With Our Meager Resources…Jönköping – an unfinished fortified town of the 17th century

Urban Variation – Gothenburg 2013Claes B Pettersson

The Importance of the Place

Scandinavia in 1701- information provided by Olof Rudbeck

The City Fortresses of Southern Sweden in the 17th century:

• Gothenburg (founded in 1621)• Jönköping (re-established in 1613)• Kalmar (re-built in 1613 / new site 1647)

Jönköping : • Supply base with stores for the army• Centre for strategic manufacture (arms & cloth)• Important junction (land & water)• Administrative centre for the region

Stadgarna

Idealet

Grand designs......meets a harsh reality

The low budget version – draft of a new Jönköping, possibly made by Karl IX himself (before the siege of 1612)

The ideal – the fortified city of Naarden in the Low Countries

Visions for King & Council…

Draft for the new town, dated 1617...but hardly for the Good

Citizens of Jönköping!

Landfill and logistics in the early 17th century

Blue line – estimated shoreline before 1613Brown – landfill made by the Crown, mainly in the manufacturing areasYellow – landfill made by the burghers themselves during the first decades

The Morass – no suitable place for a city…

Sedge

Peat cutting – for building material

Landfill – at the Royal Chartered Arms Factory Site

Systematic landfill by the Crown 1613 – 1623 (bottom)

Landfill by later private owners 1623 – 1800 (over)

Henbane

How to build a city – the logistics

1617 1620

1623

1618

1637

The CastleThe Old Town

• Soil from the old town and the site of the castle• Timber from the vicinity – the Royal Manor of Ryhov?

Timber foundations at the Royal Chartered Cloth Factory

Pine trees, felled in the winter of 1620 - 21

Water crowfoot

A visions that still remains – in the maps of 1657-58

The town as an unfinished project

Gardens instead of ramparts…

In the late 17th century the area intended for the town fortifications was used for cultivation plots

A Town for King and Council?

DEN FÖRSTA TRÄKYRKAN

The Court of Appeal – begun in 1639

The Swedish Coat of Arms

Western entrance to Kristine Church – begun in 1649

Places of worship – two churches for a new town

The Royal Chartered Arms Factory

1620

High technology – based on a long local tradition in arms manufacturing

Gunsmith’s workshop, built about 1640

Wheellock Flintlock

Matchlock

Fixture

The German Meadow Vantmakeriet 1620

• Large scale textile production (cloth)• For the army & the navy• A manufacture based on highly skilled workers, recruited in Germany

Three blocks – excavated 1982 to 2007

Flemings bastioner

1605

1617

The New Castle – a modern artillery fortress of the highest strategic importance

Drafts by Master Builder Hans Fleming – to be shown to King & Council

Bastion Carolus1605 - 1612

North & west flank excavated 2012

• Differences in wall thickness• Massive or hollow wall• Varying quality of mortar and stone

Shoddy work… in exposed positions!

Bastion Carolus

Broken sandstone ashlars in NE corner

Built on insufficient foundations...

In danger of collapse from the beginning...

Changing plans & bad solutions• No casemates along the

lakeshore • The breach that was never filled

Mortar as a historic source material

Lime mortar from northern flank of bastion Carolus – built in 1609-10

Lime mortar from makeshift wall – built immediately before the siege of 1612

Similiar in appearance - but not in performance…?

Jönköping castle1690

Kalmar castle 2011

Tested and proved in battle a number of times…

A jerry building with impressive exterior?

Propaganda versus Reality...

A town of great strategic value – the central, but weakest link in the chain of defence!

• where the impressive city fortifications were never built• where the castle was neither finished, nor ever fully prepared for battle• where one of the two Royal Chartered Manufactures became a total failure• where the local economy was closely linked to the aggressive foreign policy• where the international element was of great importance during the 17th century