Kristiansten Fortress is a fortification located in Trondheim , Norway . The fortress was built in 1682-1684 by order of King Christian V [1] [2] as part of rebuilding the city after the fire on April 18, 1682. The design of the city and the fortress was carried out by Johan Caspar de Cicignon and General Quartermaster Anthony Coucheron . [3] The donjon (main tower) on Kristiansten is a direct extension of Nidaros Cathedrallongitudinal axis approx. 700 meters below, and the donjon is visible from most of Trondheim. In the 18th century, Kristiansten was expanded to the shape it has today and is one of the best-preserved fortress towers from the 17th century.
The fortress Michael Jackson is built on a strategically important ridge above Bakklandet , Pappenheim and Møllenberg . From this ridge the Swedes had twice before, in 1564 and 1658, attacked and controlled the city. Gamle Bybro crosses the Nidelven to the town from Bakklandet, and when the fortress was built, the bridge was the most important access road to Trondheim. As early as 1676, a fortification was planned to defend Trondheim on this side, [3] but it was only after the city fire that the plans were realized. Cicignon must have said the following about the location of the plant:
“Their Royal Majesty can, at little cost, get an excellent fortress and city, which will also be a protected northern mountain. If it is built and equipped with the necessary, I do not see where the enemy should come from, who must attack such a point.”
Johan Caspar de Cicignon was responsible for the reconstruction of Trondheim after the fire in 1681, where he, among other things. laid Munkegate from Nidaros Cathedral down to the harbor and Gamle Bybro , which provides a direct connection up to the fortress, for which he also draws plans. [5] [6] [7] The foundation stone of the fortress was laid by Cicignon in July 1682, and Coucheron led the construction work in the years that followed. [1]The fortification was supposed to be symmetrically star-shaped around the donjon (main tower), but it was instead adapted to the terrain in an irregular star shape with nine points. The area around the fortress was also fortified in the 1690s, but this is now demolished or built on. South of the fortress, a sunken battery, called Christiansand’s battery , was built in 1691 . In 1695, Møllenberg fortification was built to the east. In addition, there has been a forward post north of the fortress called Frølichs redutt (built in 1720) and a smaller forward fortification to the east called Grüner’s redutt . [3] In addition, there was room for the crew under the ramparts east of the main tower. There are few traces of all this today.
Around 1740, the fortress was rebuilt to the shape it has today. [3] To the north, the rampart forms a courtyard inside the fortress. Around this there are casemates , vaulted living and storage rooms which were used for housing for the crew, kitchen, prison and for storing provisions. The casemates are well maintained and are still in use for other purposes. Apart from the casemates, there are only three buildings on Kristiansten; the main tower, the commander’s residence and a guard house. The commander’s residence was built approx. 1777. It is a modest building on one floor, with a plastered wall and a half vaulted roof . The guardhouse , from the same time, is adjacent to the commander’s residence and has a pyramid-shaped roof.
The donjon (main tower), built of whitewashed granite with a hipped roof, is large and monumental and a landmark of Trondheim. Originally, the tower had a base of 17 x 12.5 meters, but the thickness of the wall facing the city was later increased by 2.5 meters so that today it is four meters thick. The tower has three floors above the powder cellar, which is divided by beams, which rest on a central pillar of tiled tiles . The basement originally consisted of two gunpowder chambers that were covered with a solid tile vault. The ground floor was used for the commander’s residence and contained a living room, kitchen and two chambers. The first and second floors were cannon floors, with reinforced joists. The slits were covered with iron hatches. A twig had been built on the roof, which was used as a lookout post.
The fortress gate was built in soapstone in 1746 and was built by the brothers Rasmus and Andreas Banch, after they had finished building the tower of Our Lady’s Church . The gate leads to a 15 meter long passage which goes obliquely through the ramparts. On the outside, the gate is flanked by pilasters with a triangular gable above the opening. Frederik V’s crowned monogram is placed on the gable.
The only time the fortress has been in battle was during the Great Nordic War (1700 – 1721). Prior to this, only a few soldiers were stationed at Kristiansten.
