian and English rules, in which more of the English rules prevailed.


title: Bandy

text: Since association football was already popular in England, the codified bandy rules took after much of the football rules. Like association football, games are normally two 45 minute halves and there are 11 players per side. Players sticks are curved like large field hockey sticks and the bandy ball is roughly the size of a tennis ball with a cork core and hard plastic coating. Bandy balls are either orange or more commonly nowadays, cerise. Shouldering is allowed in checking situations and body contact therefore does occur, but body checking and fighting are illegal. The offside rule in bandy is in general similar to the offside rules used in association football. Goalkeepers use gloves made specifically for their position and wear them on both hands but do not use any type of stick.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy as an ice skating sport first developed in Britain. English bandy developed as a winter sport in the Fens of East Anglia. Large expanses of ice would form on the flooded meadows or shallow washes in cold winters where fen skating, which has been a tradition dating back to at least medieval times, took place. Bandy's early recorded modernization period can be traced back to 1813.


title: Bandy

text: Members of the Bury Fen Bandy Club published rules of the game in 1882, and introduced it into other European countries. A variety of stick and ball games involving ice skating were introduced to North America by the 1800s but failed to organize and develop popular rules codes. However these stick and ball games became one of the eventual antecedents of the modern sport of ice hockey whose first rules were codified in Canada in 1875, almost a decade before the rules of modern bandy were established in Britain.


title: Bandy

text: The first international bandy match took place in 1891 between Bury Fen and the Haarlemsche Hockey & Bandy Club from the Netherlands (a club which after a couple of club fusions now is named HC Bloemendaal). The same year, the National Bandy Association was established in England as a governing body for the sport in England. National governing federations for bandy were also founded in the 1890s in the Netherlands and Russia and in the following decade in Finland, Sweden, and Norway.


title: Bandy

text: The match later dubbed "the original bandy match", was actually held in 1875 at The Crystal Palace in London. However, at the time, the game was called "hockey on the ice", probably as it was considered an ice variant of field hockey.


title: Bandy

text: An early maker of bandysticks was the firm of Gray's, Cambridge. One such stick, now in the collections of the Museum of Cambridge, has a length of rope twisted round the handle to rescue any player who might fall through the ice, as the game was played on frozen lakes back then. An 1899 photo of two players demonstrating the game shows the sticks being held single-handed.


title: Bandy

text: Historically, bandy was a popular sport in England and in some central and western European countries until the First World War, and from 1901 to 1926 it was played in the Scandinavian Nordic Games, the first international multi-sport event focused on winter sports.


title: Bandy

text: The sport's English name comes from the verb "to bandy", from the Middle French ("to strike back and forth"), and originally referred to a 17th-century Irish game similar to field hockey. The curved stick was also called a "bandy". The etymological connection to the similarly named Welsh hockey game of bando is not clear.


title: Bandy

text: An old name for bandy is "hockey on the ice"; in the first rule books from England at the turn of the Century 1900, the sport is literally called "bandy or hockey on the ice". Since the early 20th century, the term bandy is usually preferred to prevent confusion with ice hockey.


title: Bandy

text: The sport is known as bandy in many languages though there are a few notable exceptions. In Russian bandy is called "Russian hockey" () or more frequently, and officially, "hockey with a ball" () while ice hockey is called "hockey with a puck" () or more frequently just "hockey". If the context makes it clear that bandy is the subject, it as well can be called just "hockey". In Belarusian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian it is also called "hockey with a ball" (, and respectively). In Slovak "bandy hockey" () is the name. In Armenian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongol and Uzbek, bandy is known as "ball hockey" (, , , and respectively). In Finnish the two sports are distinguished as "ice ball" () and "ice puck" (), as well as in Hungarian (), although in Hungarian it is more often called "bandy" nowadays. In Estonian bandy is also called "ice ball" (). In Mandarin Chinese it is "bandy ball" (). In Scottish Gaelic the name is "ice shinty" (). In old times shinty or shinney were also sometimes used in English for bandy.


title: Bandy

text: With association football and "hockey on ice" or bandy both being popular sports in parts of Europe around 1900, bandy was highly influenced by football and taking after its main rules: having a field approximately the same size, having the same number of players on each team and having the same game time (2×45 minutes). It is natural that bandy got the nickname 'winter football'.


title: Bandy

text: It was common for sports clubs to have both a bandy and a football section, with athletes playing both sports but at different times of the year. Some examples are "Nottingham Forest Football and Bandy Club" in England (today known just as Nottingham Forest F.C.) and Norwegian Strømsgodset IF and Mjøndalen IF, with both having an active bandy section.


title: Bandy

text: In Sweden, most football clubs that were active during the first half of the 20th century also played bandy. Swedish player Orvar Bergmark earned silver medals in the world championships of both sports in the 1950s. Later, as the season for each sport increased in time, it was not as easy for the players to engage in both sports, so some clubs came to concentrate on one or the other. Many old clubs still have both sports on their program.


title: Bandy

text: As bandy in a way can be seen as a precursor to ice hockey, bandy has influenced the development and history of ice hockey – mainly in European and former Soviet countries. While modern ice hockey was created in Canada, a variety of games which bore a closer resemblance to bandy were initially played there after British soldiers introduced the game of bandy in the late 19th century. At the same time as modern ice hockey rules were formalized in British North America (present-day Canada), bandy rules were decided upon in Europe. A cross between English and Russian bandy rules eventually developed with the football-inspired English rules (cf the passage above about bandy and association football) becoming dominant, together with the Russian low-border along most of the two sidelines, an addition to the sport which has maintained its presence since the 1950s.


title: Bandy

text: Before Canadians introduced ice hockey into Europe in the early 20th century, "hockey" was another name for bandy, and still is in parts of Russia and Kazakhstan.


title: Bandy

text: Both bandy and ice hockey were played in Europe during the 20th century, especially in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Ice hockey became more popular than bandy in most of Europe mostly because it had become an Olympic sport, while bandy had not. Athletes in Europe who had played bandy switched to ice hockey in the 1920s to compete in the Olympics. The smaller ice fields needed for ice hockey also made its rinks easier to maintain, especially in countries with short winters. On the other hand, ice hockey was not played in the Soviet Union until the 1950s when the USSR wanted to compete internationally. The typical European style of ice hockey, with flowing, less physical play, represents a heritage of bandy.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy was played at the Nordic Games in both Stockholm and Kristiania (present day Oslo) in 1901, 1903, 1905, 1909, 1913, 1917, 1922, and 1926, and between Swedish, Finnish and Russian teams at similar games in Helsinki in 1907. Bandy appeared as a sport in all eight editions of the Nordic Games from 1901 to 1926.


title: Bandy

text: The 1913 European Bandy Championships was the first (and to date, the only) European Championship tournament in bandy. It was held in February 1913, in St. Moritz, Switzerland with eight countries participating, but none from the Nordic countries. While Germany competed, Sweden and Russia did not, with both countries competing in the 1913 Nordic Games instead. In 2014, the Four Nation Bandy tournament was held in Davos, Switzerland, as a centenary celebration of the 1913 European Bandy Championships.


title: Bandy

text: The highest altitude where bandy has been played is in Khorugh, the capital of the Tajik autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan. Khorugh is situated 2,200 metres (7,200 ft) above sea level in the Pamir Mountains.


title: Bandy

text: Since the 1950s, when the Soviet Union ended its isolation and started to take part in international sports events, there has been reason to play world championships. The International Bandy Federation was founded in 1955 and the first world championships were played in 1957 with the Soviet Union and then Russia (as its successor country in 1991) consistently in a top position in the sport of bandy alongside Sweden.


title: Bandy

text: In a similar fashion, Russia, along with Sweden, has emerged as one of the two dominant women's bandy nations internationally in the Women's Bandy World Championship.


title: Bandy

text: Women's bandy uses the exact same rules as men, but the women's game is played separately. Women have been playing bandy since the sport was originally developed. Although there were several attempts in the early part of the 19th century to organise bandy leagues for women's teams, regular leagues only started in the 1970s in Sweden and Finland and then later in the 1980s in Norway and the Soviet Union.


title: Bandy

text: Starting in the 1980s and increasingly since the turn of the millennium, more and more indoor arenas for bandy have been built (often as joint arenas to be used also for football or speed skating). The use of indoor arenas makes the effects of the weather on a game virtually insignificant, something which earlier always have been a factor to consider for the teams and the audiences. However, unlike some other sports, bandy is still the same game with the same rules indoors or outdoors and no changes are made to the rules depending on whether there's a roof overhead or not. Many games, even in the highest leagues, are still played outdoors.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy is played on ice, using a single round bandy ball. Two teams of 11 players each compete to get the ball into the other team's goal using bandy sticks, thereby scoring a goal. The team that has scored more goals at the end of the game is the winner. If both teams have scored an equal number of goals, then, with some exceptions, the game is a draw. The game is designed to be played on a rectangular sheet of ice, called a bandy field, which is the same size as a football (soccer) field.


