Kuninkaanportti or Kungsporten (Finnish and Swedish respectively for "the king's gate") is the principal entrance to the fortress Suomenlinna (Swedish: Sveaborg) outside Helsinki. It is on the southernmost island of Suomenlinna, in front of the Kustaanmiekka strait, and is considered the main symbol of Suomenlinna.
The gate was constructed from 1753 to 1754 at the place where King Adolf Frederick of Sweden anchored his ship when he was coming to inspect the construction of the fortress. The name "the king's gate" comes from this.
The gate is a typical fortress gate with cannon openings. There are wide stairs leading to the gate, but in front of the gate is a drawbridge and a wide pit at both sides, to hinder climbing into the fortress.
The gate was featured in the 1000 Finnish mark note in the last series, from 1986 to 2001.
Augustin Ehrensvärd's famous inscription.
As a decoration, the sides of the gate feature four stone tablets which were written by the designer of the fortress, Augustin Ehrensvärd, in Swedish:
Här har konung Fredrik låtit läggs den första sten år 1748 ("Here laid King Frederick the first stone in the year 1748")
Och konung Gustaf har lagt den sista sten år .. ("And here laid King Gustav the last stone in the year", the year is left unwritten, because Gustav III never arrived to lay the last stone)
Sveaborg som rörer hafvet på den ena sidan och stranden på den andra, giver den kloke herravälde på både haf och land ("Sveaborg (Suomenlinna), which touches the sea on one side and the shore on the other, gives the wise control both on sea and on land.")
Ifrån ödemarker äro desse Vargskiärsholmar ombytte till ett Sveaborg. Eftervard, stå här på egen botn, och lita icke på främmande hielp. ("From desolate lands, these Wolf Islands have been transformed into a Sveaborg (Suomenlinna). Progeny, stand here on your own foundation, and do not rely on foreign help.")
Gustav I, commonly known as Gustav Vasa, was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm (Riksföreståndare) from 1521, during the ongoing Swedish War of Liberation against King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Gustav rose to lead the Swedish War of Liberation following the Stockholm Bloodbath, where his father was executed. Gustav's election as king on 6 June 1523 and his triumphant entry into Stockholm eleven days later marked Sweden's final secession from the Kalmar Union.
Suomenlinna, or Sveaborg, is an inhabited sea fortress composed of eight islands, of which six have been fortified; it is about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Suomenlinna is popular with tourists and locals, who enjoy it as a picturesque picnic site. Originally named Sveaborg, or Viapori as referred to by Finnish-speaking Finns, it was renamed in Finnish to Suomenlinna in 1918 for patriotic and nationalistic reasons, though it is still known by its original name in Sweden and by Swedish-speaking Finns. Due to its strategic geographical location, it sometimes used to be known as Gibraltar of the North.
The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, a state under the rule of the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliament's adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the new Swedish royal house, in 1818.
Jacob Johan Anckarström was a Swedish military officer who is known as the assassin of King Gustav III of Sweden. He was convicted and executed for regicide.
Marstrand is a seaside locality situated in Kungälv Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,320 inhabitants in 2010. The town got its name from its location on the island of Marstrand. Despite its small population, for historical reasons Marstrand is often referred to as a city.
Helsinki is the capital of Finland and is its largest city. It was founded in the Middle Ages to be a Swedish rival to other ports on the Gulf of Finland, but it remained a small fishing village for over two centuries. Its importance to the Swedish Kingdom increased in the mid-18th century when the fortress originally known as Sveaborg was constructed on islands at the entrance to the harbor. While intended to protect Helsinki from Russian attack, Sveaborg ultimately surrendered to Russia during the Finnish War (1808-1809), and Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as part of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn. Russia then moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki, and the city grew dramatically during the 19th century. Finnish independence, a civil war, and three consecutive conflicts associated with World War II made Helsinki a site of significant political and military activity during the first half of the 20th century. Helsinki hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1952, was a European Capital of Culture in 2000, and the World Design Capital in 2012. It is considered a Beta Level city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC), according to their 2012 analysis.
Field Marshal count Augustin Ehrensvärd was a Swedish military officer, military architect, artist, creator of the Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) fortress, Svartholm fortress and the Swedish archipelago fleet. He was born in Fullerö Castle, Barkarö and died in the village of Saris, Mynämäki.
Katarina kyrka is one of the major churches in central Stockholm, Sweden. The original building was constructed 1656–1695. It has been rebuilt twice after being destroyed by fires, the second time during the 1990s. The Katarina-Sofia borough is named after Katarina Parish and the neighbouring parish of Sofia.
The Stones of Mora is a historic location in Knivsta, Sweden. Several Medieval kings of Sweden were proclaimed at the assembly of Mora near modern Uppsala. It was moved in the 15th century and was considered to have been lost. However, there are a number of stones of record in a small building in the vicinity of the former assembly site.
