There are a number of old installations on Lindholmen that have been used for the construction, repair and fitting out of the Navy’s warships. In 1910 Sweden’s first wireless telegraphy station was erected on the island.

The Vasa Shed. The Vasa Shed from 1763, originally known as the Great Ship Shed, was spacious enough to allow the construction of a 70-gun warship. This could take up to five years and in the eighteenth century the shipwrights recognised that during construction the hull and building materials had to be protected from the ravages of wind and rain. The intricate roof structure is supported by stout stone pillars along the outer walls. The shed is on a natural slope, which the designers were able to use to their advantage when planning the slipway. The present name derives from the 60-gun ship of the line Vasa which was launched from the Shed in 1778.

The Rope-walk. The Rope-walk from the 1690’s is one of the oldest buildings in Karlskrona and the longest wooden building in Sweden (300 metres, about 1,000 feet). All of the many types of ropes and cordage for the sailing Navy were made there and it was still in use at the beginning of the 1960’s. At each end of the rope-walk there is a stone building in which raw materials were stored and prepared for the rope-maker.

The Polhem Dry Dock. Hewn out of massive bedrock, the Polhem dry dock was built between 1716–24. It created considerable interest from abroad owing not the least to its size and its innovative technology and contemporary accounts describe it as being a quite remarkable feat of engineering. In tidal waters the ebb and flow of the tide was used to fill and empty the docks but as the Baltic lacks tidal waters the Polhem dock had to be pumped dry. It was inaugurated in 1724 when the Kung Karl, the Navy’s largest ship of the line was taken in for repairs and is still in use although the pumping machinery is now driven by electricity.

The “Finnish Church”. On Söderstjärna, originally an island, this brick building was built for the treatment of cordage and ropes with tar and pitch at a safe distance from other buildings.