title: Bandy

text: In a typical game, players attempt to propel the ball toward their opponents' goal through individual control of the ball, such as by dribbling, passing the ball to a teammate, and taking shots at the goal, which is guarded by the opposing goalkeeper. Opposing players may try to regain control of the ball by intercepting a pass or tackling the opponent who controls the ball. However, physical contact between opponents is limited. Bandy is generally a free-flowing game, with play stopping only when the ball has left the field of play, or when play is stopped by the referee. After a stoppage, play can recommence with a free stroke, a penalty shot or a corner stroke. If the ball has left the field along the sidelines, the referee must decide which team touched the ball last, and award a restart stroke to the opposing team, just like football's throw-in.


title: Bandy

text: In terms of rules, bandy has several rules that are similar to football. Each team has 11 players, one of whom is a goalkeeper. The offside rule, which in general is similar to the one used in football, is also employed. A goal cannot be scored from a goal throw, but unlike football, a goal can be scored from a stroke-in or a corner stroke. All free strokes are "direct" and allow a goal to be scored without another player touching the ball. A primary rule is that players (other than the goalkeepers) may not intentionally touch the ball with their heads, hands or arms during play. Although players usually use their sticks to move the ball around, they may use any part of their bodies other than their heads, hands or arms and may use their skates in a limited manner.


title: Bandy

text: The rules do not specify any player positions other than goalkeeper, but a number of player specialisations have evolved. Broadly, these include three main categories:


title: Bandy

text: Players in these positions are referred to as outfield players, to discern them from the single goalkeeper. These positions are further differentiated by which side of the field the player spends most time in. For example, there are central defenders, and left and right midfielders. The ten outfield players may be arranged in these positions in any combination (for example, there may be three defenders, five midfielders, and two forwards), and the number of players in each position determines the style of the team's play; more forwards and fewer defenders would create a more aggressive and offensive-minded game, while the reverse would create a slower, more defensive style of play. While players may spend most of the game in a specific position, there are few restrictions on player movement, and players can switch positions at any time. The layout of the players on the pitch is called the team's formation, and defining the team's formation and tactics is usually the prerogative of the team's manager(s). Formation in bandy is often comparable to the formation in association football.


title: Bandy

text: There are eighteen rules in official play, designed to apply to all levels of bandy, although certain modifications for groups such as juniors, veterans or women are permitted. The rules are often framed in broad terms, which allow flexibility in their application depending on the nature of the game. A game is officiated by a referee, the authority and enforcer of the rules, whose decisions are final. The referee may have one or two assistant referees. A secretary outside of the field often takes care of the match protocol.


title: Bandy

text: The Bandy Playing Rules can be found on the official website of the Federation of International Bandy, and are overseen by the Rules and Referee Committee.


title: Bandy

text: Each team consists of a maximum of 11 players (excluding substitutes), one of whom must be the goalkeeper. A team of fewer than eight players may not start a game. Goalkeepers are the only players allowed to play the ball with their hands or arms, and they are only allowed to do so within the penalty area in front of their own goal.


title: Bandy

text: Though there are a variety of positions in which the outfield (non-goalkeeper) players are strategically placed by a coach, these positions are not defined or required by the rules of the game.


title: Bandy

text: The positions and formations of the players in bandy are virtually the same as the common association football positions and the same terms are used for the different positions of the players. A team usually consists of defenders, midfielders and forwards. The defenders can play in the form of centre-backs, full-backs and sometimes wing-backs, midfielders playing in the centre, attacking or defensive, and forwards in the form of centre forward, second strikers and sometimes a winger. Sometimes one player is also taking up the role of a libero.


title: Bandy

text: Any number of players may be replaced by substitutes during the course of the game. Substitutions can be performed without notifying the referee and can be performed while the ball is in play. However, the substitute must leave the ice before the teammate enters it. A team can bring at the most four substitutes to the game, five if one of these is an extra goalkeeper.


title: Bandy

text: Formation in bandy describes how the players in a team generally position themselves on the rink and is often comparable to the formation in association football. The team's manager(s) define the team's formation while tactics are usually their prerogative as well.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy is a fluid and fast-moving game, and (with the exception of the goalkeeper) a player's position in a formation does not define their role as rigidly as for, for instance, a rugby player, nor are there episodes in play where players must expressly line up in formation (as in gridiron football). The bandy games are more similar to association football in this regard. Nevertheless, a player's position in a formation generally defines whether a player has a mostly defensive or attacking role, and whether they tend to play towards one side of the pitch or centrally.


title: Bandy

text: A standard adult bandy match consists of two periods of 45 minutes each, known as halves. Each half runs continuously, meaning the clock is not stopped when the ball is out of play; the referee can, however, make allowance for time lost through significant stoppages as described below. There is usually a 15-minute half-time break. The end of the match is known as full-time.


title: Bandy

text: The referee is the official timekeeper for the match and may make an allowance for time lost through substitutions, injured players requiring attention, or other stoppages. This added time is commonly referred to as "stoppage time" or "injury-time", and must be reported to the match secretary and the two captains. The referee alone signals the end of the match.


title: Bandy

text: If it is very cold or if it is snowing, the match can be broken into thirds of 30 minutes each. At the extremely cold 1999 World Championship some matches were played in four periods of 15 minutes each and with extra long breaks in between. In the World Championships the two halves can be 30 minutes each for the nations in the B division.


title: Bandy

text: In league competitions, games may end in a draw, but in some knockout competitions if a game is tied at the end of regulation time it may go into extra time, which usually consists of two further 10-minute periods. If the score is still tied after extra time, the game will be decided on penalties. The teams shoot five penalties each and if this doesn't settle the game, the teams shoot one more penalty each until one of them misses and the other scores.


title: Bandy

text: Under the rules, the two basic states of play during a game are "ball in play" and "ball out of play". From the beginning of each playing period with a stroke-off (a set strike from the centre-spot by one team) until the end of the playing period, the ball is in play at all times, except when either the ball leaves the field of play, or play is stopped by the referee. When the ball becomes out of play, play is restarted by one of six restart methods depending on how it went out of play:


title: Bandy

text: If the time runs out while a team is preparing for a free-stroke or penalty, the strike should still be made but it must go into the goal by one shot to count as a goal. Similarly, a goal made via a corner stroke should be allowed, but it must be executed using only one shot in addition to the strike needed to put the ball in play.


title: Bandy

text: Free-strokes can be awarded to a team if a player of the opposite team breaks any rule, for example, by hitting with the stick against the opponent's stick or skates. Free-strokes can also be awarded upon incorrect execution of corner-strikes, free-strikes, goal-throws, and so on. or the use of incorrect equipment, such as a broken stick.


title: Bandy

text: Rather than stopping play, the referee may allow play to continue when its continuation will benefit the team against which an offence has been committed. This is known as "playing an advantage". The referee may "call back" play and penalise the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue within a short period of time, typically taken to be four to five seconds. Even if an offence is not penalised because the referee plays an advantage, the offender may still be sanctioned (see below) for any associated misconduct at the next stoppage of play.


title: Bandy

text: If a defender violently attacks an opponent within the penalty area, a penalty shot is awarded. Certain other offences, when carried out within the penalty area, resulting in a penalty shot provided there is a goal situation. These include a defender holding or hooking an attacker, or blocking a goal situation with a lifted skate, thrown stick or glove and so on. Also, the defenders (with the exception of the goal-keeper) are not allowed to kneel or lie on the ice. The final offences that might mandate a penalty shot are those of hitting or blocking an opponent's stick or touching the ball with the hands, arms, stick or head. A 10-minute penalty or a red card may be issued to the offending player as well.


title: Bandy

text: A ten-minute penalty is indicated through the use of a blue card and can be caused by protesting or behaving incorrectly, attacking an opponent violently or stopping the ball incorrectly to get an advantage.


title: Bandy

text: The third time a player receives a time penalty, it will be a personal penalty, meaning he or she will miss the remainder of the match. A substitute can enter the field after five or ten minutes, depending on the type of time penalty received. A full game penalty can be received upon using abusive language or directly attacking an opponent and means that the player can neither play nor be substituted for the remainder of the game. A match penalty is indicated through the use of a red card.


title: Bandy

text: The offside rule effectively limits the ability to attack players to remain forward (i.e. closer to the opponent's goal-line) of the ball, the second-to-last defending player (which can include the goalkeeper), and the half-way line. This rule is in general similar to that of soccer.


title: Bandy

text: The basic equipment players are required to wear includes a pair of bandy skates, a helmet, a mouthguard and, in the case of the goalkeeper, a faceguard.


title: Bandy

text: The teams must wear uniforms that make it easy to distinguish the two teams. The goalkeeper wears distinct colours to single him out from his or her teammates, just as in football. The ice skates, sticks and any tape on the stick must be of another colour than the bandy ball, which is orange or cerise.


title: Bandy

text: In addition to the aforementioned, various protections are used to protect knees, elbows, genitals and throat. The pants and gloves may contain padding.


title: Bandy

text: The stick used in bandy is an essential part of the sport. It should be made of an approved material such as wood or a similar material and should not contain any metal or sharp parts which can hurt the surrounding players.


