Karlskrona Naval Port (World Heritage)

By | August 1, 2021

The port was founded in 1679 by King Charles XI. built as the main base of the Swedish Baltic Sea fleet and has been continuously expanded up to the present day. Parade grounds and historic streets shape the appearance of the city of Karlskrona, which was planned according to plans by Nicodemus Tessin and Erik Dahlberg.

Karlskrona naval port: facts

Official title: Karlskrona naval port
Cultural monument: baroque city layout; Urban area spread over 30 islands; Old town island with Stortorget, the largest free market square in Northern Europe, and the Trinity Church located there, the two-tower baroque Fredrikskyrkan, the Admiralty Church (Admiralty Church) and the wooden figure “Alter Rosenbom” in front of the church and the Aurora bastion
Continent: Europe
Country: Sweden, Blekinge
Location: Karlskrona, south of Kalmar and Stockholm
Appointment: 1998
Meaning: an extraordinarily well-preserved testimony to a planned war port with a fortress city

Karlskrona naval port: history

1680 City foundation in connection with the establishment of a naval base for the reorganized Armada of Charles XI. (1655-97)
1680-85 Construction of the Admiralty Church Ulrika Pia, named after Queen Ulrika Elenora
1696 Construction of the Reeperbahn (Repslagarbanan)
1697-1709 Trinity Church (Trefaldighetskyrkan) construction
1744 Consecration of the Fredrikskyrkan
1752 Establishment of the Naval Museum, the oldest museum in Sweden
1771-92 under the reign of Gustav III. of Sweden rise to the third largest Swedish city
1790 City fire
1795 Completion of the town hall
1987 Monument protection for the historic naval base

Hurray for the lip freak

While the fleets of the other European uncles and nephews, cousins ​​and bases were already confronting the enemy on the open sea and were shot out of all cylinders in legendary sea battles for the fame of the dynasties, the Swedish monarch’s well-organized fleet was still inactive in the afternoons – because from Ice included – in the port of Stockholm.

When the Danish fleet sank the Swedish Armada with man and mouse in the summer of 1676, Charles XI decided to have a new port built for the new navy in the south of the empire. The Swedish city and fortress planner Erik Dahlberg, General Admiral Hans Wachtmeister and the fortification officer Carl Magnus Stuart were entrusted with this project.

The first plan showed Karlskrona as a pure naval fortress, and it was not until Dahlberg’s plan from 1694 that urban development was also provided. The offshore archipelago offered sufficient protection against attacks from the sea, so that under Hans Wachtmeister and his successors ever larger and more heavily equipped ships could be built without running the risk of being destroyed before the first sea battle. In addition, the Karlskrona fortress was a guarantee for the intactness of the fleet.

A special souvenir of the hustle and bustle that reigned three centuries ago are the covered Reeperbahn, which is 300 meters long, and the mighty mast lifting crane, which was built two centuries ago. However, the count’s palace has long since been converted into a museum by Hans Wachtmeister, and the ship’s boy barracks now also has a museum function and serves as a naval museum.

The center of the city is the large market square with the Friedrichskirche and the Trinity Church. In the middle of the market is, cast in bronze, Charles XI. and looks majestically tight at his work. And his expression doesn’t change even if a colorful flower market takes place around him on the day before midsummer.

According to a2zgov, Ulrika Pia Admiralty Church is the oldest building in the city and Sweden’s largest wooden church. Here is a roughly cut fellow with short legs, a broad, red face, shiny blond hair, a blond beard and a broad-brimmed hat on his head: “Rosenbom,” the almsman. In Selma Lagerlöf’s “Wonderful Journey of Little Nils Holgersson with the Wild Geese”, the dreamer Nils arrived in Karlskrona on a mild April night. Here he also came to the churchyard where the almsman asked for a charitable gift. Nils was on the run from the bronze Karl XI., Who wanted to resent him because Nils had contemptuously called him “lipstick.” When Rosenbom saw Nils, he waved him over, stretched out his arm, and let the boy climb up to hide him under his broad hat. In search of Nils, the bronze king also came to the wooden Rosenbom, who had previously served as a captain on the “Dristigheten” before it found its place, carved in wood, as a poor box in the churchyard. The King asked him harshly: “Can he tell me now whether He has not seen a little boy prowling around town tonight?” At the shipyard the king and Rosenbom wandered around and finally came to the figureheads of old ships of the line, which at that time stood in an open courtyard: “Take off your hat to those who stand here, Rosenbom!” You have all fought for the fatherland, “demanded King Rosenbom. With the exclamation that he is »the king who brought all this to life«, honor, he did as ordered. That pleased Karl, who now took a closer look at the captain and saw the cheeky Nils on his bared head: “But what’s he got there, Rosenbom?” you, lip freak! ”

That could have turned out badly, but luckily Nils woke up under the feathers of the wild goose Akka and noticed that he was still on the church roof and had only dreamed it all.

Karlskrona Naval Port (World Heritage)