Gustavia (Ruegen)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustavia was the name of a port project at the beginning of the 19th century in Swedish Pomerania on the island of Rügen . The construction of a fortified Swedish war port on Rügen was intended to create a strategic advantage for the military and trade. A port on the Mönchgut would have threatened Prussia's trade via the mouths of the Oder ( Peenestrom , Swine , Dievenow ) and the Persante and would have been difficult to conquer. The laborious and expensive evacuation of the Swedish merchant ships, which is necessary every spring, could have started much earlier.

history

Plan to build a town on Klein Zicker from 1806

In the summer of 1806, the Swedish officers Boye and Gripenberg carried out surveying work on the Mönchgut near Klein Zicker . Their task was to determine whether the Zicker See was suitable for a port. In their report from August 1806, which also contained a plan of a port city drawn up by Lieutenant Colonel Baron Sparre, they described Lake Zicker as the ideal port basin for 300 to 400 ships. On September 11, 1806, King Gustav IV Adolf ordered the construction of a port. At the same time, plans for a trading city should also be drawn up. The model was probably the Swedish port city of Karlskrona, founded in 1679 . More than 30 objects were planned for the port construction. In addition to a shipyard and dock, a nautical school was also planned for the military sector. In the civil part, next to residential houses and a promenade, a children's house, a school for crafts and agriculture and a theater were to be built.

In the same month the first work was started west of Groß Zicker under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Ljungberg. The work was interrupted in winter and continued in early 1807. When the French occupied Rügen in October 1807, the project came to a standstill. In 1811, the French destroyed the above-ground facilities that had been erected so far. The building material left behind by the Swedes was removed. The French Governor General Thouvenot requested the planning documents. When the French left in 1813, they probably took them with them. The successor Gustav IV Adolf, King Karl XIII. gave up the goal of founding a city.

Even when Swedish Pomerania went to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815 , the port project was not continued. The protected location of the Zicker See made it a port of refuge and a preferred winter berth. But he did not get beyond this status.

In 1995 two objects were discovered off the Zickersches Hövt peninsula through aerial photography. In underwater archaeological investigations they were identified as wood-stone constructions (stone boxes). These were built from pine planks 7.2 meters in length. Filled with field stones, the distance between the two boxes is 6.4 meters. By dendrochronological investigations timber in the early 19th century, could the end of the Swedish era are dated. The stone boxes lying at a depth of 3 meters are the remains of a landing stage, which were built around 1813 after the French left, in order to be able to land the Swedish troops more easily.

Trivia

In addition to the planned Gustavia on Rügen, which was to receive its name in honor of the Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf , the capital of the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthélemy - which was a Swedish colony from 1785 to 1877 - is in honor of the then reigning Swedish King Gustav III. to this day the name Gustavia .

literature

  • Joachim Krüger : Gustavia - A port project from 1806 on the island of Rügen from a historical and archaeological point of view . In: Ivo Asmus, Haik Thomas Porada, Dirk Schleinert (eds.): Geographical and historical contributions to regional studies in Pomerania. Eginhard Wegner on his 80th birthday . Greifswald Geographical Works, special volume. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 1998, ISBN 3-931185-48-6 , p. 233-240 .
  • Joachim Krüger : Selected underwater archaeological research in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . P. 47. In: Hans Joachim von Oertzen (Hrsg.): Border region between Pomerania and Mecklenburg. Lectures 2003. Thomas Helms Verlag, Schwerin 2005, ISBN 3-935749-53-8

Web links

Coordinates: 54 ° 17 ′ 19 ″  N , 13 ° 41 ′ 23 ″  E