The weather forecast for that Saturday (27th of may 2017) was sunshine so we decided to take a short trip to an island in the Oslo fjord. We discovered that the local boat line B21 departs from Aker Brygge every weekend at 10 am so we packed our bathing suits and sandwiches and took of. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones with the bright idea.
It turned out that the Ruter company that operates the buses, trams, metro and boats in and around Oslo has only one ship on that route. Luckily Debeli is very skilled with the Ruter application so we took a local bus to Drøbak, a small coastal town 40 km south of Oslo.
There is a small war ship that goes from Drøbak to south and north Kaholmene islands that hostess the famous Oscarsborg fortress.
The fortress carries the name of King Oscar who came to visit in 1855, but the fortress itself was build two centuries before by the orders of King Christian IV.
Originally the fortress Oscarsborg was created to stop any attacks from the sea but her first true trial came on the 9th of April 1940. Oscarsborg festning delayed the German attack on Oslo by sinking the heavy cruiser “Blücher”; the newest German battleship. This slowed the German occupation and gave the King, government and parliament enough time to evacuate Oslo.
It’s very interesting that on the day when Norway was invaded all of the armament on the island was over 40 years old. And of German origin 🙂
But both the guns and the torpedo battery worked perfectly well when Oscarsborgs’ military forces encountered and sank the heavy cruiser ‘’Blücher’’.
Later, during the occupation of Norway, German forces were stationed right here at Oscarsborg.
During the Cold War Oscarsborg was the last line of defence for Oslo. The underground torpedo battery remained secretly active until 1993. During this period Oscarsborg served as a military school for officer training. At the start of the new millennium the school was shut down and now the fortress serves as a civilian resort and attraction, open for visitors.
Oscarsborg is a unique cultural arena for opera and concerts throughout the summer season. Last year the fortress had an exciting programme with an acoustic pop/rock festival, wandering theatre troupes and fantastic opera experiences in the courtyard – just to mention a few.
https://www.oscarsborgoperaen.no/kopi-av-hjem-2
Oscarsborg also has an art gallery run by Avistegnerne in Drøbak. “Forsvarets Hus” (“Military House”) in Kommandantboligen shows how the Norwegian military looks today.
At Oscarsborg the torpedo battery is a concrete construction inside a cave mined into the rock of the North Kaholmen island. Two torpedoes are loaded side by side, in two open steel frames. Then one of the two frames is lowered like an elevator down into the water to the tunnels below. After one shot, it took some time to swap frames and be ready for the next. When fired, the torpedo’s own compressed air engine was started and it propelled itself. The battery has three torpedo tunnels which could fire six torpedoes without reloading and a total of nine torpedoes were stored and ready for use. Each weapon carried a 100 kg TNT warhead and targets were spotted from three observation bunkers just above the battery.
The torpedoes were delivered in 1900 from the Whitehead torpedo factory in Fiume / Rijeka, then part of Austria-Hungary. A back-up observation bunker is situated just outside the entrance to the battery.
For those interested in true stories – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4353996/
After the Second World War the strategic importance of Oscarsborg decreased and the last fortification was ended on the 1st of January 1993 and in 2002 the fortress became finally abolished as a military post.
On 8 April 2014 the 28 cm guns of the main battery were fired with blank rounds when the fortress was used as a location of a scene for the production of the film The King’s Choice, directed by Erik Poppe.
In 2004 the Parliament decided to create The National Fortifications Heritage (“Nasjonale festningsverk”) which has the responsibility for the maintenance of 14 historical fortresses, among them Oscarsborg Fortress which was listed as a protected site in 2014.
