The layout of Karlskrona and its fortifications are the result of the joint efforts of Erik Dahlberg, Nicodemus Tessin the elder and Carl Magnus Stuart. Although Stuart’s proposal for the new town was confirmed in 1683 it was superseded 11 years later by a new plan. According to the 1683 plan, the naval harbour was to be in the south part of the town, a district for the burghers in the north, and the Navy’s supply and support installations in the east. The Dutch influence in the planning of the western district with its harbour, canals, commercial buildings and modest dwellings is unmistakable. The residential dwellings for senior officers were on Alamedan, the eastern section of Amiralitetsgatan.

The main thoroughfare, running from north to south, was to be Drottninggatan and it was on this street near the present day Kapell Park that the town’s first parish church, the Hedvig Eleonora, was built.

The principal axis of the town is from north to south and follows the two Kungsgatan streets over the Great Square and the Admiralty Square to the Main Guardhouse at the entry to the Naval base.