A port towards the sea and foreign countries

The town, or the municipality, derives its origin from the fishing village and the wharf of Bodekull. It was situated in a deep, well sheltered bay at the mouth of the river Mieån where it reaches the Baltic Sea. We know about Bodekull a long time before Blekinge became a Swedish province in 1658 through the Peace of Roskilde. A long time ago this place, later to get the name of Karlshamn, had been an important port towards the sea and foreign countries to many people in the western part of Blekinge, the south of Småland and the northeast of Skåne. Bodekull was a small village, belonging to the parish of Asarum. Here you would only find peasants, fishermen and a few customs officers; men who had to watch so that nothing illegally was loaded or unloaded. All port and customs duties that were paid at that time were attributed to the town of Ronneby and the State.

Sweden’s king in the middle of the 17 th century came from the Palatinate in the south of Germany. His name was Karl X Gustav, and he was the male cousin of his predecessor Queen Christina, who abdicated in 1654. Thus he became the ancestor of the Palatine dynasty on the throne of Sweden. Karl X Gustav carried on several wars during his short reign and in one of these wars he defeated Fredrik III and the Danes. At the peace made at Roskilde on February 26th 1658, Sweden took, among other things, Skåne, Blekinge, Halland and Bohuslän.

The Swedes had been interested in Bodekull for a long time past. They needed a naval port in the south of Sweden. The mouth of the river Mieån was the place they looked for. Karl X Gustav as well as Erik Dahlberg thought that this would be a good location when they visited the small fishing village in the spring of 1658.

 

Big naval plans

On September 15th 1664 Bodekull was granted a town charter. By letter in 1666 the homesteads of Bodekull and Bodestorp were donated to the new town and the town got its name Karlshamn from Karl X Gustav. Two years later the town got its town charter signed by the queen dowager, Hedvig Eleonora. This charter tells us the rights and duties of the town and you can now find this letter in the archives of Karlshamn.

As already mentioned Karl X Gustav intended to build a port for exports and a naval base. It is supposed that his early death (in 1660) was the reason why these plans couldn’t be fullfilled to the extent he had planned. A state shipbuilding yard was however built in 1659 and remained there until 1676, when it was relocated to Kalmar.

Plans to protect the city from attacks from the sea were made by Erik Dahlberg. The first fortress was built at Boön in 1659. Traces are still to be seen there. The fortifications at Frisholmen, nowadays Kastellet, started in 1675. The garrison, which at times engaged 400 persons, came to an end in 1864.

 

Stubborn Danes

The town had a couple of times been subjected to the ravages of war. In 1676 the Danes took the town and the fortifications at Kastellet but it was recaptured the following year. In 1678 the town was paid a visit once again from the land, guided by a traitor called Pickedala-Ola. The town was set on fire and about 20 houses were burnt down to ashes, among them the town hall and the school They managed, however, to drive away the enemy, and the traitor was burnt to death. In 1710 the town once again was taken by the Danes, but after the Swedes had paid a large ransom, the Danes left the town. The following year, 1711, Karlshamn was afflicted by the plague. One half of the inhabitants, about 900 persons, are estimated to have died. A special plague cemetry was established in the eastern part of the city near Surbrunnsparken.

In 1716 the town had an interesting visit, when Karl XII’s oriental creditors were accommodated there. They had followed the king to look after their interests. Apart from the 60 lenders there were about 90 Poles and Germans. The harmony among the strangers was not always the best thinkable. A Polish cavalry captain tortured a Jew to death, and a Turk, Deli Mustafa stabbed his master Oma Pascha to death in the market of Karlshamn. The place of the murder is marked by a square-shaped slab of stone.

 

A Smuggler Port

In 1763 the northern part of the town (23 houses) was devastated in a big fire. In 1790 the newly built belfry and a large number of houses along Kungsgatan burnt down. The wars of Napoleon in the beginning of the 19 th century led to a short golden period for the town, as the ports of the Continent were blockaded for the English merchant navy. But with the help of the English navy, goods were smuggled to the European continent on a large scale. One of the biggest smuggling ports was Karlshamn. During these years, the epoch of smuggling, there were many families in Karlshamn, who made fortunes by buying goods cheap and then selling at a profit. The old houses along the Mieån have a lot to tell us if only they could. Then we would certainly have heard lots of exciting stories. The name of Karlshamn has been spread widely over the world and still is. Formerly first of all for its Swedish punch, Carlshamns Flaggpunsch, but there was also another luxury that made the name known, namely snuff. Dahlén´s snuff was estimated even on the other side of the boundary of the country. A Punch Museum in the building of Konsthallen and a Snuff and Tobacco Museum at Museigården remind us about the golden times. The stone, the Blekinge granite, has also become known in most parts of the world. Many of the most famous buildings of the world are covered with stone from the quarries owned by Fernström and several monuments are signed with the AFK signature (Alfred Kofoed Fernström). The office building of AFK is at the port near the port office.

 

At first liquor - then oil

Spirits production set its mark on the town during this period. The King of Snaps L O Smith built a huge manufacturing establishment on the western quay with towers and pinnacles, a style of architecture rich in ornament, that you would like to have even today, when you see buildings that look like boxes. The above mentioned establishment was a distillery For 10 years L.O.Smith did a lot of business, and cargos of snaps left daily from Karlshamn. But one day business stopped, above all because the State of Spain confiscated the huge stock of snaps L O Smith had there. The building then became a sugar refinery and is now owned by Karlshamns AB, the biggest industry in the city employing about 900 persons and the biggest factory for the production of vegetable oils in northern Europe. Still there is a part left of the old factory for snaps production, situated opposite to the Hotel Carlshamn. In the harbour park at Näsviken we are reminded of the emigration from Karlshamn in the middle of the 19 th century. There we find the monument Karl Oskar and Kristina made by Axel Olsson reminding of Vilhelm Moberg and his big emigrant epos.

 

Schröder and Tegnér

Many great men have governed Karlshamn. The greatest of them was perhaps Christopher Schröder, M.P., district court judge, customs officer (as a supervisor), mayor, and doctor. He took the initiative in building the town hall, the church and the education among other things-He was really engaged in many things.

The bestknown woman ever at Karlshamn is Alice Tegnér, the lady champion of Swedish children’ s songs. She was born at Karlshamn in 1864 and lived during her schooldays in Drottninggatan 34 (Harm’s hill) Before she married District Judge Jacob Tegnér (the grandson of the poet Esaias Tegnér) her name was Alice Sandström. Her father was the music loving captain of the ship Falco, Edvard Sandström. Among her children’s songs we can mention Mors lille Olle (Mother’s Little Olle), Bä bä vita lamm (Baa, baa White Lamb), Borgmästar Munthe (Mayor Munthe), Tre pepparkaksgubbar (Three Gingerbread Men), Sockerbagaren (The Confectioner) and Majas visa (Maja’s Song). The bronze statue of the barefoot girl Maja standing upright on the red granite base, symbolizes Maja in the song as well as Alice Tegnér herself.

Lights and shades have varied at Karlshamn. War and fire have devastated the second biggest town of the district (and municipality), but it has always recovered. Karlshamn is called the small town with the big port and that is well justified. The harbour has always been the pulse of of the town and the port to the continent We - from Karlshamn take a pride in our harbour but of course also in the town itself. Especially in summertime it appears at its best with all the small oasis in the town center. Welcome to Karlshamn - the town with the beautiful back yards!

Lars Dreje 
from Karlshamn