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Staverns Fortress was a military facility located on the island of Citadelløya at
Staverns Fortress was a military facility located on the island of Citadelløya at Stavern
Stavern is a small water-side town in Larvik municipality in Vestfold County, Norway. It is south of the city of Larvik. Currently there are around 3,000 inhabitants in Stavern. It is a small town where tourism is one of the most important sour ...
in Vestfold
Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...
, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
.
History
The construction of Staverns Fort began in 1677 whenUlrik Frederick Gyldenløve
Ulrik is a male name, a Scandinavian form of Ulrich. Ulrik may refer to:
*Ulrik Frederik Christian Arneberg (1829–1911), Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party
*Albert Ulrik Bååth (1853–1912), Swedish poet
* Ulrik Balling (born 1975) ...
built a blockhouse with battery and palisades on a hill as part of the overall development of Norwegian fortresses
Norwegian fortresses or fortifications have been constructed from some of the earliest recorded periods, down through the 20th century. The geography and topography of glacially carved, mountainous Norway constrain both the sea and the land rout ...
. The fort was first built on Karlsøy during the Gyldenløve War
The Scanian War ( da, Skånske Krig, , sv, Skånska kriget, german: Schonischer Krieg) was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden. It was fought from 1675 to 1679 mainly on Scanian soil ...
(1675–1679). Fredriksvern
Fredriksvern (also called ''Friderichsværn'' (1801), ''Frederiksværn'' (1865), ''Fredriksværen'' (1900) and abbreviated ''Frsværn'') was an important Norwegian naval base, just south of Larvik in Vestfold. It is named after Fredrik V Denmark- ...
and Fredriksvern Verft was established as the headquarters for the Norwegian Fleet from 1750 until 1758 so that the older fortification became part of the naval base and called the Citadellet and the island Citadelløya.
The fortress was expanded in 1687 until 1689 to include three canon batteries and a blockhouse. The fortress served as an important base for Norwegian naval hero Tordenskiold
Tordenskiold was the name of two dignities in the Danish and the Norwegian nobility. Both are today patrilineally extinct.
Tordenskiold I
Peter Jansen Wessel was a Norwegian/Danish naval hero who for his braveness was ennobled under the name ...
and his fleet during the Great Northern War
The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swed ...
’s final Norwegian phase from 1709 until 1720 and as a central staging point for sea commerce from Denmark in this period. The fort was the home port for the Danish–Norwegian Kattegat
The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in S ...
squadron. And not least, it served as a major chandelling and forwarding center for canon from the Norwegian ironworks and other equipment.
In the 1800s, Fredriksvern lost its importance as a military base. The Citadellet also lost its military importance and went into decline. In the 1900s, the buildings were restored. Krutttårnet, the oldest constructed building, has a distinctive architecture and today is a well known tourist attraction.
References