17th Century History

In the beginning of the 17th century the vulnerable southern border of Sweden was defended by modern fortresses. While Kalmar and Elfsborg protected the coastline, Jönköping castle should secure the inland routes towards the central parts of the realm. The site was strategically well suited, being a major crossroad with access to waterways.
The castle was originally a Franciscan convent, taken over by the Crown after the Reformation and fortified with walls, dry moats and corner towers. Vastly enlarged and modernized in the first half of the 17th century, this artillery fortress and its outworks covered an area of 10 hectares. From contemporary plans and drawings it is obvious that these defenses were built according to the latest principles in the art of fortification. However, recent excavations and extensive GPR-mapping of the ruins have given reasons to doubt the battle-worthiness of this major border fortress. While written sources speak of cracks in the masonry and crumbling walls, archaeological observations of insufficient foundations and poor craftsmanship points in the same direction. It is questionable if the castle could have resisted a serious siege. Within lies the paradox of Sweden as a military state – its great ambitions in conflict with limited resources.

Jämförelser mellan tidigmodern och modern tid är ovanliga inom forskning om diplomati. Att centrala begrepp som stat och diplomat är anpassade för ett västerländskt system som egentligen inte var i funktion förrän efter 1815 motverkar sådana försök, och anakronistiska definitioner riskerar att dölja en mångfald av diplomatiska aktörer och strategier.
Men rumsliga och tidsliga skillnader inom diplomati har också överdrivits. Därför presenterar historikerna Susanna Erlandsson och Sari Nauman i den här diskussionsboken en begreppsapparat som möjliggör såväl diakrona som synkrona jämförelser av diplomatiska praktiker. Sökljuset riktas bort från stater och officiella aktörer, som är svåra att definiera för tidigare perioder, mot individuella aktörer och deras personliga relationer med varandra. Frågan om hur individerna gör för att skapa tillit inom den diplomatiska relationen placeras i fokus. Medan behovet av tillit ständigt är aktuellt, är metoderna för att uppnå den kontextberoende. Därmed möjliggör begreppsapparaten såväl jämförelser över tid och rum som studier av kontinuitet och förändring.
Begreppsapparaten testas av sex framstående diplomatihistoriker på skilda historiska perioder och kontexter. Tillsammans demonstrerar de begreppens potential och deras fortsatta utmaningar.

Tvrđava Barone sagrađena je na položaju Sv. Vid na samom početku Kandijskoga rata 1646. godine, neposredno nakon gradnje tvrđave sv. Ivana. Sagradio ju je barun Christoph Martin von Degenfeld, general u mletačkoj službi po kojem je i nazvana. Bila je osnovni dio bastionskog sustava šibenskih fortifikacija 17. stoljeća zajedno sa susjednom, znatno jačom, tvrđavom sv. Ivana te bastionom Bernardo i bastionom sv. Katarine na istočnom dijelu šibenskih gradskih bedema. Međutim, prvotna tvrđava bila je samo manja utvrda, tj. ridotto. To potvrđuju sačuvani literarni, epigrafski i grafički povijesni izvori, kao i sačuvani ostaci arhitekture. Ridotto del Baron jedna je u nizu takvih privremenih manjih utvrda šibenskog fortifikacijskog sustava nastalih početkom Kandijskoga rata, ali samo je ridotto del Baron ojačan i uzdignut na status tvrđave. To se dogodilo u vrijeme mandata generalnog providura Antonija Bernarda 1659. godine. Razlog što je ridotto del Baron postao tvrđava svakako je u njegovu dominantom strateškom položaju nad Šibenikom, na koti koja je tek nešto niža od one na kojoj je tvrđava sv. Ivana.

