Basmo fortress (''Basmo festning'') is a former fortification located in the north-western part of Marker municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The fortress was placed on the main road from Ørje. The site is situated near the Swedish border on an isolated mountain outcropping between lakes

Rødenessjøen Rødenessjøen is a lake in the municipalities of Aurskog-Høland in Akershus county and Marker in Østfold county, Norway. See also *List of lakes in Norway This is a list of lakes and reservoirs in Norway, sorted by Counties of Norway, ...

and Hemnessjøen. It was constructed in the 1680s and saw 62 years of service. The first mention of this Norwegian fortress is in a letter from Field Marshall Gustav Wilhelm von Wedel-Jarlsberg, Count of Wedel-Jarlsberg to the King

Christian V of Denmark Christian V (15 April 1646 – 25 August 1699) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1670 until his death in 1699. Well-regarded by the common people, he was the first king anointed at Frederiksborg Castle chapel as absolute monarch since the dec ...

in 1683. Major General Johan Caspar von Cicignon developed the plans. During the

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

it was manned by up to 1,350 men. On the night of March 9, 1716, the pyres on the mountaintops announced that Swedish King Charles XII had crossed the border with 1,000 men. Moving rapidly, he found the border poorly guarded and moved with cavalry to

Høland Høland is a former municipality in Akershus county, Norway. History Høland was created in 1837 as a formannskapsdistrikt, a Norwegian local self-government district. The district Setskog was separated from Høland to form a separate municipality ...

parsonage. Norwegian troops stationed in the district were assembled by the Basmo commander, Colonel Kruse, who attacked the Swedes in a bloody battle. Charles XII barely escaped capture, but the tide was soon turned against the outnumbered Norwegians, and Kruse, badly wounded, was captured. The Swedes went on to occupy Christiania (now Oslo) without resistance on March 21, 1716, but were ultimately repulsed. Basmo was also in the path of invading Swedish troops during Charles XII's second unsuccessful invasion in 1718. Basmo was shut down and de-commissioned during 1744–45. Today there is a ruin with barely visible defense works and the stone base of the former tower. In 1987, work was started on restoration of the site.

References

Other sources

*''Norges festninger'' by Guthorm Kavli; Universitetsforlaget; 1987; *''History of the Norwegian People'', by Knut Gjerset, MacMillan, 1915. *''The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic: 1600-1725'' by Jill Lisk; Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1967. *''The Northern Wars, 1558-1721'' by Robert I. Frost; Longman, Harlow, England; 2000 Ruins in Norway Forts in Norway Marker, Norway Military installations in Østfold {{Østfold-geo-stub