Ørje Fortress (''Ørje fortene'') lies in Marker municipality in Østfold county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The construction of the fort started in December 1901 and was completed the following year. The fortification guarded the heavily trafficked route through the community of

Ørje Ørje is the administrative centre of Marker, Norway, Marker municipality, Norway, not far from the Sweden, Swedish border. Its population (2013) is 3872 Ørje was founded in the 1880s around a timber-processing mill. Engebret Soot had built the ...

, which was an important entry point from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The fortifications consist of two parts: the northern fort and southern fort. The northern fort (''Ørjekollen fort'') lay southwest from the Ørje bridge and sluice (''Ørje sluser'') on the Halden Canal. The southern fort (''Lihammeren fort'') was at Likollen, 1 km further south. Both were positioned on elevated positions and were armed with four canons. Each of the forts had two 105 mm guns and two 75 mm rapid fire fortification guns. In accordance with the Karlstad Treaty (''Karlstadkonvensjonen''), the forts were taken out of service and demolished in 1905. A demilitarized zone was established. The guns were dismounted and relocated to Hegra Fortress in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

. The site of the northern fort was restored and made accessible to the public in 1991. The area was cleared so that cannon positions and runways are visible.

References

Forts in Norway Marker, Norway Military installations in Østfold {{Fort-stub