Naval City of Karlskrona

The Naval Port of Karlskrona

Karlskrona was founded in 1680 to meet the need for a naval base in southern Sweden. The shipbuilding, urban planning and techniques of contruction and defence in Karlskrona attracted great attention in Europe during the eighteenth century.

The naval port of Karlskrona was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998.

The Justification of the World Heritage Committee

Karlskrona is an exceptionally well preserved example of a European planned naval town which incorporates elements from earlier establishments in other countries and which was in its turn to serve as a model for subsequent towns with similar functions. Naval bases played an important role in the centuries during which naval power was a determining factor in European Realpolitik, and Karlskrona is the best preserved and most complete of those that survive.

Links

www.orlogsstadenkarlskrona.se – Swedish, English, German and Polish

The Naval Port of Karlskrona.
Photo: Bengt A. Lundberg, National Heritage Board, 1999