Kapelludden - fishing sheds and chapel ruins

Kapelludden is a wetland on the east coast of the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

, Sweden, some four kilometers from the village of Bredsättra in Bredsättra socken,

Borgholm Municipality Borgholm Municipality (''Borgholms kommun'') is a municipality in Kalmar County, south-eastern Sweden, constituting the northern half of the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. The municipal seat is located in the city of Borgholm. Notable histor ...

. The area is rich in birdlife, and has important cultural remains (including the ruins of Saint Birgitta's chapel) and a functioning Kapelludden lighthouse. Leuchtturm auf Kapelludden

Called Sik(a)varp or Sikehamn, the place was already a settlement for fishers in the Middle Ages and a trade center of uncertain importance, though local legendary stories claim that the settlement was so important that John III of Sweden revoked the town's trading privileges after complaints from

Borgholm Borgholm () is a city and the seat of Borgholm Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 4,401 inhabitants in 2020. It is located on the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea, at the Kalmar Strait-side of Öland, north of Färjestaden. Borgholm is on ...

and

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

History

Whether the harbor of Sikvarp was really a commercially important place is not clear, and possibly exaggerated, especially since Johannes Haquini Rhezelius (d. 1666) describes it as a ruinous, derelict market town. No important ancient harbor structure appears to have existed, though there are remains of foundations and mounds. Investigations in 1978 indicated mudflats, shallow pits lined with a layer of clay, and evidence was found of significant herring fisheries. The

bishop of Linköping Bishops of the Diocese of Linköping, Sweden. Before the reformation * Herbert? * Rikard? * 1139–1160s Gisle * 1170–1171 Stenar * 1187–1195/96 Kol * Johannes? * 1216–1220 Karl Magnusson * 1220–1236 Bengt Magnusson * 1236–1258 Lar ...

may have held the port in his private possessions, of strategic importance given the diocese's extensive land holdings to the west of Kapelludden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapelludden Landforms of Kalmar County Öland Wetlands of Sweden