Olaus Magnus - On Rocks Decorated with Helmets

Älvsnabben is a small island near

Muskö Muskö is an island in the southern part of Stockholm archipelago, which forms part of Haninge Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It is best known for the Muskö naval base. There are also two urban areas (''tätort'') on the island: Musk� ...

in the archipelago south of

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The name may also refer to a

natural harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

, more correctly called Älvsnabbsbassängen (''Älvsnabben Basin''), between the four small islands Älvsnabben, Bjurshagslandet, Kapellön and Gubbholmen. Älvsnabben (then ''Alæsnap'') was mentioned as an anchoring place as early as the 13th century, then a part of a medieval sailing route, in the

Danish Census Book The Danish Census Book or the Danish book of land taxation ( la, Liber Census Daniæ), ( da, Kong Valdemars Jordebog) dates from the 13th century and consists of a number of separate manuscripts. The original manuscripts are now housed in the Da ...

of king

Valdemar II Valdemar (28 June 1170 – 28 March 1241), later remembered as Valdemar the Victorious (), was the King of Denmark (being Valdemar II) from 1202 until his death in 1241. Background He was the second son of King Valdemar I of Denmark and Sophi ...

. It was also used by the North German trade federation, the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

, who called it ''Elsnaben''. From the reign of king

Eric XIV of Sweden Eric XIV ( sv, Erik XIV; 13 December 153326 February 1577) was King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1569. Eric XIV was the eldest son of Gustav I (1496–1560) and Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg (1513–1535). He was also ruler of Es ...

, it was used as a base for the

Swedish navy The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (). In Swedish, vessels o ...

. As such, it is known that the ''Vasa'' was heading for the marine base on Älvsnabben when it was launched in August 1628. History tells usVasa, by F. Hocker, Medströms Bokförlag, Stockholm, Sweden. . that the Vasa sank short after its launch, only 1200 meters from the king's castle in Stockholm. Älvsnabben was the base of operation for the naval operations and shipping of Swedish troops to Germany during the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...

and throughout the 17th century. During the

Scanian War The Scanian War ( da, Skånske Krig, , sv, Skånska kriget, german: Schonischer Krieg) was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden. It was fought from 1675 to 1679 mainly on Scanian soil, ...

of 1675-79, Sweden suffered a string of serious defeats against Danish and Dutch fleets, in part since Stockholm and Älvsnabben were locked in by ice in the winter and early spring. After the war, the main base of operations for the Swedish navy was moved to the newly founded

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to Swed ...

Blekinge Blekinge (, old da, Bleking) is one of the traditional Swedish provinces (), situated in the southern coast of the geographic region of Götaland, in southern Sweden. It borders Småland, Scania and the Baltic Sea. It is the country's second ...

in southern Sweden, which was better suited to counter the threat of the Danish fleet, Sweden's principal competition for Baltic supremacy. In the 20th century, Älvsnabben once more came to military use by the building of the

Muskö naval base Muskö Naval Base is a Swedish underground naval facility on the island of Muskö just south of Stockholm in Haninge Municipality (Haninge Kommun). The construction of the base started in 1950 and was completed 19 years later in 1969. During ...

. A shelter for navy vessels was cut in the rock of Älvsnabben, and both the island and the Älvsnabben basin is still a restricted military area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Älvsnabben Islands of Haninge Municipality Islands of the Stockholm archipelago Military history of Sweden