Tønsberg Fortress: A Medieval Royal Stronghold in Norway
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Norway
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Norwegian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page17 sections
History
Tønsberg Fortress is a medieval stronghold in Tønsberg, Norway, developed by Norwegian rulers on Slottsfjellet from about 1100 and expanded in the thirteenth century. It became a center of royal power and state administration, and is identified as the largest castle in thirteenth-century Norway.
Early settlement and royal power
Tønsberg is commonly regarded as Norway’s oldest town and one of the country’s oldest recorded fortified locations. A commercial settlement existed at Tunsberg by 871. Tradition recorded by Snorri Sturluson placed its foundation before the Battle of Hafrsfjord, the conflict associated with King Harald I’s unification of Norway.
Tunsberg became an important trading center and the meeting place of the Haugating, the regional assembly for Vestfold. Such assemblies combined judicial and administrative functions with the proclamation of kings. By the eleventh century, Tunsberg had surpassed Skiringssal as a trading center, and the site served as a stronghold of the Ynglings, a Scandinavian royal dynasty traditionally associated with early rule in Vestfold and elsewhere in Norway.
Tunsberghus probably began as a wooden fortress around 1100. Its first recorded mention appears in Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, a medieval Latin history of Denmark, in connection with Tønsberg in 1165. The Danish king Valdemar I visited then and described the castle as strongly fortified and impregnable from the sea.
The siege of 1201
In 1201, forces from Oppland, Viken, Telemark, and Tunsberg attacked King Sverre Sigurdsson in Oslo and were defeated. Reidar Sendemann, a leading member of the Bagler faction, took refuge on the heights of Tunsberg. The Bagler and Birkebeiner were rival political and military factions in the Norwegian civil wars, with the Bagler supporting the claim of Inge Magnusson and the Birkebeiner supporting Sverre.
Sverre besieged the fortress with about 1,000 men for approximately five months. The defenders eventually surrendered, probably because their provisions had run low. Sverre became ill during the siege, returned to Bergen, and died there in 1202.
Thirteenth-century expansion
King Håkon Håkonsson built a stone wall around the mountain in 1253 and added support buildings within the fortification. The castle expanded further during his reign and that of his son Magnus Lagabøte. Their work added walls, towers, residential halls, a church, and other facilities. The fortress resisted an attack by Danish forces in 1253.
Håkon Håkonsson died in the Orkney Islands in 1260, after which Magnus continued the expansion of Tunsberghus. In 1261, Magnus brought his bride, Ingeborg of Denmark, to live at the castle. During the reign of King Erik II Magnusson, who ruled from 1280 to 1299, coins were minted at Tunsberghus with the inscription “Ericus Rex Norweg – Castrum Tunsbergis,” identifying the fortress as their place of production.
Håkon V Magnusson, who ruled from 1299 to 1319, was born at the fortress and died there on 8 May 1319. He was the last king of fully independent Norway.
Royal residence and decline
In 1335, Magnus Eriksson, king of Sweden and Norway, married Blanche of Namur at Tunsberghus and gave her the castle and adjoining lands as her morning-gift. Blanche later withdrew there during political and economic difficulties. She died at Tunsberghus five months after attending the 1363 wedding of her son Håkon VI to Margaret, daughter of the Danish king Valdemar IV Atterdag.
After Norwegian royalty ceased to occupy the castle, the governors of Tønsberghus, Akershus, Båhus, and Bergenhus ranked among Norway’s four chief fortress officials. The establishment of the Kalmar Union under Margaret, a political union that brought Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under a common monarchy from 1397 until the sixteenth century, reduced Tunsberghus’s importance as a royal castle. Danish officials were appointed there.
In 1503, during the collapse of the Kalmar Union and the suppression of Norwegian resistance, a Swedish army led by Svante Nilsson, together with local peasants from Sande, plundered Tunsberghus. The governor Mattis Olsson was killed, and the fortress was burned and destroyed. Its period of use is given as 871 to 1503.
Excavation and commemoration
A wooden watchtower was built on the site by the Tønsberg Maritime Club in 1856, but it burned down in 1874. The present tower was erected in 1888 as a memorial to the historic fortress and for the town’s one-thousandth anniversary.
Archaeologist Gerhard Fischer directed excavations at Tunsberghus during the 1920s and 1930s. The remains are now accessible within the Slottsfjell open-air museum. Slottsfjell Museum was established in 1939 as the Vestfold County Museum and is now associated with Vestfold Museum.
Remains
The fortress stood on Slottsfjellet, a mountain plateau with steep slopes on a peninsula in the northwestern part of Tønsberg. The plateau provided broad views over the town and the Tønsbergfjord. The medieval castle was arranged with an outer and an inner ring wall, while its buildings and defenses were constructed mainly in stone during the major thirteenth-century expansion. Only foundations of the former buildings and sections of the ring walls survive.
Outer defenses
Outer ring wall and towers
The outer wall enclosed the entire Slottsfjellet plateau. It included round towers to the south and north, while a square west tower stood on the fjord side at the plateau’s lowest point. The position of the west tower indicates that a steep route once led upward from the fjord. The fortress had six open or semi-open round towers in total, although the precise appearance of the complete castle remains uncertain.
Gatehouses
The northern and southern gatehouses formed part of the stone expansion carried out under Håkon Håkonsson. They belonged to the outer defensive arrangement around the plateau and helped control movement into the fortified area.
Inner castle
Church of St Michael
The inner ring wall enclosed the Church of St Michael, the Bredestue, and a later bergfried, a fortified tower used mainly for defense and refuge. The Church of St Michael was probably built during the first half of the twelfth century and was mentioned by Danish crusaders in 1191.
The church was a small Romanesque building, using the medieval European style characterized by heavy masonry, rounded arches, and relatively small window openings. It was dedicated to the archangel Michael. Its interior contained two altars, possibly dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Michael, and its entrance stood beside the choir.
Bredestue
The Bredestue was nearly 60 metres long and consisted of a long, narrow section joined to a wider section. Together, the two parts covered more than 450 square metres. Its exact function is uncertain, although its position beside the castle yard suggests that it may have been used for meetings or meals.
The narrow section may have contained a kitchen or storeroom. Evidence also indicates a full-storey basement, while the second floor may have held the king’s private rooms. The building’s substantial dimensions and position made it one of the principal structures within the inner castle.
Magnus Lagabøte’s keep
Magnus Lagabøte’s keep had a square plan measuring 14 by 14 metres. The thickness of its foundations indicates that it rose to five or six storeys. It was probably built mainly from locally obtained stone. Excavations recovered black-glazed bricks that may have been used as decoration and indicate the building’s high status.
Wooden buildings
Additional wooden buildings were erected within the inner ring wall for temporary uses. Their presence supplemented the principal stone structures, including the church, Bredestue, and keep.
Memorial tower
Slottsfjellet tower
The present Slottsfjellet tower stands at the center of the fortress area. Built in 1888, it is a memorial structure rather than a surviving medieval tower. Its insulation was improved in 1971, when new plaques were installed inside. The sides bear the gilded signatures of Kings Haakon VII, Olav V, and Harald V, dated 1906, 1958, and 1992.
A plaque above the entrance bears the date 871 to 1871 and the dedication, “May the town that stands on this site prosper for another thousand years.” The medieval foundations and surviving wall sections can be viewed around the tower within the Slottsfjell open-air museum.
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