Swedes' Landing is the warehouse road found along the Minquas Kill in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

that is close to the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

. This was the site where the initial Swedish landing took place and marks the spot where the

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

colony began. The first Swedish expedition to North America, under the command of

Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (French language, French: ''Pierre Minuit'', Dutch language, Dutch: ''Peter Minnewit''; 1580 – August 5, 1638) was a Walloons, Walloon merchant and politician who was the 3rd Director of New Netherland, Director of the Dutch Nort ...

, embarked from the

port of Gothenburg The Gothenburg Municipality, municipally-owned Port of Gothenburg () is the largest port in the Nordic countries, with over 11,000 ship visits per year from over 140 destinations worldwide. As the only Swedish port with the capacity to cope with ...

in late 1637. The members of the expedition, aboard the ships '' Fogel Grip'' and ''

Kalmar Nyckel was a Swedish ship built by the Dutch famed for carrying Swedish settlers to North America in 1638, to establish the colony of New Sweden. The name comes from the Swedish city of Kalmar and meaning in Swedish. The name was also a tribute to K ...

'', sailed into

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States, lying between the states of Delaware and New Jersey. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltw ...

, which lay within the territory claimed by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

and anchored at a rocky point on Swedes' Landing on March 29, 1638. They built a fort on the site which they named

Fort Christina Fort Christina, also called Fort Altena, was the first Sweden, Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Christina, Queen of Sweden, it was located approximately 1&nb ...

after

Queen Christina of Sweden Christina (; 18 December O.S. 8 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 8 December1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Monarchy of Sweden, Queen of Sweden from ...

. Today Swedes Landing Road is a short stretch from 4th Street to 7th Street and ends at a long two-story mural depicting the area from the time before the Swedes came through the modern Wilmington waterfront. At the far end of the mural is the entrance to

National Historical Site, a part of the

First State National Historical Park First State National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit which lies primarily in the state of Delaware but which extends partly into Pennsylvania in Chadds Ford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Chadds Ford. Initially created a ...

System.

References

* Johnson, Amandus ''The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware Volume I: Their History and Relation to the Indians, Dutch and English, 1638-1664'' (The Swedish Colonial Society. International Printing Company. 1911) * Shorto, Russell ''The Island In The Center Of The World'' (Part I; Chapter 4; Page 88, Vintage. 2005) * Weslager, C. A. ''New Sweden on the Delaware 1638-1655'' (The Middle Atlantic Press, Wilmington. 1988)

Other sources

* Jameson, J. Franklin ''Willem Usselinx,: Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies ''(G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1887) *Mickley, Joseph J. ''Some account of William Usselinx and Peter Minuit: Two individuals who were instrumental in establishing the first permanent colony in Delaware'' (The Historical Society of Delaware. 1881

" Fort Christina-Mural"

External links

"The Landing of the Swedes" (New Sweden Centre. Wilmington, Delaware)
New Sweden Geography of New Castle County, Delaware Swedish-American history Wilmington Riverfront Swedish-American culture in Delaware {{US-hist-stub