title: Bandy

text: Sticks are crooked and are available in five angles, where 1 has the smallest bend and 5 has the most. Bend 4 is the most common size in professional bandy.


title: Bandy

text: The bandy stick should not have similar colours to the ball, such as orange or pink; it should be no longer than , and no wider than .


title: Bandy

text: A bandy field is by , a total of , or about the same size as a football pitch and considerably larger than an ice hockey rink. Along the sidelines a high border (vant, sarg, wand, wall) is placed to prevent the ball from leaving the ice. It should not be attached to the ice, to glide upon collisions, and should end away from the corners.


title: Bandy

text: Centered at each shortline is a wide and high goal cage and in front of the cage is a half-circular penalty area with a radius. A penalty spot is located in front of the goal and there are two free-stroke spots at the penalty area line, each surrounded by a circle.


title: Bandy

text: A centre spot with a circle of radius denotes the center of the field. A centre-line is drawn through the centre spot parallel with the shortlines.


title: Bandy

text: At each of the corners, a radius quarter-circle is drawn, and a dotted line is painted parallel to the shortline and away from it without extending into the penalty area. The dotted line can be replaced with a long line starting at the edge of the penalty area and extending towards the sideline, from the shortline.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy players require protective equipment, some of which is designed specifically for the sport such as the bandy chinguard. Equipment is similar to that worn in ice hockey but is typically smaller, lighter, and more flexible, and more closely resembles the equipment worn in the modern sport of ringette.


title: Bandy

text: All players are required to wear helmets. While some bandy players are required to wear facemasks such a young players, some outfield players only wear a helmet with a bandy chin guard. Goaltenders are the exception and must wear a helmet and facemask at all times.


title: Bandy

text: Starting in the first decade of the 20th Century, friendlies were played between national teams of some European countries. While games like this did not take place in central and western Europe after the 1910s, the Nordic countries of Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden continued, doing it more regularly during the 1920s and 1930s with annually or semi-annually recurring friendlies between some of them.


title: Bandy

text: Sweden tried to arrange friendlies with the Soviet Union in the 1940s, but it did not come to be until the 1950s.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy was played as one of the sports at the Nordic Games, international winter sports events held during the first few decades of the 20th Century.


title: Bandy

text: The Federation of International Bandy (FIB) has had 33 members at most, each representing a country where bandy is played. Currently, there are 27 members of the federation. Formed in 1955, the name was changed from "International Bandy Federation" in 2001 after the International Olympic Committee approved it as a so-called "recognized sport". The abbreviation "IBF" was at the time already used by another recognized sports federation, and IOC considers it important that the official abbreviations of sports federations are unique, so that the federations are not mistaken for one another. In 2004, FIB was fully accepted by IOC.


title: Bandy

text: The Bandy World Championship for men is arranged by the FIB and was first held in 1957. It was held every two years starting in 1961, and every year since 2003.


title: Bandy

text: Currently, the record number of countries participating in the World Championships is twenty (2019). Since the number of countries playing bandy is not large, every country which can set up a team is welcome to take part in the World Championship. The quality of the teams varies; however, with only six nations, Sweden, the Soviet Union, Russia, Finland, Norway, and Kazakhstan, having won medals (allowing for the fact that Russia's team took over from the Soviet Union in 1993). Finland won the 2004 world championship in Västerås, Sweden, while all other championships have been won by Sweden, the Soviet Union and Russia.


title: Bandy

text: The Soviet Union won all championships until 1981, when Sweden managed to break the streak of eleven straight gold medals. Sweden won again in the next tournament in 1983, but Soviet again seized the victory in 1985. The Soviet Union also won at its last two appearances, and then Sweden won in 1993, 1995 and 1997. Russia, having taken over after the Soviet Union, and Sweden have kept on winning all championships between them except for 2004, when Finland managed to claim the win.


title: Bandy

text: In 2020, the B division of the World Championship was played, but the A division – which was to be played about a month later – was first postponed a couple of times due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and later moved to the next year as the pandemic did not end. The championship tournament could however not be played in 2021 either. In 2022, the championship was finally to be held, but since it was scheduled to be played in Russia, many national federations said they did not want to participate because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and it was cancelled by the FIB since this meant there would have been too few competing teams.


title: Bandy

text: The first World Championship for women took place in February 2004 in Lappeenranta, Finland. Sweden won the championship without conceding a goal. In the 2014 women's World Championship Russia won for the first time, defeating Sweden, making it the first time Sweden did not win the world title. In 2016 Sweden took the title back.


title: Bandy

text: The 2018 women's tournament was played in a country situated completely in Asia for the first time, when in was hosted in Chengde, China. It was the same for the men's tournament that same year (the area north and west of the Ural River is located in Europe, thus Kazakhstan, which had hosted a world championship before, is a transcontinental country), when Harbin hosted the 2018 Division B tournament.


title: Bandy

text: The 2020 championship saw China withdraw its participation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the tournament was held in Norway in February and the pandemic had not yet reached Europe. In 2022 when the championship was played in Sweden, China did not yet return, while Russia and Ukraine both withdrew because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Bandy

text: There are also Youth Bandy World Championships in different age groups for boys and young men and in one age group for girls. The oldest group is the under 23 championship, Bandy World Championship Y-23.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy was officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF) in 2004, and was played as a demonstration sport at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. However, it has yet to officially be played at the Olympics.


title: Bandy

text: According to the FIB, bandy is the world's second-most participated winter sport after ice hockey based on the number of participating athletes. It is unclear how many of the players participate in the male category and how many in the female category. The FIB has also recorded bandy (men's) as having ranked as the number two winter sport in terms of tickets sold per day of competitions at the sport's world championship.


title: Bandy

text: However, compared with the seven Winter Olympic sports, bandy's popularity among other winter sports across the globe is considered by the International Olympic Committee to have a, "gap between popularity and participation and global audiences", which is a roadblock to future Olympic inclusion.


title: Bandy

text: The FIB has also stated that the sport ranks as the number two winter sport in terms of tickets sold per day of competitions at the men's world bandy championship. However, compared with the seven Winter Olympic sports, bandy's popularity among other winter sports across the globe is considered by the International Olympic Committee to have a "gap between popularity and participation and global audiences", which is a roadblock to future Olympic inclusion. In addition, the Olympic Charter requires a sport to be widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in no fewer than 40 countries and on three continents in order to be accepted.


title: Bandy

text: FIB president Boris Skrynnik lobbied for Bandy to be included in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, given Russia's prominence in the sport. Members of the Chinese Olympic Committee were present at the 2017 world championships to meet with Skrynnik about the possibility of considering the sport for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. However, in 2018 it was announced no new sports would be added for 2022.


title: Bandy

text: At the 2011 Asian Winter Games, open to members of the Olympic Council of Asia, men's bandy was included for the first time. Three teams contested the inaugural competition, and Kazakhstan won the gold medal. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, attended the final.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy made its debut at the Winter Universiade during the 2019 Games in Krasonyarsk, Russia. Originally a six-team tournament for men and a four-team tournament for women were planned to be held. However, later China withdrew from the men's tournament and was supposed to be replaced by Belarus. Since that did not happen either, participating teams among women were Russia, Sweden, Norway and the United States, while among men Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Kazakhstan.


title: Bandy

text: In 2019, the International University Sports Federation expected bandy to be a part of the 2023 Winter World University Games (Winter World University Games being the new name of the Winter Universiade) too, however, this does not seem to be so, as the hosts in Lake Placid, USA, has not included it in its preliminary schedules.


title: Bandy

text: The World Championships should not be confused with the annual Bandy World Cup competitions. The World Cup is for club teams.


title: Bandy

text: The Bandy World Cup for men in Ljusdal, Sweden, has been played annually since the 1970s and is the biggest bandy tournament for elite-level club teams. It is played indoors in Sandviken since 2009 because Ljusdal has no indoor arena. It is expected to return to Ljusdal once an indoor arena has been built. World Cup matches are played day and night, and the tournament is played in four days in late October. The teams participating are mostly, and some years exclusively, from Sweden and Russia, which has the two best leagues in the world.


title: Bandy

text: There is also a club competition for women's bandy teams called Bandy World Cup Women. Its inaugural year was in 2007.


title: Bandy

text: The European Cup was first played in 1974 and was a competition featuring the national men's champion team from any European country which had a national bandy championship. This meant, at the time, that only four teams competed every year, which were the men's champions from Finland, Norway, the Soviet Union, and Sweden. After the Soviet Union had been dissolved in 1991, the Russian champions took part instead. The cup is not formally defunct, but the last installment was played in 2009.


title: Bandy

text: The Federation of International Bandy usually arranges a four nations tournament every year between national teams from Norway, Finland, Russia, and Sweden. The 2022 tournament was originally set for January 21–23, but was cancelled after the Swedish Bandy Association announced they would not be hosting it for that season.


