Hudiksvall was founded by King John III of Sweden in 1582. He had the inhabitants moved from the town Hudik, where his father Gustav Vasa had collected the trade- and craftsmen of H�lsingland in order to more easily collect taxes, to Hudiksvall by the shores of the bay.
At the time, fishing and the trading of furs, skins, iron, copper and wood products were the main sources of income, and the city flourished. But the city lost its privileges for foreign trading in 1636, and its development was somewhat stalled for the next two centuries.
It has been damaged by fires some 10 times, the most severe when it was burnt by the Russians in 1721, where after only the church remained. The current street structure was applied in 1792 as part of the reconstruction necessitated by another fire
