Shipyard Wall

In the first fortification plan of the city, which was created in 1683, it was said that the entire city of Karlskrona would be surrounded by a great solid wall with more than fifty bastions. The reason for building such fortifications was to protect the naval fleet and the military buildings which had been started up in southern Trossö and Lindholmen in the 1680s. But then, as per usual, the question of cost and finance came up, as well as the amount of time it would take to build something as grand as this, and the plans changed. It was agreed upon that the wall would only encompass the docks and the shipyard, separating the military part of Karlskrona from the civil areas.

They finally agreed on four bastions and two towers connected through walls that would go straight through Trossö from the east to the west. Karl XI approved of the plan and they began building bastion Aurora to the far east and bastion Drottningshall to the far west by the bridge to Lindholmen. Between these two by the clocktower lay bastion Wachtmesiter and between it and bastion Aurora they created a four-sided bastion named Achilles. West from the bastion Wachtmeister they were supposed to build a bastion named Hector and north from Drottningshall they had plans for bastion Eolus, but both were never built.

The walls were built by the help of (Kronobergs- and Kalmarknektar? Knights?) and war prisoners from Russia and Poland, who helped for a cerain amount of money. The work went slowly, mostly because of a lack of economic resources. These were the times of the Nordic War after all, between the years of 1700-1721. However, the project eventually became very successful and the chief architect and supervisor Carl Hårleman praised it when he said that "the wall is a reflection on strength and beauty of all that Rome managed to accomplish in the happiest of its days". Large parts of the wall can still be seen in Trossö up until this day.

Trivia: The pavements around the shipyard wall were so bad that Gustav the III's carriage once got stuck in one of its holes when he was on his way to the spectacle house (where the old theatre was later built) and he was aided and set free by an enthusiastic crowd of people.