title: Bandy

text: During the period 1972–1990, the Rossiya Tournament was held semi-annually for national teams in the years when there was no world championship. This tournament was always played in the Soviet Union and arranged by the newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya". It was affectionately called "the small world championship". From 1992 the tournament was renamed Russian Government Cup. The last instalment was played in 2012.


title: Bandy

text: There are several existing international bandy competitions with events varying based upon age, competitive level, and sex.


title: Bandy

text: Varieties of bandy exist, utilising the same rules only with slight differences, like seven-a-side bandy with regulation sized goal cages but without corner strokes and often on a smaller sized rink. Seven-a-side bandy was popular in central Europe and in England in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, while eleven-a-side bandy was preferred in the Nordic countries and in Russia. Seven-a-side bandy rules were applied at the 1913 European Bandy Championships and at the Davos Cup in 2016.


title: Bandy

text: Rink bandy is a bandy variant played on an ice hockey-size rink. It was originally conceived as a way of practicing bandy in the summertime, when there were no bandy sized indoor rinks but ice hockey rinks had started to be built indoors. Rink bandy is played by basically the same rules as regular bandy but on a playing surface the size of an ice hockey rink with ice hockey goal cages and six players on each team (or five in the case of the USA Rink Bandy League).


title: Bandy

text: There have been international competitions for rink bandy played by the best bandy players in the 1980s and 1990s, both for club teams and for national teams, there were world championships in rink bandy in those days and the Hofors World Cup for clubs was played annually from 1984 to 1998. When more indoor bandy rinks have been built, rink bandy has more become a sport for lower league teams a d recreational play.


title: Bandy

text: Some member nations of the Federation of International Bandy – which is the international governing body for rink bandy as well as bandy – do not have regulation sized bandy surfaces which are larger than the more common ice hockey ice rink and therefore only play rink bandy at home; this includes most of the World Championships Group B participants.


title: Bandy

text: Rink bandy has in turn led to the creation of the sport of rinkball. The sport of rinkball has at times been referred to as a variant of bandy, however it organized by the 1980s and has since become an established organized sport with its own governing body and differs considerably from both bandy and ice hockey, the sport's two major influences.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy is also the predecessor of floorball, which was invented when people started playing with plastic bandy shaped sticks and lightweight balls when running on the floors of indoor gym halls.


title: Bandy

text: In Sweden, informal games played like bandy but on ice-free ground (usually on gravel or asphalt concrete) are called "landbandy" (see ).


title: Bandy

text: There is no formal roller sport companion to bandy involving either inline skates or parallel wheel roller skates, even if rink hockey can be considered to have some similarities with bandy. There is also no formally organized skateless ice variant of bandy, and bandy does not have any parasport variant.


title: Bandy

text: The China Bandy Federation was set up in 2014. Since them, China has since participated in a number of world championship tournaments, with men's, women's and youth teams. China Bandy is mainly financed by private resources. The development of the sport in China is supported by the Harbin Sport University.


title: Bandy

text: A team from Prague became Austrian national bandy champions in 1911. Czechia has been playing in the World Championship since 2016.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy as an organized sport was played in Estonia in the 1910s to 1930s and the country had a national championship for some years. The national team played friendlies against Finland in the 1920s and 1930s. The sport was played sporadically during the Soviet occupation 1944–1991. It has since then become more organised again, partly through exchange with Finnish clubs and enthusiasts. As of 2018, Estonia takes part in both the Bandy World Championship for men, and the Women's Bandy World Championship.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy as an organized sport was introduced to Finland from Russia in the 1890s. Finland has been playing bandy friendlies against Sweden and Estonia since its independence in 1917.


title: Bandy

text: The first men's Finnish national championships were held in 1908 and was the first national Finnish championship held in any team sport. National champions have been named every year except for three years in the first half of the 20th century when Finland was at war. The top national league is called Bandyliiga and is semi-professional. The best players often go fully professional by being recruited by clubs in Sweden or Russia.


title: Bandy

text: Finland was an original member of the Federation of International Bandy and is the only country besides Russia/Soviet Union and Sweden to have won a Bandy World Championship, which it did in 2004.


title: Bandy

text: In Finland, the highest bandy league for men is the Bandyliiga. The Bandyliiga is the top level of men's bandy in Finland. As of the 2020–21 season, Bandyliiga consisted of the following teams: Akilles, Botnia-69, HIFK, JPS, Kampparit, Narukerä, OLS, Veiterä, and WP 35.


title: Bandy

text: The Federation of International Bandy (FIB) is planning for a major premiere for indoor bandy in Finland in 2023 with the venue taking place at an indoor arena in Lappeenranta. When the arena is ready, an international inauguration is to take place with a 4-nation bandy tournament. Participants will include teams from Russia, Sweden, Norway and Finland. The tournament is scheduled for January 20–22, 2023.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy was played in Germany in the early 20th century, including by Crown Prince Wilhelm, but the interest died out in favour of ice hockey. The Leipziger Sportclub, which arguably had the best team, was also the last club to give bandy up. The sport was reintroduced to Germany in the 2010s, with the German Bandy Federation being founded in 2013. Germany has been participating in the Bandy World Championship, a competition for male competitors, since 2014.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy has a long history in many parts of Kazakhstan and it used to be one of the most popular sports in Soviet times. However, after independence it suffered a rapid decline in popularity and only remained in Oral (often called by the Russian name, "Uralsk"), where the country's only professional club Akzhaiyk is located. They presently compete in the Russian second tier division, the Russian Bandy Supreme League.


title: Bandy

text: Recently bandy has started to gain popularity again outside of Oral, most notably in Petropavl and Khromtau. Those were for example the three Kazakh cities which had players in the team at the Youth-17, Youth Bandy World Championship for boys in 2016. The capital Nur-Sultan has hosted national youth championships in rink bandy as well as championships in traditional eleven-a-side bandy.


title: Bandy

text: In recent years the former capital Almaty has hosted both the Asian Winter Games (with bandy on the program) as well as the Bandy World Championship for men in which Kazakhstan finished 3rd. Plans are being made to reinvigorate the bandy section of the club Dynamo Almaty, who won the Soviet Championships in 1977 and 1990 as well as the European Cup in 1978. Almaty is also the home of the headquarters of the Asian Bandy Federation. Since bandy began regaining popularity and acceptance, the state has begun supporting bandy. Medeu in Almaty is the only arena with artificial ice. A second arena in Almaty was built for the World Championship 2012, but it was taken down afterwards. Stadion Yunost in Oral was supposed to get artificial ice for the 2017–18 season. It got delayed but in 2018 it was officially ready for use.


title: Bandy

text: The national team took a silver medal at the 2011 Asian Winter Games, which led to being chosen as the best Mongolian sport team of 2011. Mongolia was proud to win the bronze medal of the B division at the 2017 Bandy World Championship after which the President of Mongolia, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, held a reception for the team.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy as an organized sport was introduced to the Netherlands in the 1890s by Pim Mulier and the sport became popular. However, in the 1920s, the interest turned to ice hockey, but in contrast to other countries in central and western Europe, the sport has been continuously played in the Netherlands and since the 1970s, the country has become a member of FIB and games have been more formalised again. The national team started to compete at the WCS in 1991. However, without a proper venue, only rink bandy is played within the country. The national governing body is the Bandy Bond Nederland.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy as an organized sport was introduced to Norway in the 1910s. The Swedes contributed largely and clubs sprang up around the capital of Kristiania (present day Oslo). Oslo, including neighbouring towns, is in the 21st Century still the region where bandy enjoys most popularity in Norway.


title: Bandy

text: In 1912 the Norwegians played their first National Championship, which was played annually up to 1940. During World War II, when Norway was occupied by Germany, illegal bandy was played in hidden places in forests, on ponds and lakes. In 1943, 1944 and 1945, illegal championships were held. In 1946 legal play resumed and still goes on in form of the Norwegian Bandy Premier League ("Eliteserien"). After World War II the number of teams rose, as well as attendance which regularly were in the thousands, but mild winters in the 1970s and 1980s shrunk the league, and in 2003 only five clubs (teams) fought out the 1st division with low attendance numbers and little media coverage. As of 2021 there are 10 teams in the Norwegian Bandy Premier League.


title: Bandy

text: In Russia bandy is known as hockey with a ball or simply Russian hockey. A similar game became popular among the Russian nobility in the early 1700s, with the imperial court of Peter the Great playing a predecessor of modern bandy on Saint Petersburg's frozen Neva river. Russians initially played this game using ordinary footwear with sticks made out of juniper wood, but it wasn't until later that ice skates were introduced. Bandy did not became popular among the masses throughout the Russian Empire until the second half of the 19th century. The predecessor of the current Russian Bandy Federation was founded in 1898. Bandy is considered a national sport in Russia and is the only discipline to have official support of the Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Bandy

text: Traditionally the Russians used a longer skate blade than other nations, giving them the advantage of skating faster. However, they would find it more difficult to turn quickly. A bandy skate has a longer blade than an ice hockey skate, and the "Russian skate" is even longer.


