Norske Løve is the name of a 19th-century fortress built from 1852 to 1859 to protect

Karljohansvern Karjohansvern (''Karljohansvern Orlogsstasjon, KJV'') at Horten was the main base for the Royal Norwegian Navy from 1850 to 1963. Background In 1818, it was decided to establish a naval base in Horten. It was first called ''Hortens verft'', an ...

naval station at

Horten is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the town of Åsgårdstrand an ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Overview

Norske Løve (literally, 'Norwegian Lion') is a reference to the lion on the

Coat of Arms of Norway The coat of arms of Norway is the arms of dominion of king Harald V of Norway, and as such represents both the monarch and the kingdom (nation and the state). It depicts a standing golden lion on a red background, bearing a golden crown and axe w ...

. The fort is still a military area, but is today only used as an administration building for the Norwegian naval officers training school. The fort was constructed by Baltazar Nicolai Garben. The primary construction material was limestone, reinforced with granite. The fortress structure was fitted with heavy artillery on several floors protected by casemates. It has a moat which can be filled with water and was originally fitted with a circular envelope with 22 open

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

s each holding a 3-ton cannon. The fort originally had a complement of 500 men. The open casemates were walled up by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but otherwise the fort is largely in its original form. ''Balthazar Nicolai Garben'' (Store Norske Leksikon)
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Picture Gallery

File:Norskelove1.JPG, Norske Løve, fortress seen from the south File:Norskelove2.JPG, Norske Løve, south-western part of the fortress File:VealøsNorskeLøve3.JPG, Norske Løve, fortress on Vealøs File:Norskeløveinngang.JPG, Norske Løve, gateway File:Norskeløveinngang2.JPG, Norske Løve, outer wall and moat at the entrance

References

External links

Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage site with an image of the gate

Norwegian navy page with an image of the fort at the bottom.
Forts in Norway Royal Norwegian Navy Military installations in Vestfold og Telemark 1852 establishments in Norway Horten {{fort-stub

Overview

Picture Gallery

See also

References

External links