The current considerations follow an archaeological diagnosis carried out in April 2018 on Lector Street, no. 1, 1-3, 3A from Sibiu (Sibiu County, Romania) and on field and bibliographic observations made on this occasion. The archaeological diagnosis brought to light only contemporary materials and a stratigraphy where contemporary layers directly follow a yellow sterile soil or black swamp soil. On field observations together with written and cartographical sources led to the conclusion that the terrain was occupied for a long time by a swamp or a pond. Following this punctual example, the paper presents a general view on ponds and lakes surrounding Sibiu set up with the primary purpose of part of the medieval fortification system of the town. Besides defence purposes, many of these water surfaces had various other purposes: urban facilities, economic / agricultural and justice instruments. These ponds and lakes lost their importance and were drain after the middle of the 18th century to make room for the new quarters of the town. The paper includes a complete list of lakes and ponds surrounding Sibiu, as they appear on Morando Visconti’s map from 1699, related to the present day’s plan of the city.

The fortress Town of Kristianstad was built in the beginning of the 17th century to protect the North-Eastern part of the then Danish province of Scania. This vulnerable border region suffered from the devastating raids made by the Swedish army in the Kalmar War of 1611-1613. As a consequence the two medieval towns of Åhus and Vä were given up in favor of a border fortress built in Dutch fashion, protected by water, marshes and wetlands. The new town was named Christianstad after the king, Christian IV. Its rights were given by king and council in 1614 and work began in earnest shortly thereafter. The Church of the Holy Trinity was among the first buildings to be started, as was the Rectory nearby. The latter, built between 1617 and 1620, was among the finest houses in the city and the king is known to have stayed there when he visited his new fortress project. However, it was to have a short life as the Rectory buildings were torn down during the siege of 1677-1678. In that harsh winter the soldiers of the garrison took what they could find of building material to repair fortifications and use for firewood. In the centuries to follow the plot remained open and unbuilt - a garden or a small park until 2015, when the Church needed a new parish house to be constructed here. So, during April and May that year the Rectory of Jörgen Kristoffersen was excavated by a team of archaeologists from Sydsvensk Arkeologi; this being the first large scale excavation project ever undertaken in this fine Renaissance Model City!

This report highlights the results from an excavation that literally opened new ground, while the findings didn’t exactly turned out to be what were expected initially. The actual building remains from the Rectory did not offer the kind of undisturbed time capsule we all had hoped for. Instead of a detailed insight into a high status household and its material culture a quite different picture emerged. The soldiers of 1677 had done a thorough job in removing whatever was useful to them. Even the stones of the cobbled yard had been taken away to be reused somewhere else in the beleaguered fortress. But what did appear was a fine illustration of the difficulties faced when trying to build a new town in a location that was indeed highly unsuited for such a venture. Because even though this must be considered as one of the finest plots in Christianstad, massive landfill was needed on the site. Another intriguing find was the amount of building materials re-used in the Rectory – both in the actual houses and for stabilizing the yard. A partly excavated stone cellar beneath the main building had walls where undressed stones, medieval bricks, roof tiles etc. had been used. And a large number of bricks made for 16th century style vaults lay as filling in the yard; bricks that had never been used for their original purpose! But probably the most fascinating finds were the large amount of black glazed oven tiles, found both in the buildings and as filling in the yard. Obviously they emanated from the same source and had been meant for use in rooms with a high ceiling, not like the lower rooms in a cross timbered building such as the Rectory. Their motifs reflected exclusiveness, high quality and a range of themes connected with religion and politics. The parallels are to be found in royal castles and other buildings connected with the higher echelons of 16th and 17th century society in Northern Europe. Where the ovens these tiles decorated were erected originally remains an open question, but the town of Åhus offers a possible solution. The Royal residence there, the former Blackfriars convent, was demolished around 1620...

To summarize – the excavation of the Kv. Jörgen Kristoffersen site has given us a first glance of the complicated process of building a fortress town in the early 17th century. Of how thorough the transition to new structures, made necessary by changing political situations, could be – and how painful to those that had to live and endure such profound changes. The results will provide new starting points for further research, as this project has given us more questions to deal with than actual answers. It is already quite obvious how a new interest in the history of Christianstad and other similar projects started during the reign of Christian IV has been sparked by this project!