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Naval Port of Karlskrona
| Site number: | 871 |
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| Type of site: | Cultural | |
| Date: | 17th-century | |
| Date of Inscription: | 1998 | |
| Location: | Europe, Sweden, Blekinge County | |
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| Description: | Built in the late-17th-century, Karlskrona is an exceptional illustration of a European planned naval city of that period. The initial plan and a number of its buildings have endured in an undamaged state, together with installations that demonstrate its later development that carried on to the present day. --WHMNet paraphrase from the description at WHC Site, where additional information is available. | |
| Karlskrona is a city in south-eastern Sweden. It is the seat of Karlskrona Municipality and of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Sweden's only Naval base. The city was founded in 1680 when the Royal Swedish Navy was relocated there. Its name is derived from King Charles XI of Sweden and means Charles's Crown. The buildings that were built at the foundation of Karlskrona in the 17th and early 18th century are still standing. Fredrikskyrkan was designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, who was influenced by European architecture. The foundation of that church were laid in 1720, and it was inaugurated in 1744. It differs from usual Swedish churches in its yellow color and its adornment. The church Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan, also called The German Church, was built between 1697-1709, following Tessin's drawings. It is likewise located at the market square in the centre core. The dome-shaped roof takes its influence from Italian architecture and is rarely seen on Swedish churches. The third city church is the Karlskrona Admiralty Church, built in 1685, in red-painted wood. The shipyard in Karlskrona was established almost at the same time as the city. It was a necessity because of the heavy losses the Swedish Navy had suffered in 1689. In 1711, the shipyard was Sweden's largest industrial employer with 1,100 workers. In 1750, Karlskrona had about 10,000 inhabitants, a high number for a Swedish city at that time. The oldest dock, the Polhem dock, is cut in the cliff itself and is still in use today. It also got its name from Christopher Polhem ("Sweden's DaVinci", a man with several inventions still in use to day that originate from his designs). The city has also kept its street structure since its foundation. The naval installations there has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1981 the Cold War-incident with the Soviet submarine U 137 occurred in the archipelago just outside Karlskrona. This triggered a serious situation between Sweden and the Soviet Union at the time. --Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. | ||
| Source: | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/871 | |
| Reference: | 1. UNESCO World Heritage Center, Site Page. | |