Almarestäket, or ''Stäket'', is a strait at the inlet of

Lake Mälaren A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

in mid-east Sweden. A fortress existed there between about 1370 and 1517, also named Almarestäket. A place mentioned as

Stocksund Stocksund () is an upper class suburb in Metropolitan Stockholm, Sweden. Located immediately across the Edsviken and Stocksundet from Bergshamra, Stocksund is one of four parts of Danderyd Municipality north of Stockholm, which is the most ...

by Old Norse author

Snorre Sturlasson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

was once believed to be located here, but is now believed to have been located in

Norrström Norrström is one of the shortest rivers in Europe in central Stockholm. It connects Lake Mälaren with the Baltic Sea. It runs from Riddarfjärden, north of Gamla stan, to Stockholms ström (the western part of Saltsjön). Two islands lie within ...

, to the west. The strait was of importance before Stockholm was founded in the 14th century, as it guarded the waterway to the significant Swedish medieval cities

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

and

Sigtuna Sigtuna () is a locality situated in Sigtuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 8,444 inhabitants in 2010. It is the namesake of the municipality even though the seat is in Märsta. Sigtuna is for historical reasons often still referr ...

. For instance, an attack on Sigtuna by Baltic

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...

in 1187 led to a battle at Almarestäket, resulting in the death of Archbishop

Johannes Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...

Fortress

There was a fortress built here in the mid-late 14th century, under the reign of

Albert of Sweden Albert (german: Albrecht, sv, Albrekt av Mecklenburg; c. 1338 – 1 April 1412) was King of Sweden from 1364 to 1389 and Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1384 to 1412. Background He was the second son of Duke Albert II of Mecklenburg and ...

. It was located on the small island ''Stäkesön'' in the middle of the strait. It became the residence of the

Swedish Archbishop The Archbishop of Uppsala (spelled Upsala until the early 20th century) has been the primate (bishop), primate of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward un ...

until 1517, when the Archbishop

Gustav Trolle Gustav Eriksson Trolle (September 1488 – 1535) was Archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden, in two sessions, during the turbulent Reformation events. He was the son of Eric Arvidsson Trolle, a former regent of Sweden during the era of the Kalmar Union. ...

locked himself in there to avoid trial, and the Swedish government demanded and carried out the demolition of the fortress. The procedure was formally unauthorized because at the time State property was to be separate from Church property. As a revenge for this and other perceived injustices, Trolle, assisted by the Danish King

Christian II Christian II (1 July 1481 – 25 January 1559) was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke ...

, took revenge in the

Stockholm Bloodbath The Stockholm Bloodbath ( sv, Stockholms blodbad; da, Det Stockholmske Blodbad) was a trial that led to a series of executions in Stockholm between 7 and 9 November 1520. The event is also known as the Stockholm massacre. The events occurred af ...

of 1520.

Trench

There was a trench dug here sometime in the 17th or early 18th century, as a defence structure. Most of it was filled up in 1875 when the main line railroad ( Västra Stambanan) was built in Sweden. The area was again being built upon in the 1970s, when the highway was built.

References

External links

Article "''Almarestäket''"
from Nordisk familjebok (in Swedish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Almarestaket Landforms of Stockholm County Straits of Sweden Uppland Ruined castles in Sweden Mälaren