Karlskrona, Sweden - Karlskrona Travel Guide - visiting Karlskrona

Karlskrona

Fredrikskyrkan, Karlskrona, Sweden (cc)

Karlskrona

Karlskrona is pleasant sort of town, and one of the highlights of any visit to southeastern Sweden. It is, most famously, Sweden's only Baroque city, and home to the country's only remaining naval base, offering visitors a unique mix of old architecture and naval installations. It is also the largest city in the Blekinge province, with the largest public square in Scandinavia, second-largest in Europe – after Moscow's Red Square. The city is centered on the islet of Trossö and linked to virtually all the other islets and islands in the Karlskrona archipelago – the southernmost of Sweden's archipelagos – via ferry. On the islet of Stumholmen, formerly the property of the Swedish Navy, is the National Naval Museum (Marinmuseum).

Historically, too, Karlskrona is not without interest. Unlike most other cities that came into being as mere villages and evolved gradually into cities, Karlskrona was built on a little peninsula in eastern Blekinge by order of the king, Karl XI, in 1680. At the time, Sweden had emerged as a powerful nation, controlling large chunks of the Baltic Region, including the Baltic States, Finland, and parts of northern Germany; and Karlskrona, situated smack in the middle of this vast empire, quickly blossomed into the third-largest city in Sweden, such that by the mid-18th century it boasted a population of no fewer than 10,000 residents.

Karlskrona now has a resident population of approximately 33,000.

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