Kungahälla (, , ) was a medieval settlement in southern

Bohuslän Bohuslän () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the ...

at a site which is located in

Kungälv Municipality Kungälv Municipality () is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Kungälv. It is the 50th largest municipality in Sweden by population size, which exceeded 50 000 during May 2024. The pr ...

in Västra Götaland County in

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 ...

. It is the site of the former fortification at Ragnhildsholmen (''Borgen på Ragnhildsholmen'').

History

The Norwegian Kings' sagas talk of Konghelle as a

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

settlement. According to

Snorri Sturluson 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 ...

, Konghelle was the location of two important royal summits to conclude peace between Sweden and Norway. The first saw the two King Olavs, Olaf the Saint of Norway and

Olof Skötkonung Olof Skötkonung (; – 1022), sometimes stylized as Olaf the Swede, was King of Sweden, son of Eric the Victorious and, according to Icelandic sources, Sigrid the Haughty. He succeeded his father in c. 995. He stands at the threshold of record ...

of Sweden, agree to a peace treaty, ca 1020. The second was called the meeting of the three kings during which the three Scandinavian kings

Inge I of Sweden Inge the Elder (Swedish language, Swedish: ''Inge Stenkilsson''; Old Norse: ''Ingi Steinkelsson''; died c. 1105–1110) was a king of Sweden. In English literature he has also been called ''Ingold''. While scant sources do not allow a full pictur ...

Magnus Barefoot Magnus III Olafsson (Old Norse: ''Magnús Óláfsson'', Norwegian: ''Magnus Olavsson''; 1073 – 24 August 1103), better known as Magnus Barefoot (Old Norse: ''Magnús berfœttr'', Norwegian: ''Magnus Berrføtt''), was the King of Norway ...

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 ...

and Eric Evergood of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

met in Kungahälla in 1101. When King Sigurd I Magnusson returned to Norway in 1111 following his crusade, he made his capital in Konghelle. Konghelle appears in writings by the English chronicler,

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis (; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 6 Working out of ...

, who named the city as one of six Norwegian ''civitates''. During August 1135, the city was attacked and sacked by the Pomeranians. After the destruction, the city was moved to a site slightly to the west of the original site.

, writing a century later, said that Konghelle never completely recovered. The city was a center of royal authority during the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and especially the 13th century, when it was the Norwegian kingdom's southernmost outpost. At this time the fort on Ragnhildsholmen and a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

monastery were constructed at the site, while Kastelle kloster monastery was rebuilt. Kastelle kloster was founded by Archbishop

Eysteinn Erlendsson Eysteinn Erlendsson (, ; died 26 January 1188) was Archbishop of Nidaros from 1161 to his death in 1188. Background His family came from Trøndelag, and he was related to most of the local nobility. His birth date and place of birth is not recorde ...

and built in the middle of the 13th century. The monastery was under the jurisdiction of the

Archdiocese of Nidaros The Archdiocese of Nidaros (or Niðaróss) was the metropolitan see covering Norway in the later Middle Ages. The see was the Nidaros Cathedral, in the city of Nidaros (now Trondheim). The archdiocese existed from the middle of the twelfth cent ...

. King

Frederick I of Denmark Frederick I ( Danish and ; ; ; 7 October 1471 – 10 April 1533) was King of Denmark and Norway. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over Denmark and Norway, when subsequent monarchs embraced Lutheranism after the Protestant Reformatio ...

confiscated the monastery in 1529 as part of the closure of monasteries within his realm. Ragnhildsholmen is an island in the

Göta älv The (; "River of (the) Geats") is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat, at the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. It was formed at the end of the last glaciation, as an outflow channel from the Baltic Ice Lake to ...

, a river that drains

Vänern Vänern ( , , ) is the largest lake in Sweden, the largest lake in the European Union and the third-largest lake in Europe after Ladoga and Onega in Russia. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland in the sou ...

into

Kattegat The Kattegat (; ; ) is a sea area bounded by the peninsula of Jutland in the west, the Danish straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the Swedish provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Scania in Swede ...

