Marketplace - Part I

Ernst Moritz Arndt.

"Come here, young travellers, and let me take you back in time and tell you about Karlskrona as I saw it when I was here back in 1804. My name is Ernst, Ernst Moritz Arndt, and as you maybe can tell I am German by heritage. In the year of 1804 I was travelling through Sweden, observing and writing down everything I saw. Karlskrona was then one of the youngest, but still one of the most beautiful cities in the entire Sweden. It's built on several islands and you have to go over many bridges and islands until you get to the city itself, islands such as Wämmö, Panter- and Pottholmen. The island on which the main city is built is named Trossö. It belonged to a farmer and fisherman named Veit Andersson, who completely refused to give it up to Carl the Eleventh and claimed the island as his property when Carl wanted to make the base of his fleet here. Then the king had to take him from his home and keep him in the dungeons for some time before he would finally give up. There's still a street named after him here, Vitusgatan. The little house he lived in stood there until 1773 until it was torn down to give room for the current building, which is the Town Hall (rådhus)." (Guys? We can show the tourists this, right? )

"After the terrible fire of 1790, as I see it in front of my eyes right now, the city looks completely different. Only the poorest and most ill-kept houses on Lilla and Stora Björkholmen were spared from the fire, which is pretty ironic don't you think? Yes, the rich masters had all their houses burnt to the ground and the poor got to keep theirs. One could almost say it was punishment.. But anyway. The city was rebuilt, to be stronger and more beautiful than ever before, and the wounds from the horrible happenings have now almost been completely healed. They have tried to even out some of the streets with stones and some of the prisoners from (ankarsmedjan?) are still working on this. But it's pretty difficult since Trossö and the other islands consist of hard rocks and cliffs. Many of the Houses are built on solid rock and to walk along the streets is like constantly climbing a mountain, up and down, up and down. I'm sure you already know what I'm talking about, don't you?

You are standing in the most beautiful location in the city - the marketplace! Even the greatest cities in Europe cannot show a more majestic centre of the city. But maybe it would look better if it weren't for all the churches? Look, the big Swedish church stands in the middle and the German on one side, which we just came from. Did you know that it was ravaged by the fire as well? Yes, but it is now restored in a very tasteful shape, it's inside as simple as its outside. The church and the house of the landlord are the most beautiful buildings of the marketplace, wouldn't you say?"

I know this guy is lacking some sense of humour, I was hoping you'd help me with that. There's also the matter of the second traveller, Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert, I'll put his story up later.

- Eva.