Tunsberghus

Tunsberghus
Creation time :	probably 1100
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Royal castle
Construction:	Natural stone
Place:	Tonsberg
Geographical location	59 ° 16 '18.3 " N , 10 ° 24' 13.1" E Coordinates: 59 ° 16 '18.3 " N , 10 ° 24' 13.1" E

Tunsberghus is a ruined castle in Tønsberg in the southern Norwegian province of Vestfold og Telemark . It was the largest medieval castle in Norway.

location

Tunsberghus was built on Slottsfjell , a mountain plateau with steep slopes. Slottfjell is located on a peninsula, northwest of the city. From the plateau you have a wide view of Tønsberg and the Tønsbergfjord .

history

Tunsberghus was probably built as a wooden castle around 1100. It was first mentioned in the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus when Waldemar from Denmark came to Tønsberg in 1165. He described the castle as well fortified and impregnable from the sea side. In the Middle Ages , the fortress was the center of royal power and the administration of Norway. With the dispute over the royal crown between King Sverre and the young Dane Inge Magnusson , the alleged son of King Magnus Erlingsson , a civil war broke out in the 12th century . The Bagler, headed by Reidar Sendemann, was a church political party that fought for Inge Magnusson. They holed up in the castle against King Sverre and the Birkebeiner . They held out for twenty weeks before they surrendered, probably due to a lack of provisions.

Under Håkon Håkonsson , the grandson of King Sverre, the castle was expanded and made of stone. He built the ring walls and gatehouses in the north and south of the complex as well as the Bredestuen. In 1260 Håkon Håkonsson died on the Orkney Islands and his son, Magnus Lagabøte , continued the expansion. Among other things, the brick tower comes from him.

Under King Erik II. Magnusson , who ruled Norway from 1280 to 1299, coins were minted on Tunsberghus. Their inscription read: “Ericus Rex Noweg - Castrum Tunsbergis”. His brother and successor, Håkon V. Magnusson , ruled from 1299 to 1319 as the last Norwegian king on Tunsberghus before the union with Sweden. He was born on the fortress and died here on May 8, 1319. His grandson Magnus Eriksson , king of Sweden and Norway, married Blanche von Namur in 1335 in Tunsberhus. As a morning gift, she received the castle and the adjacent lands as a present. This is where she retired during the political and economic misery. In 1363 she attended the wedding of her son Håkon VI. and Margarethe I , daughter of the Danish king Waldemar IV Atterdag , attended Copenhagen . Just five months later, she died on Tunsberghus at the age of 44. The Kalmar Union was introduced under Margarethe . Tunsberghus lost its importance as a royal castle and Danish bailiffs were installed. When discontent grew in Norway at the beginning of the 16th century, a Swedish army came to Oslo in 1503, led by Svante Nilsson. In the course of this, Tunsberghus was plundered together with farmers from Sande . The liege lord Mattis Olsson was killed and the castle burned down.

Gerhard Fischer directed the excavations in the 1920s and 1930s. The foundations of the castle can now be viewed at the Slottsfjellsmuseet open-air museum . Concerts are also held on the site.

description

Today only the foundations of the former buildings and circular walls are preserved. The observation tower that is on the site today dates from 1888 and was built on the occasion of the city's millennium. It is located in the center of the facility. The former castle had an outer and an inner curtain wall. The outer curtain wall enclosed the entire Slottsfjell plateau and had a round tower in the south and north. The square west tower of the wall was on the fjord side of the plateau at the lowest point of the site. This indicates that there must have been a steep path from the fjord up to the castle. There were a total of six open or half-open round towers. In the inner ring wall, the Michael Church, Bredestue and were keep from a later period. More wooden buildings were built for temporary use. To this day, it is not entirely sure what the castle actually looked like.

Michaelskirche was probably built in the first half of the 12th century as it was mentioned by Danish crusaders in 1191. It was a small Romanesque church dedicated to the Archangel Michael . In the interior there were two altars , possibly dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Michael. The entrance to the church was next to the choir .

The Bredestue consists of two parts of the building. A long, narrow and a wider part, which together measure over 450 m². The length of the building is almost 60 meters. It is not clear what the building was used for. As the building is in the courtyard, it may have been used for meetings or meals. The kitchen or a warehouse could have been housed in the narrow part of the building. In addition, there are indications that indicate a full-floor basement. The king's private rooms could have been on the second floor.

The keep, which was built by Magnus Lagabøte, had a square footprint of 14 by 14 meters. The strength of the foundation walls shows that the tower was five to six floors high. The walls were likely built from local stone, but black glazed bricks were also recovered that may have served as an ornament. These bricks indicate a high status.