, across from Konghelle. In 1256 Norwegian King

Haakon IV of Norway Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; ; ), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald Fairhair. Haak ...

had invaded

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Skåne, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Br ...

, at that time a province held by

. The castle was built by King Haakon and played a role in Haakon's expansionist politics. It was the most important Norwegian fortress in this area. In the early 14th century, Konghelle was the fief of Duke Erik Magnusson, father of

Magnus Eriksson Magnus Eriksson (April or May 1316 – 1 December 1374) was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1355, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called ''Magnus Smek'' (). Medi ...

, the future king of Sweden and Norway. Duke Erik received the fortress as a gift when he helped his father-in-law King

Haakon V of Norway Haakon V Magnusson (10 April 1270 – 8 May 1319) (; ) was King of Norway from 1299 until 1319. Biography Haakon was the younger surviving son of Magnus the Lawmender, King of Norway, and his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Through his mother, ...

to attack his brother, King Birger of Sweden. After the construction of the stronghold Bohus in 1308 by King Haakon V, the castle on Ragnhildsholmen started to lose its importance as a royal seat. It is not mentioned after 1320. In the later Middle Ages the town's importance further declined. It burned down in 1612, and was afterwards moved to a location near Bohus and renamed

Kungälv Kungälv () is a cities of Sweden, city and the seat of Kungälv Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It is also a part of Greater Gothenburg Metropolitan Area. It had 22,768 inhabitants in 2010. In 2021, the main Kungälv - Ytterby - ...

. Bohuslän continued to belong to Norway until it was ceded to Sweden in the

Treaty of Roskilde The Treaty of Roskilde was negotiated at Høje Taastrup Church and was concluded on 26 February ( OS) or 8 March 1658 ( NS) during the Second Northern War between Frederick III of Denmark–Norway and Karl X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish ci ...

in 1658.

Excavations

Archaeological excavations began in the late 19th century at Ragnhildsholmen and the monastery of Kastelle kloster site and continue to the present day. Excavation results indicate that major construction works were carried out by the middle of the 13th century. However, there is archaeological evidence for a royal estate slightly north of the city, dating back to the

. During excavations by Swedish archaeologist Wilhelm Berg (1891–1892), the remains of the monastery were discovered. The principal excavations of the monastery were during 1953 to 1954 and in 1958 archaeological excavations were carried out of a medieval cemetery area in the ancient city. Several excavations in different places within the old city area were carried out between the years 1985-1994.

The precursor to Kungahälla

Archaeologists believe that there was a precursor to the Viking community Kungahälla which was located just south of Ytterby, and that this community was located on the lands of today's Ytterby near the great burial ground of Västra porten/Smällen. In Ytterby, archaeologists have found remains of several buildings from the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

built between 500 BC. and 600 AD. Of these, the largest is a hall building that was 48 meters long and 10 meters wide. This type of building belonged to the upper classes of society and the find may be the first find of a hall building from the migration period in Bohuslän, since the building was built between 400 and 600 AD. The found of the remains of the hall building is believed to be a precursor to the royal estate that is mentioned in several sources, including in

Njáls saga ''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), or ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) (Which can be translated as ''The Story of Burnt Njáll'', or ''The Saga of Njáll the Burner''), is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 a ...

from the 13th century. King Olav II Haraldsson of Norway, later known as Saint Olav, is said to have spent a year on these lands waiting for the inhabitants of Kungälv to complete his fleet before sailing to the Faroe Islands to demand taxes. The royal hall building was also occasionally inhabited by kings Olav Tryggvason,

Harald Hardrada Harald Sigurdsson (; – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet ''Hardrada'' in the sagas, was List of Norwegian monarchs, King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. He unsuccessfully claimed the Monarchy of Denma ...

as well as other kings and magnates.Här finns många hemligheter gömda i jorden any secrets hidden in the earth GT/Expressen http://gt.expressen.se/kultur/1.1686813/har-finns-manga-hemligheter-gomda-i-jorden-30-8

References

Other sources

*Andersson, H. ''Kungahälla'' (Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens Historiska Museer, Stockholm, 1981) *Berg, Wilhelm ''Bidrag till kännedom om Göteborgs och Bohusläns fornminnen'' (1883)

External links