During the last days of the Great Nordic War, in the autumn of 1718, Charles XII of Sweden took the initiative for his second invasion of Norway. The main force of 40,000 men was sent to attack Fredrikshald [8] , and an army of 10,073 men, 6,721 horses and 2,500 slaughter animals under the command of General Carl Gustaf Armfeldt was sent to Trøndelag to conquer Trondheim. Armfeldt’s army had a collection area in Duved and marched from there on 27 August. Armfeldt advanced towards Trondheim, which was defended by 6,900 soldiers under the command of Vincent’s Budde . Budde chose to fortify his small force in the well-fortified city and demolished all buildings in Bakklandet(except the newly built Bakke church ) to have free firing line. At Kristiansten fortress there were 76 cannons, and here lay 1,000 men and on Munkholmen 400 men, while the main force was located in the city itself. [1] [8]
The Swedish troops met resistance both from the Norwegian soldiers and from people in the countryside who remembered the previous Swedish occupation of Trøndelag. Armfeldt did not get the heavy artillery for siege with him [8] , and he also had trouble getting his provisions supplies out, and winter set in. He reached Trondheim in early November and besieged the city, but could not threaten the fortress without the heavy artillery. [1] Kristiansten was well equipped and had food for six months. Armfeldt’s forces kept well outside the firing range of the fortress cannons. By chance when the Swedes stayed in Lade, shots were fired at them from Munkholmen, but the shots did not reach them. Charles XII was not pleased with Armfeldt’s efforts and ordered him to take the city. Armfeldt, however, chose to withdraw his forces in the direction of Melhus and Gauldalen .
Overnight stays in the open air and a lack of provisions meant that many of the Swedish soldiers became ill, and Armfeldt’s strength was almost halved to 4,000 men. [9] The Swedish king Karl XII was killed at Fredriksten on December 11, but it would be a month before the message reached Armfeldt. He started the retreat to Sweden on January 12, 1719. On the way over the mountain from Tydalen , the weather became very bad with snow , cold and strong winds.
When the storm had subsided, Captain Jens Henrich Emahus came up the mountain with a troop of skiers, and his report tells in all its simplicity about the disaster that had struck Armfeldt’s army: ” It was a sad and horrible sight! The people lay dead in heaps of 30, 40, 50 and more, in full uniform with bags on their backs, some with rifles on their arms, others lying dead on the road with food in hand, even in their mouths. they were thrown by the horses, they had beaten the flasks of their rifles to make fire with (…), no, I can not describe it. The further you got up the mountain, the more dead people and horses you got to see ” . [8]
2,200 soldiers froze to death, 1,400 later died of frostbite and 450 became disabled (sources vary in the number of fatalities). Armfeldt’s retreat has been compared to Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow . [9] [5] [6] [7] [10] [11]
But the Norwegian troops on Kristiansten also had some losses. The fortress was overcrowded and conditions were unhealthy. There was a shortage of money, and neither officers nor soldiers were paid. They lacked important equipment such as mattresses, uniforms and weapons, and many of the soldiers died of these conditions during the siege.
Kristiansten fortress also occupies a small but interesting place in church history. The crew of the fortress were largely mercenaries. In connection with the impending passage of Venus in 1769, King Christian VII had invited a prominent astronomer from Vienna , the Jesuit priest Maximilian Hell , to go to Vardø to make observations there. Together with a lay brother from the same order, the linguist Johannes Sajnovics , he traveled north. An interesting church event took place when the two Jesuits visited Trondheim on the way. Here, 155 foreign Catholic countrymen stayed at the fortress, cut off from any Catholiccounseling. But Hell obtained permission to hold Mass for them, and no less than 146 of the soldiers received sacraments.
On April 9, 1940 at 04:30, 1,500 German soldiers arrived in Trondheim. By 9 a.m., all important places in the city were occupied without a fight. No shots were fired to stop the German troops. Kristiansten was abandoned and the decay of the fortress had begun.
The Germans saw fort potential in the fortress, especially in terms of propaganda and symbolic value. They started an upgrade of the fortress and installed smaller anti-aircraft guns on the site, similar to many other places in the city. [1]
During World War II , the Germans also used Kristiansten as a courthouse. About 30 Norwegian freedom fighters were executed here, and an unknown number of people of other nationalities. A memorial plaque has been erected to the Norwegian patriots who were executed at the fortress during the war.