Almarestäket, or ''Stäket'', is a strait at the inlet of
Lake Mälaren
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...
in central-eastern Sweden. A fortress existed there between about 1370 and 1517.
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 mos ...
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 th ...
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 with ...
, to the west.
The strait was of importance before
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
was founded in the 14th century, as it guarded the waterway to the significant Swedish medieval cities
Uppsala
Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Loc ...
and
Sigtuna
Sigtuna is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in the eponymous Sigtuna Municipality, in Stockholm County, Sweden with 9,689 inhabitants in 2020. It is the namesake even though the seat of the municipality is in another locality, Märsta.
S ...
. For instance, an attack on Sigtuna by
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
Vikings
Vikings were 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 settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9â ...
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 '' Y ...
.
Fortress
There was a fortress built here in the mid-late 14th century, under the reign of
Albert of Sweden
Albert (, – 1 April 1412), also known as Albert of Mecklenburg (), 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 Euphemia ...
. 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 of Sweden in an unbroken succession since 1164, first during the Catholic era, and from the 1530s and onward under the Lutheran church.
Historical ove ...
until 1517, when the Archbishop
Gustav Trolle
Gustav Eriksson Trolle (September 1488 – 1535) was the archbishop of Uppsala in 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 ...
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 Kalmar Union King
Christian II
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Ch ...
, took revenge in the
Stockholm Bloodbath
The Stockholm Bloodbath () 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 after the coronation of Christian II as the new king of ...
of 1520.
Trench
There was a trench dug near Almarestäket 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
The Western Main Line () is the main state-owned railway line between Stockholm and Gothenburg in Sweden. Its construction began in 1856 and it opened for service in 1862.Wikipedia:Footnotes on how to create references using tags which will then appear here automatically -->
Nordisk familjebok
(, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...