Situated off the island of Aspö, the Drottningskär citadel was itself originally surrounded by water. It was completed in the last decades of the seventeenth century and this well-preserved fortification from the Great Power period is one of the foremost of Sweden’s historic military installations. A massive granite donjon houses the artillery, magazine and living quarters and the citadel’s four bastions, Maria, Christina, Hedvig and Ulrica are all named after Queens of Sweden. At various periods from 1710 until 1811 the citadel was on a war footing with, at its height, a 250-strong garrison. In 1865 Drottning-skär was taken off the active list when the new Ellenabben fortress was built on Aspö.

The Kungsholm fortress was an important active installation until the 1980’s. Presently used as a training establishment, the fort has been manned for an unbroken period of more than 300 years. It was placed on a state of maximum readiness in the 1780’s when Russian squadrons blockaded Karlskrona and again in 1801 when the Royal Navy was active in the Baltic. Although it never had to fire a shot in anger, the fortress was clearly an impressive deterrent to any presumptive intruder.

The fortress consists of a number of structures such as the three storey Donjon with flanking towers, the North fortification erected on a redoubt from the 1680’s, the Great magazine ventilated with an interior double shell of brick and the Little magazine which has 1.5 metre thick walls and heavy iron doors. The harbour is one of the most singular constructions in Karlskrona. Enclosed within a high, circular wall, it is from the 1830’s.

The botanical garden with plants and trees from all corners of the world is of particular interest. The plants were collected during the Navy’s sea training cruises and the tradition of bringing a plant or tree to Kungsholmen at the end of a cruise continues until this day.