The Freemason's Grave is a grave monument on a grassy knoll northwest of the Kaisaniemi Botanical Gardens in Helsinki, Finland. It commemorates Fredrik Granatenhjelm, a notable artillery officer from the Suomenlinna fortress, who later moved to the mainland Helsinki proper, gaining great repute as a philanthropist.
Walhalla-orden was a secret society founded in the early part of 1783 in the Sveaborg fortress outside Helsinki, Finland by Johan Anders Jägerhorn along with Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm. It is thought to have been instrumental in setting in motion forces that eventually caused Finnish independence.
Fredrik Henrik af Chapman was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and officer in the Swedish navy. He was also manager of the Karlskrona shipyard 1782–1793. Chapman is credited as the world's first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect.
Carl Olof Cronstedt the elder was a Swedish naval commander responsible for the overwhelming Swedish victory at the Second Battle of Svensksund, one of the largest naval battles in history. He is often better remembered, however, as the commander of the fortress of Sveaborg during the Finnish War in 1808–09, which was fought between Sweden and Imperial Russia, and ended in Cronstedt surrendering the fortress.
Johan (Jan) Anders Jägerhorn af Spurila (1752-1825) was a Finnish nobleman born on 8 April 1757 in Helsinki county, at that time a part of Sweden. He was the eldest son of lieutenant colonel Fredrik Anders Jägerhorn and Ulrika Sofia Brunow. Colonel Fredrik Adolf Jägerhorn, vice commander of the Sveaborg fortress in 1808 was Johan Anders' brother.
The siege of Sveaborg was a siege by Imperial Russian forces of the sea fort of Sveaborg, off the coast of Helsingfors (Helsinki); at the time Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. It took place in the spring of 1808, during the Finnish War. Despite its formidable reputation as "the Gibraltar of the North", the fortress surrendered after a siege of two months. As its capitulation was followed by the rapid collapse of Swedish resistance elsewhere, and ultimately the Russian conquest of Finland, the siege is often regarded as the decisive battle of the war.
The Svartholm fortress was built between 1749 and 1764 outside Loviisa in Southern Finland by Augustin Ehrensvärd. The fortress, which lies at the mouth of the Bay of Loviisa, along with the planned land fortress at Loviisa, would have prevented invading Russian forces from entering what was then Swedish territory in present-day Finland.
Mariefred Charterhouse, sometimes referred to as Gripsholm Charterhouse, was a Carthusian monastery, or charterhouse, in the present town of Mariefred in Södermanland, Sweden, to which it gave its name; before the building of the monastery the place was known as Gripsholm. It was the only Carthusian monastery in Scandinavia, and one of the last monasteries established in Sweden before the Reformation.
The Krepost Sveaborg was an Imperial Russian system of land and coastal fortifications constructed around Helsinki during the First World War. The purpose of the fortress was to provide a secure naval base for the Russian Baltic fleet and to protect Helsinki and block routes to Saint Petersburg from a possible German invasion. Krepost Sveaborg was part of Peter the Great's Naval Fortress, a coastal fortification system protecting access to Saint Petersburg by sea. The central part of Krepost Sveaborg was the old fortress of Suomenlinna where the fortress headquarters were located. Due to technological advances in artillery the old fortress was no longer capable of providing a sufficient protection, and a new main defensive line was built well beyond the old fortress boundaries. New coastal artillery guns built on outlying islands protected Krepost Sveaborg from the sea, while fortified lines constructed around Helsinki were intended to stop any attacks on land. The primary coastal guns were 10 in (254 mm) model 1891 guns and 6 in (152 mm) model 1892 Canet guns. Older 11 in (279 mm) model 1877 guns were also used. In summer 1917 the fortress had two hundred coastal or anti-landing guns, of which 24 were 10-inch guns in six batteries, 16 were 6-inch Canet guns in four batteries and twelve were 11-inch guns in three batteries. The artillery used in land fortifications included older coastal guns, old fixed carriage guns and newer light field guns. In March 1917, Krepost Sveaborg had a total of 463 guns, although many of them were obsolescent. Krepost Sveaborg was still partly incomplete in 1917 when the February Revolution halted most of the construction work. Some further construction work was carried out during the remaining year, but all work halted during the October Revolution. Following the Finnish Declaration of Independence, parts of the land fortifications were used in the Finnish Civil War. The coastal fortifications were later taken over by Finland to protect Helsinki, while the land fortifications were mostly abandoned and disarmed.
Gustav III ,note on dates also called Gustavus III, was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.
The Ehrensvärd grave is the final resting place and memorial of Augustin Ehrensvärd, the founder of the Suomenlinna island fortress in Helsinki, Finland, at the Linnanpiha yard on the island of Susisaari in Suomenlinna. Ehrensvärd was buried at the yard in 1783 but the memorial was only completed in its current form in 1805.
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