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The Bohus Fortress July 7, 2003 Last week we took a day trip down to Göteberg, which is around three hours drive south south west of Karlstad. Around two Swedish miles north of Göteberg is the Bohus fortress, which was built almost seven hundred years ago. Perhaps a word or two is in order here to explain the Swedish system of road measurement. Sweden is a metric country, but some traditions still remain, among them the Swedish mile. For someone like myself, born in England and used to English miles of around 15 hundred metres, it was confusing at first to learn that a Swedish mile is ten kilometres. So a seemingly short distance of two miles here is in fact twenty kilometres. It can make a difference to the unwise. I am indebted to the Kungälvs turistkontor for most of the following information on the history of the fortress. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Norway, Sweden and Denmark were often at war with each other, and it was during this time – 1308 - that the Bohus fortress was constructed, by King Håkon V of Norway, helped partly by the outlawed Danish duke Jakob Nielson. The fort was built as a central defence point on Norway’s then southern border, on the strategic island of Bagaholmen, just where the river Göta Älv divides to form the island of Hisingen. By 1330 Bohus had become the governing centre and residence of the Swedish-Norwegian king Magnus Eriksson and his fairy tale queen, Blanch from Namur. It was also the place for meetings, discussions and celebrations between the leading men and women of the North. The history of the development of the Bohus fort during the middle ages is not totally clear, but it appears that it was an irregular polygon with surrounding walls several metres thick and ten metres thick built of granite. In one corner was a square tower for defence purposes. After the Nordic seven year war (1563 – 1570), during which time the fort was attacked numerous times by the Swedes without success, the fort was rebuilt and reinforced with large bastions in a star shape surrounding the middle ages courtyard. These bastions were large earthen walls covered with several metres thick outer walls of granite as a shield against canon fire. This work was carried out largely between 1584 and 1604 by the master builders Hans van Stenwinkel and Hans van Paershen. At the same time, the inner fortress was rebuilt into a renaissance palace, so that the fortress and the palace became effectively two separate working parts of the one building. The Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 resulted in Bohus and its domains falling under Swedish rule. The Danish troops left, after ransacking the stores and burning most of the records, and after this Bohus lost its importance as a border fortress. The Norwegian governor Ulrich Frederick Gyldenlöwe beseiged the fortress, firstly in 1676 without success, then returned in 1678 with between ten and fifteen thousand men to capture both Bohus and Göteberg after two months of constant bombardment. Of the 900 men of the Swedish and Finnish garrison, only 400 survived this, the fourteenth and hardest seige of the fortress. Records show that between 20 and 30,000 canon balls, thousands of bombs, grenades and stones were fired into the fortress. Just in time, the Swedish army arrived to save the fort, but it took almost one hundred years to repair the damage. During the 18th century the fortress began to fall into disrepair and only the most basic work was carried out to preserve the walls. The governor moved out from his damp quarters into a nearby house before finally relocating to Göteberg. By 1800 the fortress was an unprotected ruin and in fact large amounts of stone were taken from the site by locals to build and repair their houses. However, the fortress was recognised as an historical building and in 1900 repair work was started on the ruins, but it was not until the Royal Building Society took over the responsibility that extensive reconstruction work was started and continues today. The fortress is an imposing site seen from the road leading to Göteberg and it is easy to imagine the fortress as it was all those years ago when wandering through the ruins today. The extensive courtyard, with its well (which took 13 years to cut by hand through 22 metres of solid rock), is today used for concerts, plays and other public events. Hälsningar till nästa vecka, ------------ About the author: Robin Alan Bell is an Englishman by birth, but migrated to Australia back in '72. Married and divorced there. Spent the last 3 years living by myself on a remote farm in rural New South Wales with no mains electricity, water etc. All power, heating was from natural resources (solar, wind, wood). "Met" a Swedish girl on the internet, came to Sweden for a holiday, loved the place (and the girl), moved to Sweden permanently Christmas 2001 and married the girl in Easter 2002. Living happily ever after... Email Robin Alan Bell: sosoft@ozemail.com.au Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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