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.")
Suomenlinna, or Sveaborg (Swedish), is an inhabited sea fortress built on eight islands about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage site that 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.
Sten Sture the Elder was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden 1470–1497 and 1501–1503. As the leader of the victorious Swedish separatist forces against the royal unionist forces during the Battle of Brunkeberg in 1471, he weakened the Kalmar Union considerably and became the effective ruler of Sweden as Lord Regent for most of his remaining life.
The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within 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.
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Field marshal count Augustin Ehrensvärd was a Swedish military officer, military architect, artist, creator of the Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) fortress and the Swedish archipelago fleet. He was born in Fullerö Castle, Barkarö and died in the village of Saris, Mynämäki.
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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.
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