title: Bandy

text: Though bandy was still played in the Soviet Union after the Russian revolution, they did not partake in any international games for many decades. While agreements had previously been made to play friendlies against Sweden in the late 1940s, these plans had not come to fruition. The bandy event at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway where men's bandy featured as a demonstration sport, was played without any Soviet team. However, the Soviets reconsidered their position following this competition.


title: Bandy

text: When the Federation of International Bandy was formed in 1955, with the Soviet Union as one of its founding members, the Russians largely adopted the international rules of the game developed in England in the 19th century, with one notable exception. The other countries adopted the border which until then had only been used in Russia.


title: Bandy

text: Since the 1950s, when the Soviet Union ended its isolation and started to take part in internatiinal sports events, the Soviet Union and then Russia (as its successor country in 1991) has consistently held a top position in the sport of bandy, both as a founding nation of the International Federation in 1955, and fielding the most successful team in the Bandy World Championship, the premiere international competition for men, (when counting the previous Soviet Union team and Russia together).


title: Bandy

text: The men's Russian professional bandy league is called the Russian Bandy Super League. The Russian Bandy Supreme League is the second tier of men's Russian bandy, below the Russian Bandy Super League. In Sweden, the Elitserien (literally, the "Elite League") is the highest bandy league in the country for men, while Bandyallsvenskan is the second division. In Finland, the highest bandy league for men is the Bandyliiga.


title: Bandy

text: In a similar fashion, Russia, along with Sweden, has emerged as one of the two dominant women's bandy nations internationally, regularly placing first or second at the premier international bandy competition for women, the Women's Bandy World Championship.


title: Bandy

text: After the victory in the 2016 World Championship, the fourth in a row, President Vladimir Putin received four players of the national team, Head Coach and Vice-President of the Russian Bandy Federation Sergey Myaus, the Russian Bandy Federation as well as Federation of International Bandy President Boris Skrynnik in The Kremlin. He talked, among other things, about the need to give more support to Russian bandy. It was the first time a head of state had accepted a meeting to talk about Russian bandy. Attending the meeting were also Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth policy Vitaly Mutko and presidential adviser Igor Levitin. The month after, Igor Levitin held a follow-up meeting.


title: Bandy

text: The men's Russian professional bandy league is called the Russian Bandy Super League. The Russian Bandy Supreme League is the second tier of men's Russian bandy, below the Russian Bandy Super League.


title: Bandy

text: The Russian Bandy Super League is the top tier of the Russian bandy league system. It is professional and played every year. The winner in the final becomes Russian champion. It is considered a continuation of the Soviet Union championship, which was played annually until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.


title: Bandy

text: The Russian Cup has been played annually (except for just some years) since 1937, originally called the Soviet Cup.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy as an organized sport was introduced to Sweden in 1895. The Swedish royal family, noblemen and diplomats were among the first players. While the original inspiration mainly came from England, there also were early exchanges with Germany and Russia. Bandy was taken up as one of the sports at the international Nordic Games held in Sweden semi-annually from 1901. Swedish championships for men have been played annually since 1907 and Sweden was the first country to have an annual bandy league.


title: Bandy

text: In the 1920s students played the game, then it spread across the country and became a largely middle-class sport. The games could have attracted huge crowds of spectators. After Slottsbrons IF won the Swedish championship in 1934 it became popular amongst workers in many smaller industrial towns and villages. Where there was a bandy club the local factory corporation also usually sponsored the club to mutual benefit as a successful team led to good PR for the company. Bandy remains the main sport in many of these places.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy in Sweden is famous for its "culture" where both playing bandy and being a spectator requires great fortitude and dedication. A "" is the classic accessory for spectating and is typically made of brown leather, well worn, and contains a warm drink in a thermos and/or a bottle of liquor.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy is most often played at outdoor arenas during winter time, so the need for spectators to carry flasks or thermoses of 'warming' liquid like glögg is a natural effect. With the sport moving indoors in later decades and the arenas urging for non-alcoholic policies for the audiences, this tradition has partly changed, though not without opposition.


title: Bandy

text: A notable tradition is "annandagsbandy", bandy games played on Saint Stephen's Day, which for many Swedes is an important Christmas season tradition and always draws bigger crowds than usual. Games traditionally begin at 1:15 pm.


title: Bandy

text: In Sweden, the Elitserien (literally, the "Elite League") is the highest bandy league in the country for men, while Bandyallsvenskan is the second division.


title: Bandy

text: The Elite League is the top tier of Swedish bandy and is fully professional. At the end of the season, a play-off is made to make out the two teams playing the final match for the Swedish Championship.


title: Bandy

text: The Final is played every year on the third Saturday of March. From 1991 to 2012, it was played at Studenternas Idrottsplats in Uppsala, often drawing crowds in excess of 20,000. One reason the play-off match was set in Uppsala is because of IFK Uppsala's success at the beginning of the 20th century. IFK Uppsala won 11 titles in the Swedish Championships between 1907 and 1920, which made them the most successful bandy club in the entire country (now, however, the record is held by Västerås SK). A contributing factor was also the poor quality of the ice at Söderstadion, where the finals were held from 1967 to 1989.


title: Bandy

text: In 2013 and 2014 the final was played indoors in Friends Arena, the national stadium for football in Solna, Stockholm, with a retractable roof and a capacity of 50 000. The first final at Friends Arena in 2013 drew a record crowd of 38,474 when Hammarby IF Bandy, after ending up in second place in six finals during the 2000s, won their second title. Due to declining attendance from 2015 through 2017 Tele2 Arena in southern Stockholm was chosen as a new venue. However, the new indoor venue failed to attract much more than half of the total capacity. In May 2017 it was announced that the finals will again be held at Studenternas IP in Uppsala from 2018 through at least 2021.


title: Bandy

text: The "Svenska Cupen" (), "Svenska Cupen i bandy", takes place exclusively in Sweden. It is a single-elimination tournament competition in Swedish bandy and the second-most prominent bandy competition which is open only to domestic Swedish teams, after the national championship. Its inaugural year was 2005. The first women's competition was played in 2019.


title: Bandy

text: In the late 19th and early 20th century, Switzerland had become a popular place for winter vacations and people went there from all over Europe. Winter sports like skiing, sledding and bandy was played in Geneva and other towns. Students from Oxford and Cambridge went to Switzerland to play each other – the predecessor of the recurring Ice Hockey Varsity Match was a bandy match played in St. Moritz in 1885. This popularity for Swiss venues of winter sport may have been a reason, the European Championship was held there in 1913.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy has mainly been played as a recreational sport in Switzerland in the 2000s and 2010s. A Swiss men's national team was finally started up in 2017 and a Swiss women's national team made its international début in the 2018 Women's Bandy World Championship.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy was played in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. After independence in 1991, it took some years before organised bandy formed again, but Ukrainian champions have been named annually since 2012.


title: Bandy

text: The first recorded games of what may be considered bandy on ice took place in The Fens during the great frost of 1813–1814, although it is probable that the game had already been played there in the previous century. Bury Fen Bandy Club from Bluntisham-cum-Earith, near St Ives, was the most successful team, said to have remained unbeaten for a hundred years until the winter of 1890–1891. Charles Goodman Tebbutt of the Bury Fen Bandy Club was responsible for the first published rules of bandy in 1882, and also for introducing the game into the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as elsewhere in England where it became popular with cricket, rowing, and hockey clubs. Tebbutt's homemade bandy stick can be seen in the Norris Museum in St Ives.


title: Bandy

text: The first Ice Hockey Varsity Matches between Oxford University and Cambridge University were played to bandy rules, even if it was called hockey on the ice at the time.


title: Bandy

text: England won the European Bandy Championships in 1913, but that turned out to be the grand finale, and bandy is now not very well known in England. While bandy is often thought to have been a pretty popular sport in England in the decades around 1900, not much records seem to have been kept.


title: Bandy

text: A statue of a bandy player, designed by Peter Baker, was erected at the village pond of Earith to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first documented game in 2013.


title: Bandy

text: In March 2004, Norwegian ex-player Edgar Malman invited two big clubs to play a rink bandy exhibition game in Streatham, London. Russian Champions and World Cup Winner Vodnik met Swedish Champions Edsbyns IF in a match that ended 10–10. In 2010 England became a Federation of International Bandy member. The national federation is based in Cambridgeshire, the historical heartland.


title: Bandy

text: The England Bandy Federation, later renamed the Great Britain Bandy Association, was set up on 2 January 2017 at a meeting held in the historic old skaters public house, the Lamb and Flag in Welney in Norfolk, England, replacing the Bandy Federation of England which was founded in 2010. In September 2017, the federation decided to widen its territory to all of the United Kingdom and changed its name to Great Britain Bandy Association. Great Britain entered a national team in the 2019 World Championships Group B in January and undefeated up to the final, won the silver medal in their final match against Estonia.


title: Bandy

text: In 2002, Great Britain premiered its national women's bandy team at the 2022 Women's Bandy World Championship.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy in its original, informal manner disappeared from the North American continent entirely once it and elements from the early game had become absorbed into a new sport of ice hockey. While ice hockey was growing and organizing in the United States, bandy was doing the same, but only in Europe and Scandinavia. It would not arrive in its organized format in the United States until the 1970s, almost a century after its initial development.


