Naval City of Karlskrona

Karlskrona lies in the archipelago of Blekinge in southern Sweden. The Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 transferred the province from Denmark to Sweden. Sweden was then the leading military power on the Baltic, but its fleet near Stockholm was often trapped by winter ice. It was decided to move most of the navy to the island of Trossö in the new province, ice-free and close to Denmark.

In 1679 the farmer who owned the island was made to sell it to the crown, and the move of the fleet began that year. The town was founded on 10 August 1680 and named Karl's Crown after King Karl XI. Nearby Ronneby lost its town status and its people were moved here. The first plan of 1683 showed Karlskrona as a pure fortress, while Erik Dahlberg's plan of 1694, which was followed, also left room for the civil town.

The shipyard was set up almost at the same time as the town, and in 1711 it was Sweden's largest industrial employer with 1,100 workers. Its oldest dock, cut into the rock and named after the inventor Christopher Polhem, is still in use. By 1750 the town had about 10,000 people, although plague had killed about 7,000 between 1701 and 1711. With its original plan and many of its buildings intact, the naval port was inscribed in 1998.