deemed most favourable. The only thing actually located in the area at the time was the main road and the bridge to Fr�s�n. �stersund was upon foundation freed from taxes during a 20 year timespan and completely liberated from trade regulations and guild order. In other remote locations of the Nordic region, similar cities were founded, like Reykjavik on Iceland the very same year, Troms�(1794) in Northern Norway and Tampere (1775) and Kuopio (1782) in the Finnishinland. �stersund is however the only city in present day Sweden to have been founded in the 18th century.
Just like any other city founded by state officials miles away, the city developed extremely poorly and had to struggle in its infancy.The State tried to pursue the Jamtish traders on Fr�s�n to migrate to the new city but they had no intentions of leaving such a rich parishwith fertile soils Fr�s�n consisted of in favour of the swamp and marches across the strait. During its first 50 years the city's population only grew (on average) with eight people per year. The city did become the capital of the newly founded county consisting of the provinces J�mtland and H�rjedalen in 1810, meaning that a county residence was built and a county administrative board was located to the city. Though �stersund remained as a de facto farmer village with less than 400 inhabitants in 1820. An upswing occurred in the 1850s, as trade was liberalized and the logging process developed.
It took until the construction of the railroad in 1879 before �stersund became a real city and actually gained the status as J�mtland's centre, at Fr�s�n's expense. Thanks to the "farmer chieftain" Nils Larson i Tullus the railroad came to pass through the city itself instead of outside it, as planned. The railway from coast to coast across the then union betweenSweden and Norway was finished 1882, connecting �stersund closer to Trondheim and Sundsvall. �stersund then came to grow faster than any other Swedish city