title: Bandy

text: Bandy has been played in the United States since around the 1970s, after its promotion by Russians, Swedes and Finns in an exchange with softball, a sport which was promoted by Americans during the same time in the Soviet Union, Sweden and Finland. A key-person in the establishment of the sport in America was Bob Kojetin of Minnesota Softball. The sport is centered in Minnesota, with very few teams based elsewhere. The United States national bandy team has participated in the Bandy World Championships since 1985 and is also regularly playing friendly matches against Canada. The leading organization for bandy in the USA is USA Bandy. The USA has a men's national bandy team and a women's national bandy team.


title: Bandy

text: The first bandy game in the USA was played in December 1979 at the Lewis Park Bandy Rink in Edina, Minnesota. It was a friendly game between the Swedish junior national team and Swedish club team Brobergs IF.


title: Bandy

text: United States bandy championships have been played annually since the early 1980s, but the sport is not widely covered by American sports media. The championship trophy is called the Gunnar Cup, named for Gunnar Fast, a Swedish army captain who helped introduce bandy to the United States around 1980.


title: Bandy

text: While North American ice hockey rinks can be used for playing the bandy variant of rink bandy, places where the traditional game of bandy can be played require a larger sized playing surface, a bandy field, and are almost non-existent in North America. Minnesota, USA is home to the only regulation sized bandy "rink" in North America, the Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval, commonly referred to as, "The Oval", and is also the largest outdoor refrigerated skating rink in North America. The rink is 110,000 square feet with more than 800 tons of refrigeration and 84 miles of pipes underneath the ice. The ice can be maintained in temperatures up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The Oval can hold up to 300 spectators and has hosted World Cup Speedskating, the 2016 Women's Bandy World Championship, and Aggressive Skating/Biking competitions. The oval is used mostly for inline hockey during the summer.


title: Bandy

text: The following associations are the governing bodies for bandy in different countries and are member organisations of the Federation of International Bandy.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: Stranger () is a South Korean crime thriller drama television series. Produced by Signal Entertainment and IOK Media, it was created by Studio Dragon writer Lee Soo-yeon and broadcast on tvN from June 10, 2017. The series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on August 15, 2020.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: The series was a hit with both domestic and international viewers, and received favorable reviews for its tight plot, gripping sequences and strong performances. It was featured on "New York Times" list of Best TV Shows of 2017, and won several awards including the Grand Prize for television at the Baeksang Arts Awards.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: In the first season, Hwang Si-mok (Cho Seung-woo) is an exemplary prosecutor who suffers from hypersensitivity to certain sound frequencies. After undergoing corrective surgery, he lost his sense of empathy and lacks social skills. While investigating a murder, he meets Police Lieutenant Han Yeo-jin (Bae Doona), who assists his efforts to solve the case. As they begin to unravel the mystery behind the murder, they find that their efforts are continually being obstructed by participants in a major corruption conspiracy between the Prosecutors' Office and a private chaebol (conglomerate).


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: In the second season, set two years later, a dispute arises between the Prosecutors' Office and the National Police Agency, with the former wanting control over all investigative proceedings while the latter seeks autonomous authority to conduct investigations. In the midst of their respective agencies' conflict, Hwang Si-mok and Han Yeo-jin team up to conduct their own independent investigation of a concealed case.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: The entire series was written by Lee Soo-yeon who was inspired by the Korean adage "We cannot rule those who want nothing" to create the character of Si-mok. Ahn Gil-ho directed the majority of the first season with the assistance of Yoo Je-won, while Park Hyun-seok took over the filming duties for the second season. Unlike usual South Korean dramas, the series was developed as a potential multi-seasonal program, with most of the filming have already been pre-produced prior to its broadcast.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: In January 2017, Cho Seung-woo and Bae Doona were offered the lead roles. The same month Shin Hye-sun was added to the cast. It was the first television drama Cho Seung-woo had accepted since "" in 2014, after venturing into musical theatre for seven years. For the second season, cast members Cho Seung-woo, Bae Doona, Lee Joon-hyuk and Yoon Se-ah, were all confirmed to reprise their roles. Jeon Hye-jin and Choi Moo-sung were also confirmed to join the lead cast in January 2020.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: Filming of the first season began in April 2017, preceded by the first script reading with the cast at the CJ E&M Center in Seoul. Script reading for the second season took place in January 2020.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: An accompanying soundtrack compilation to "Stranger" was released by Mog Communications and Kakao M on September 13, 2017, in South Korea. It was later reissued by Universal Music Group in overseas markets on May 11, 2018. A three-disc album, the latter two discs features music composed by Kim Jun-seok and Jung Sae-rin for the program. Ten songs were released from the soundtrack as singles in numbered parts from June to July 2017: "끝도없이 (Ad Infinitum)" by Richard Parkers, "먼지 (Dust)" Everlua, "소나기 (Downpour)" by Oohyo, "괴물처럼 (Monster Like)" by Tei, "웃어요 (Smile)" by Han Hee Jung & Sorae, the titular track "비밀의 숲 (Stranger)" by Yoon Do-hyun, "사랑할 것 처럼 (As if to Love)" by Kim Kookheon of Myteen, "물결 (A Billow)" by Yein of Lovelyz, "굿바이 잘가요 (Goodbye)"/"Back in Time" by Peter Han, and "묻는다 (Ask)" by Jung Won-bo of NeighBro & Jun Sang-geun. Of these, the songs "소나기 (Downpour)" and "사랑할 것 처럼 (As if to Love)" have managed to enter the South Korean Gaon BGM Music Chart at numbers 80 and 79, respectively.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: The pilot episode of "Stranger" aired on June 10, 2017 on tvN, replacing "Chicago Typewriter". Netflix secured the worldwide streaming rights for the series for US$200,000 per episode, except in Korea and China, and released them in simultaneous broadcast with tvN as a Netflix original program. "The Korea Times" reported that Bae Doona, who had previously appeared in the Netflix original series "Sense8", proved to be crucial in the purchase of the drama. tvN affiliate tvN Asia also aired the program in selected Asian markets beginning on June 16, 2018. A second season was commissioned by tvN, set to be released with Netflix on the same day. It premiered on August 15, 2020, replacing "It's Okay to Not Be Okay".


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: In an article by columnist Dena Daw for "Screen Rant", "Stranger" was described as a "domestic and international success". Though ratings-wise, the program was not a "smash hit", pundits and audiences praised it as a "league of its own". Korean culture critic Ha Jae-geun described the character as a "fantasy that was borne out of a time of distrust". In her review for "The Korea Times", columnist Park Jin-hai commended the writing as "finely intertwined", and wrote that audiences gave a strong response to this "drama for thinking people". "The New York Times" listed the series in tenth place as their The Best TV Shows of 2017.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: At the 54th Baeksang Arts Awards, the series received eight nominations, including two considerations for Grand Prize for Television, winning one for the whole series. Cho Seung-woo and Lee Soo-yeon also won Best Television Actor and Best Television Screenplay, respectively. In a Gallup Korea poll, audiences aged 19 and above selected "Stranger" as their 12th favorite show in July 2017. While Google Korea listed the series as the ninth most-searched television program of 2017.


title: Stranger (TV series)

text: According to data published by Nielsen Korea, the pilot episode of the series was seen by 3.041% of total nationwide viewers, in metropolitan Seoul, it earned 3.2% rating, which made it the highest-rated program of the day among non-terrestrial channel programs. The program achieved its highest rating on the first-season finale, earning 6.568% nationwide rating and a 7.622% rating within Seoul-based viewers. On average, it was seen by 4.562% of total viewership. On the TNmS rating system, the series premiered with a 3.2% rating and ended its first season with a 7.1% rating. The last episode recorded noticeably a strong rating performances as it took the lead rating for the first time against hit variety show Hyori's Homestay that aired in same time slot and became the highest rated program of the day among non-terrestrial channel programs.


title: Michael Williams (actor)

text: Michael Leonard Williams (9 July 1935 – 11 January 2001) was a British actor who played both classical and comedy roles. He was best known for co-starring in the sitcom "A Fine Romance" with his wife Dame Judi Dench, and for voicing Dr. Watson in the long running Sherlock Holmes adaptations for BBC Radio.


title: Michael Williams (actor)

text: Williams married Judi Dench on 5 February 1971, the same year that they co-starred in a stage production of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi". They had one daughter, Tara Cressida Williams (b. 1972), known as Finty Williams, who is also an actress. Williams was also godfather to the actor Rory Kinnear.


title: Michael Williams (actor)

text: Shortly before his death from lung cancer at the age of 65, Williams was appointed a Knight of St Gregory (KSG) by Pope John Paul II for his contribution to Catholic life in Britain. The honour was officially bestowed upon him at home on 10 January 2001. He died the next day, and was buried in the churchyard of St Leonard's, the Anglican parish church of Charlecote, Warwickshire. Williams was a fan of Everton FC.


title: Michael Williams (actor)

text: Also appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Theatre-Go-Round Festival, Round House Theatre, London, 1970.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: "Friburg im Brisgau"), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as of 31 December 2018), Freiburg is the fourth-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim, and Karlsruhe. The population of the Freiburg metropolitan area was 656,753 in 2018. In the south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain. A famous old German university town, and archiepiscopal seat, Freiburg was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical center of the upper Rhine region. The city is known for its medieval minster and Renaissance university, as well as for its high standard of living and advanced environmental practices. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region and serves as the primary tourist entry point to the scenic beauty of the Black Forest.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: According to meteorological statistics, the city is one of the warmest in Germany, and held the all-time German temperature record of from 2003 to 2015.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg was founded by Konrad and Duke Berthold III of Zähringen in 1120 as a free market town; hence its name, which translates to "free (or independent) town". "Frei" means "free", and "Burg", like the modern English word "borough", was used in those days for an incorporated city or town, usually one with some degree of autonomy. The German word "Burg" also means "a fortified town", as in Hamburg. Thus, it is likely that the name of this place means a "fortified town of free citizens".


