Looking at Schwedt, you will assume that the town has come into being during the last forty years only. Only in the inner parts of the city you will still meet important monuments of the 735 years old history of Schwedt. One of the eldest buildings is the Catherine Church, made of field-stones in the 13th century and enlarged and reconstructed lateron. The catholic church, the Inferiour Court building and the former soap factory originate from the period of promoterism. Adjacent to this Neo-Gothic ensemble at the Vierradener Place you will find the Vierradener Street. Today, it is reserved for pedestrians only and with its severals shops and historic town houses invites to stroll. The historic lay-out of the roads in the old town have been preserved, too. After the historical model they are just reconstructing the whole area there. Apart from that, everything in Schwedt is young and modern - people, buildings, industry. After all, with its processing of mineral oil and the paper industry Schwedt/Oder belongs to the big industrial sites in Brandenburg today and is the economic centre of the Uckermark. In Schwedt/Oder outpatient treatment is secured by 53 doctors and 28 dentists. In-patient treatment is being provided by the "Clinicum Uckermark". Being a hospital of supraregional priority it guarantees medical care and emergency care for the inhabitants of the city of Schwedt/Oder and the environs. The average age of the people living in Schwedt amounts to 42 years only. Correspondingly there is a big variety of offers for leisure activities: youth clubs, meeting-places, a music and arts school, boat and bicycle hires, a riding club, BMX courses, sports studios ... The Schwedt Uckermark stages are very popular throughout the whole Uckermark and beyond it. The wide range of performances - drama, concert, musical, ballet, film, club meetings and big shows - attract hundreds of guests every year. At the Schwedt music and arts school and the kids and youth theatre "Stolperdraht" ("Trip wire") no effort is spared to lovingly promote the young artistic talents. The „Kietz“ gallery with its interesting, alternating exhibitions always offers artistic treat. Local artists like to use these rooms for presenting their works. Where many young people are, many sports will be practised. 37 sports clubs offer over 38 different branches of athletics, among them 10 in admitted high-performance state training centres. Schwedt weight-lifters are represented in the Federal Division. Football players of several teams and age groups play at state level. Four water sports centres directly at the Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler-Wasserstrasse canal are very much sought after. From the bank or the townbridge you can look at many rowers and canoeists in summer. Footpathes attract wanderers and bikers into the pleasant environs of the city. Uckermark villages, wooded areas and lakes alternate with each other and give new insight into the originality of the medial and end moraine landscape again and again. At the town gates opens one of the last close-to-nature river meadow landscapes of Central Europe - the Unteres Odertal National Park (Lower Oder valley).