"Gå, Franciskus, och bygg upp min kyrka"
Om tiggarkonventens betydelse för skapandet av staden belyst genom urbaniseringen i södra Halland
This essay deals with the relationship between the mendicant movement and the urbanization during the thirteenth century. The aim has been to explore the significance of the Dominicansand the Franciscans for the creation of an urban landscape. This was made through the study of the urbanization process in southern Halland focusing on the town of Halmstad where the friars were established. The importance of the mendicants was also studied through their absence in the towns of Laholm and Falkenberg. To achieve this investigation in a contextual perspective material from different areas was used such as archaeology, history and history of science and ideas. A reconstruction of the medieval city plan of Halmstad was also used for a spatial analysis of the convent in the urban landscape. In conclusion the survey showed that the significance of the mendicant for the urbanization is most likely to be found at a discursive level. They represented a contemporary idea about the city. The spatial analysis also showed that the convents in Halmstad were a part of the urban landscape and not placed in peripheral areas. The absence of mendicants had probably no effect on the urbanization in Laholm and Falkenberg.