Little Blue Birdie's Diary

Visit to the Akershus Castle

Dear Diary,

We are still in Norway. Almost everybody in Sri Lanka has heard of Norway due to its involvement in the island's peace process.

The place we visited today is a fortress. This is one of the most powerful and strong fortresses in Norway, and had been built out of stone, in the 1290s. This old castle was built by King Hakon V to protect Oslo.

Aaron, the Royal Tern, who was our guide bird, was really enthusiastic to show us the place and relate its history to us. "Hakon Magnusson was crowned King of Norway in 1299, at the age of 29. He made Oslo the capital of Norway, having understood early, the significance of having a strong base for governing the country in times of conflict. As king, he immediately began building a mighty castle on the edge of the Aker headland, following the pattern of the Crusades-inspired castles elsewhere in Europe. The castle was built between 1299 and 1304," Aaron explained.

The castle first played a role in battle in 1308. It successfully survived many battles, quite a few of them launched by Swedish forces. After numerous sieges, fires and the seven-year War of the North, between 1563 and 1570, the fortress was modernised and remodelled to withstand new technologies of warfare, under the reign of King Christian IV.

The Akershus Castle was also considered too vulnerable on its landward side. Work on turning it into a bastion-fortress, complete with ramparts (protective walls), began during the 1580s, and continued at full speed into the beginning of the 17th century.

Largely for defensive reasons, the town of Oslo was moved closer to the fortress in 1624, thereby changing its functions to that of a citadel of the Italian model, with city and fortress as one unit, with the same outer wall.

Towards the end of the 18th century, the fortress had lost much of its significance. The city needed more space to grow, and in 1815, it was decided that nearly the whole of the remaining fortress ramparts should be demolished (destroyed). The prison and slave quarters were extended, and from 1900 to 1950, were used as a national prison.

Being closer to the sea was a great advantage for the fortress, as Norway was well known for its naval force and also as the majority of Norwegian commerce during that period was carried out by sea. The fortress was strategically important to the capital, and therefore, to Norway as well. Whoever ruled the Akershus fortress ruled Norway!

Explaining further, Aaron said, "this castle never surrendered to foreign enemies. It surrendered without combat to Nazi Germany in 1940, when the Norwegian government evacuated the capital, in the face of unprovoked (without any action on their part) German assaults on Denmark and Norway.

During WWII, several people were executed (killed) here by the German occupiers. After the war, eight Norwegian traitors, who had been tried for war crimes and sentenced to death, were also executed at the fortress."

The Chapel of Akershus is still used for royal events.

Today, the Akershus Fortress continues to be a military area, with the Norwegian National Defence College, the Norwegian Armed Forces Staff College, the Military Police Station Oslo, Armed Forces Museum and many others housed inside the building. And the Fortress still has a commandant ship that is Norway's oldest military unit. The Royal Mausoleum, where several Norwegian royals including King Hakon VII and Olav V are buried, is also inside the Fortress, which is one reason why HM the King's Guards (HMKG) has a force there.

My friends were really thrilled about this journey. Koshy, the Skinny Hummingbird was a bit weak and a bit tired after the long journey, but she wanted to join us, all the same.

Zorro, the Warrior Magpie was immediately lost in the glorious wars of yesteryear. We were all watching the beautiful sea when we heard a loud bang. We all looked around to see Zorro lying on the ground with a sword. He had wanted to try some swings with the sword, but had lost control.

We spent quite a lot of time at the fortress. Koshy wanted to send a letter home by registered post, but she didn't know how to. All of us teased her for that. Maria sang for us. It was one of the best journeys we had. See you later with details from another place. 'Till then, bye!