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Steinvikholm Castle

Steinvikholm Castle

Photo: Erik Fløan · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Stjørdal, Norway
Client / Owner
Olav Engelbrektsson
Year
Completed 1525
Access
Tickets required
Typology
Cultural
Style
—

Steinvikholm Castle is an island fortress, classed as a star fort, on the Skatval peninsula in Stjørdal Municipality, Trøndelag, Norway. It covers about half of its rocky island. The island has no spring, so fresh water had to be brought from the mainland, and a wooden bridge and a boat were the only ways to reach it.

Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson ordered it built, probably around 1524 to 1532. It is described as the largest construction raised in the Norwegian Middle Ages. It served as a Catholic stronghold alongside Nidarholm Abbey. The Reformation drove the archbishop into exile in April 1537, and he died in Lier in 1538.

From the 17th to the 19th century the island was quarried. Today the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments owns it. An opera about the archbishop has been staged there each August since 1993.

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