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: This town was strategically located at a junction of trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea regions, and the Rhine and Danube rivers. In 1200, Freiburg's population numbered approximately 6,000 people. At about that time, under the rule of Bertold V, the last duke of Zähringen, the city began construction of its Freiburg Münster cathedral on the site of an older parish church. Begun in the Romanesque style, it was continued and completed 1513 for the most part as a Gothic edifice. In 1218, when Bertold V died, then Egino V von Urach, the count of Urach assumed the title of Freiburg's count as Egino I von Freiburg. The city council did not trust the new nobles and wrote down its established rights in a document. At the end of the thirteenth century there was a feud between the citizens of Freiburg and their lord, Count Egino II of Freiburg. Egino II raised taxes and sought to limit the citizens' freedom, after which the Freiburgers used catapults to destroy the count's castle atop the Schloßberg, a hill that overlooks the city center. The furious count called on his brother-in-law the Bishop of Strasbourg, Konradius von Lichtenberg, for help. The bishop responded by marching with his army to Freiburg.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: According to an old Freiburg legend, a butcher named Hauri stabbed the Bishop of Strasbourg to death on 29 July 1299. It was a Pyrrhic victory, since henceforth the citizens of Freiburg had to pay an annual expiation of 300 marks in silver to the count of Freiburg until 1368. In 1366 the counts of Freiburg made another failed attempt to occupy the city during a night raid. Eventually the citizens were fed up with their lords, and in 1368 Freiburg purchased its independence from them. The city turned itself over to the protection of the Habsburgs, who allowed the city to retain a large measure of freedom. Most of the nobles of the city died in the battle of Sempach (1386). The patrician family Schnewlin took control of the city until the guildsmen revolted. The guilds became more powerful than the patricians by 1389.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The silver mines in Mount Schauinsland provided an important source of capital for Freiburg. This silver made Freiburg one of the richest cities in Europe, and in 1327 Freiburg minted its own coin, the "Rappenpfennig". In 1377 the cities of Freiburg, Basel, Colmar, and Breisach entered into a monetary alliance known as the "Genossenschaft des Rappenpfennigs" (Rappenpfennig Collective). This alliance facilitated commerce among the cities and lasted until the end of the sixteenth century. There were 8,000–9,000 people living in Freiburg between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and 30 churches and monasteries. At the end of the fourteenth century the veins of silver were dwindling, and by 1460 only approximately 6,000 people still lived within Freiburg's city walls.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: A university city, Freiburg evolved from its focus on mining to become a cultural centre for the arts and sciences. It was also a commercial center. The end of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance was a time of both advances and tragedy for Freiburg.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: In 1457, Albrecht VI, Regent of Further Austria, established Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, one of Germany's oldest universities. In 1498, Emperor Maximilian I held a Reichstag in Freiburg. In 1520, the city ratified a set of legal reforms, widely considered the most progressive of the time. The aim was to find a balance between city traditions and old Roman Law. The reforms were well received, especially the sections dealing with civil process law, punishment, and the city's constitution.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: In 1520, Freiburg decided not to take part in the Reformation and became an important centre for Catholicism on the Upper Rhine. Erasmus moved here after Basel accepted the Reformation.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: In 1536, a strong and persistent belief in witchcraft led to the city's first witch-hunt. The need to find a scapegoat for calamities such as the Black Plague, which claimed 2,000 area residents (25% of the city population) in 1564, led to an escalation in witch-hunting that reached its peak in 1599. A plaque on the old city wall marks the spot where burnings were carried out.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries were turbulent times for Freiburg. At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War there were 10,000–14,000 citizens in Freiburg; by its end only 2,000 remained. During this war and other conflicts, the city belonged at various times to the Austrians, the French, the Swedes, the Spaniards, and various members of the German Confederation. Between 1648 and 1805, when the city was not under French occupation it was the administrative headquarters of Further Austria, the Habsburg territories in the southwest of Germany. In 1805, the city, together with the Breisgau and Ortenau areas, became part of Baden.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: In 1827, when the Archdiocese of Freiburg was founded, Freiburg became the seat of a Catholic archbishop.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg was heavily bombed during World War II. In May 1940, aircraft of the Luftwaffe mistakenly dropped approximately 60 bombs on Freiburg near the railway station, killing 57 people, most of them civilians and including 22 children. This was reported by the official German news agency as an attack by the Western Allies, and retaliation against them was threatened. The Freiburg police commander subsequently established that the bombs were German, but the full story was not published until many years later. On 27 November 1944, a raid by more than 300 bombers of RAF Bomber Command (Operation Tigerfish) destroyed a large portion of the city centre, with the notable exception of the "Münster", which was only lightly damaged. After the war, the city was rebuilt on its medieval plan.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: On 22 October 1940, the Nazi Gauleiter of Baden, Robert Heinrich Wagner, ordered the deportation of all of Baden's and 350 of Freiburg's Jewish population. They were deported to Camp Gurs in the south of France, where many died. On 18 July 1942, the remaining Baden and Freiburg Jews were transferred to Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland, where almost all were murdered. A living memorial has been created in the form of the 'footprint' in marble on the site of the city's original synagogue, which was burned down by the Nazi Germans on 9 November 1938, during the pogrom known as "Kristallnacht". The memorial is a fountain and contains a bronze plaque commemorating the original building and the Jewish community which perished. The pavements of Freiburg carry memorials to individual victims, in the form of brass plates outside their former residences.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: It was occupied by the French Army on 21 April 1945, and Freiburg was soon allotted to the French Zone of Occupation. In December 1945 Freiburg became the seat of government for the German state Badenia, which was merged into Baden-Württemberg in 1952. The French Army maintained a presence in Freiburg until 1991, when the last French Army division left the city, and left Germany.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: On the site of the former French Army base, a new neighborhood for 5,000 people, Vauban, began in the late 1990s as a "sustainable model district". Solar power provides electricity to many of the households in this small community.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Because of its scenic beauty, relatively warm and sunny climate, and easy access to the Black Forest, Freiburg is a hub for regional tourism. In 2010, Freiburg was voted as the Academy of Urbanism's European City of the Year in recognition of the exemplary sustainable urbanism it has implemented over the past several decades.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The longest cable car run in Germany, which is long, runs from Günterstal up to a nearby mountain called "Schauinsland".


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The city has an unusual system of gutters (called "Freiburg Bächle") that run throughout its centre. These "Bächle", once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock, are constantly flowing with water diverted from the Dreisam. They were never intended to be used for sewage, and even in the Middle Ages such use could lead to harsh penalties. During the summer, the running water provides natural cooling of the air, and offers a pleasant gurgling sound. It is said that if one accidentally falls or steps into a "Bächle", they will marry a Freiburger, or 'Bobbele'.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The "Augustinerplatz" is one of the central squares in the old city. Formerly the location of an Augustinian monastery that became the Augustiner Museum in 1921, it is now a popular social space for Freiburg's younger residents. It has a number of restaurants and bars, including the local brewery 'Feierling', which has a Biergarten. On warm summer nights, hundreds of students gather here.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: At the centre of the old city is the Münsterplatz or Cathedral Square, Freiburg's largest square. A farmers market is held here every day except Sundays. This is the site of Freiburg's Münster, a gothic minster cathedral constructed of red sandstone, built between 1200 and 1530 and noted for its towering spire.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The Historical Merchants' Hall ("Historisches Kaufhaus"), is a Late Gothic building on the south side of Freiburg's "Münsterplatz". Built between 1520 and 1530, it was once the center of the financial life of the region. Its façade is decorated with statues and the coat of arms of four Habsburg emperors.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The "Altes Rathaus", or old city hall, was completed in 1559 and has a painted façade. The "Platz der alten Synagoge" "Old Synagogue Square" is one of the more important squares on the outskirts of the historic old city. The square was the location of a synagogue until it was destroyed on in 1938. Zum Roten Bären, the oldest hotel in Germany, is located along "Oberlinden" near the Swabian Gate.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The "Siegesdenkmal", or victory monument, is a monument to the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. It is situated at the northern edge of the historic city center of Freiburg, and was built by Karl Friedrich Moest. In everyday language of people living in Freiburg, it serves as an orientation marker or as a meeting place.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: To the east of the city centre, the Schlossberg hill provides extensive views over the city and surrounding region. The castle (Schloss) from which the hill takes its name was demolished in the 1740s, and only ruins remain. Schlossberg retained its importance to the city, however, and 150 years ago the city leaders opened up walks and views to make the mountain available to the public. Today, the Schlossbergbahn funicular railway connects the city centre to the hill.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg is bordered by the Black Forest mountains Rosskopf and Bromberg to the east, Schönberg and Tuniberg to the south, with the Kaiserstuhl hill region to the west.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Köppen climate classification classifies its climate as humid subtropical (Cfa) due to the mean temperatures in July and August just under . Marine features are limited however, as a result of its vast distance from oceans and seas. As a result, summers have a significant subtropical influence as the inland air heats up. Thus July and August are, along with Karlsruhe, the warmest within Germany. Winters are moderate but usually with some frosts at night. However, more year-round rain occurs than in the Rhine plateau because of the closeness to the Black Forest. The city is close to the Kaiserstuhl, a range of hills of volcanic origin located a few miles away which is one of the warmest places in Germany and therefore considered as a viticultural area.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg is known as an "eco-city". In June 1995, the Freiburg city council adopted a resolution that it would permit construction only of "low-energy buildings" on municipal land, and all new buildings must comply with certain low energy specifications. The neighbourhoods of Vauban and Rieselfeld were developed and built in the late 1990s in accordance with the principles of sustainability. The city is also home to a branch of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, as well as solar industry and research. The citizens of Freiburg are known in Germany for their love of cycling and recycling. Freiburg is host to a number of international organisations, in particular, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, International Solar Energy Society, and the City Mayors Foundation. Politically, it is a longtime stronghold of the Alliance 90/The Greens, who have seen consistent success since the 1990s and have been the largest party on the city council since 2004. For many years, they performed more strongly in Freiburg than any other major city: former mayor Dieter Salomon, who served from 2002 to 2018, was the first member of the Greens to hold such an office in a city of over 100,000 people.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The current mayor of Freiburg is Martin Horn since 2018. He was previously a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), but left before running for mayor. In the election, he was supported by the SPD and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The most recent mayoral election was held on 22 April 2018, with a runoff held on 6 May, and the results were as follows:


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The Freiburg city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg is a center of academia and research, in which numerous intellectual figures and Nobel Laureates have lived, worked, and taught.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The city houses one of the oldest and most renowned of German universities, the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, as well as its medical center. Home to some of the greatest minds of the West, including such eminent figures as Johann Eck, Max Weber, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Friedrich Hayek, it is one of Europe's top research and teaching institutions.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg also plays host to various other educational and research institutes, such as the Freiburg University of Education, the Protestant University for Applied Sciences Freiburg, Freiburg Music Academy, the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, the International University of Cooperative Education IUCE, three Max Planck institutes, five Fraunhofer institutes, and one Leibniz institute.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The city is home to the IES Abroad European Union program, which allows students to study the development and activities of the EU. This is in addition to an Environmental Science and Sustainability program focused on Freiburg's famed green lifestyle and infrastructure. IES Abroad also offers a German Language and Area Studies program where visiting students get to take classes at the University of Freiburg.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The DFG / LFA Freiburg, a French-German high school established by the 1963 Élysée Treaty, is in the city.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg belonged to Austria until 1805 and remained Catholic, although surrounding villages like Haslach, Opfingen, Tiengen, and the surrounding land ruled by the Margrave of Baden became Protestant as a result of the Reformation. The city was part of the Diocese of Konstanz until 1821. That same year, Freiburg became an episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg. Due to a dispute between the government of Baden and the Holy See, the archbishop officially took office in 1827.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The borders of the archdiocese correspond with the borders of the former province of Baden and the former Margraviate of Hohenzollern. The cathedral, in which the Bishop resides, is Freiburg Minster. Also part of the ecclesiastical province of Freiburg are the suffragan dioceses of Mainz and Rottenburg-Stuttgart.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Until 1929, the dioceses of Limburg and Fulda also belonged to this ecclesiastical province. The Archbishop of Freiburg holds the title of metropolitan and the German headquarters of the Caritas International is in Freiburg.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Saint George (the flag of Freiburg has the cross of George), Lambert of Maastricht and the catacomb saint, Alexander, are the patron saints of Freiburg. Many works of art depicting these saints are in the Freiburg Minster, on the Minster square, just as in the museums and archives of the city, including some by Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Holbein the Younger and Gregorius Sickinger.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: In 1805, with the attack of Breisgau on the Grand Duchy of Baden by a Catholic ruler, many Protestants moved into the city. Since 2007, any Protestants who are not part of a ‘free church’ belong to the newly founded deanery of Freiburg as part of the parish of Südbaden which in itself is a part of the Landeskirche Baden.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The seat of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden, a free Lutheran church, is situated in Freiburg. There are multiple other free Protestant churches: e.g. the Calvary Chapel or Chrischona International. An old congregation has existed in Freiburg since the late 1900s, which utilises the old monastery church of the Ursulines in the black monastery at the border of the old city center. The Catholic Church of St. Maria Schutz has been made available for Masses by Greek, Serbian, Russian and Rumanian Orthodox congregations.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Jews are said to have lived in the city before 1230, but it was only after 1230 that they supposedly founded an official community in the Webergasse (a small street within the town center). The counts of Freiburg bought the lucrative Schutzjude, which means that all personal information on Jews living in Freiburg was directly sent to Konrad II and his co-reigning son Friedrich. The two issued a comprising letter promising safety and liberty to all local Jews on 12 October 1338. It lost all value shortly after, however, on 1 January 1349. Although the plague had not yet broken out in the city, Jews were accused of having spread it and taken into custody. All Jews except pregnant women were burned alive on 31 January 1349. The remaining children were forced to be baptised. This pogrom left Jews very hesitant to resettle in the city. In 1401, the city council decreed a regulation banning all Jews from Freiburg (orig. Middle High German dialect: “daz dekein Jude ze Friburg niemmerme sin sol”[27]. This was officially reaffirmed by King Sigismund with a ban for life (orig. German: “Ewige Vertreibung”) in 1424.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Not until 1809 were Jews again allowed permanent residence within the city. They subsequently founded a Jewish community in 1836.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: At the Kristallnacht in 1938, the synagogue, built in 1870, was set afire. Numerous shops and apartments of Jewish citizens of Freiburg were devastated and plundered by National Socialists without the intervention of police or fire department. Male, wealthy, Jewish citizens were kidnapped and taken to concentration camps (in Buchenwald and Dachau) where they were subjected to forced labor or executed and their money and property stolen.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: On 22 October 1940, the remaining Jews of Baden and Pfalz were deported to Camp de Gurs in southern France. One among many collecting points was Annaplatz. So-called 'Stolpersteine', tiles with names and dates on them, commemorate the victims of the prosecution of Jews during the Nazi-Era in the city's cobble. Journalist Käthe Vordtriede of the Volkswacht even received two Stolpersteine to commemorate her life. The first one was inserted into the ground in front of the Vordtriede-Haus Freiburg in 2006 and the second one in front of the Basler Hof, the regional authorities, in spring 2013. This was also the seat of the Gestapo until 1941, where unrelenting people were cruelly interrogated, held prisoner or deported. The only solutions were flight or emigration. The Vordtriede family managed to escape in time.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg has an extensive pedestrian zone in the city centre where no motor cars are allowed. Freiburg also has an excellent public transport system, operated by the city-owned VAG Freiburg. The backbone of the system is the Freiburg tramway network, supplemented by feeder buses. The tram network is very popular as the low fares allow for unlimited transport in the city and surrounding area. Furthermore, any ticket for a concert, sports or other event is also valid for use on public transport. The tram network is so vast that 70% of the population live within 500m of a tram stop with a tram every 7-8 mins.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg is on the main Frankfurt am Main – Basel railway line, with frequent and fast long-distance passenger services from the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof to major German and other European cities. Other railway lines run east into the Black Forest and west to Breisach and are served by the Breisgau S-Bahn. The line to Breisach is the remaining stub of the Freiburg–Colmar international railway, severed in 1945 when the railway bridge over the Rhine at Breisach was destroyed, and was never replaced.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Freiburg is served by EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in France, close to the borders of both Germany and Switzerland, south of Freiburg. Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport is approximately north of Freiburg and is also served by several airlines. The nearest larger international airports include Zurich (), Stuttgart (), and Frankfurt/Main (). The nearby Flugplatz Freiburg , a small airfield in the Messe, Freiburg district, lacks commercial service but is used for private aviation.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: Car share websites such as BlaBlaCar are commonly used among Freiburg residents, since they are considered relatively safe.


title: Freiburg im Breisgau

text: The investment in transport has resulted in a large increase in both cycle, pedestrian and public transport usage with projections of car journeys accounting for 29% of journey times.