This charming face of mine was the result of freezing cold water. I have never felt such cold water in the summer (only river Cetina back in Croatia). As I entered the shallow sea my feet froze and I started to laugh. Out of shock not because it was funny. We found out later that the water was some 10 celsius. Just like river Cetina. 🙂
www.visitnorway.com/listings/oscarsborg-fortress/2633/
OSCARSBORG FESTNING, 27.05.2017
Vremenska prognoza za tu subotu bila je sunčano i toplo all over the place tako da smo odlučili otići na jednodnevni izlet u Oslo fjordu. Otkrili smo da lokalna trajektna linija B21 vikendom polazi s Aker Bryggea u 10 sati ujutro tako da smo spakirali kupaće kostime i sendviče i pošli. Nažalost, nismo bili jedini s ovom bistrom idejom. Ispostavilo se da lokalna prijevozna kompanija, Ruter, koja uključuje prijevoz busevima, tramvajima, metroom i trajektima u okolici Osla, ima samo jedan jedini brod na željenoj destinaciji. Srećom, Debeli je vrlo spretan s Ruterovom aplikacijom tako da smo do Drøbaka, koji je udaljen nekih 40ak kilometara južnije od Osla, otišli lokalnim busom. Tamo gdje smo se namjerili, mali ratni brod ide svakodnevno nekoliko puta od Drøbaka do Kaholmene otoka na kojem se nalazi poznata Oscarsborg tvrđava.
Tvrđava nosi ime po kralju Oscaru koji je tu došao u posjetu 1855., no tvrđava samo po sebi bila je sagrađena dva stoljeća ranije po uputama kralja Christiana IV (onog istog koji da svoje skromno ime gradu u 17. stoljeću). Namjera tvrđave bila je da zaustavi svaki morski napad, no tvrđava je tek 9. travnja 1940. imala pravi test. Naime, tvrđava je odgodila njemački napad na grad Oslo tako što su vojnici potopili teškog krstaša “Blüchera”, koji je u to vrijeme bio najmoderniji vojni brod u Njemačkoj. Ovaj događaj usporio je okupaciju Osla, tako da je vlada Norveške imala dovoljno vremena evakuirati grad, a tu se na prvom mjestu misli na kralja i njegovu obitelj.
Zanimljivo je da je na sam dan napada, svo naoružanje na otoku bilo staro preko četrdeset godina. I njemačkog porijekla. Oh, ironije li J No, artiljerija je radila besprijekorno što se i vidi na primjeru potapanja broda. Ipak, kasnije su, za vrijeme okupacije Norveške, njemačke vojne snage bile stacionirane u utvrdi.
Za vrijeme Hladnog rata Oscarsborg je bila zadnja linija obrane za Oslo. Podvodne torpedo rakete, potajno su, ostale u uporabi sve do 1993., a tvrđava je u isto vrijeme služila kao vojna škola za oficire. Početkom novog milenija škola je zatvorena, a tvrđava sad služi kao turistička atrakcija otvorena za javnost.
Oscarsborg je jedinstvena kulturalna arena za opere i koncerte koji se održavaju za vrijeme ljetnih mjeseci. Ove godine program je uključivao akustični pop/rock festival, predtsvae u izvedi putujućeg teatra i operu Carmina Burana.
https://www.oscarsborgoperaen.no/kopi-av-hjem-2
Oscarsborg udomljuje i galeriju koju vodi Avistegnerne sa sjedištem u Drøbaku dok Forsvarets Hus ili Vojna kuća, u prijevodu, smještena u Zapovjedničkoj zgradi pokazuje izgled norveške vojske danas.
Torpedo baterija (ili po naški: bitnica, guglajte) u Oscarsborgu je betonska konstrukcija unutar špilje koja je izdubljena u stijeni na sjevernom Kaholmen otoku. Dva torpeda, smještena u otvorenim čeličnim okvirima, stoje jedan uz drugi. Potom se jedan od dva okvira, poput lifta, spusti u vodu do donjih tunela. Nakon ispaljenog hica, treba neko vrijeme da se okviri zamijene i budu spremni za sljedeće ispaljivanje. Bitnica ima tri torpedo tunela koja su mogla ispaliti 6 torpeda bez zamjenskog punjenja, a sveukupno na lageru je bilo 9 torpeda spremno za uporabu. Svako naoružanje imalo je u sebi 100 kg eksploziva, dok se cilj mogao promatrati iz tri promatračka bunkera odmah iznad bitnice.
Fun fact: torpede je, početkom 20. stoljeća, dopremila Whitehead tvornica iz Rijeke koja je tada bila dijelom Austro-Ugarske.
http://www.muzej-rijeka.hr/torpedo/kronologija.html
8. travnja 2014., kad su na otoku snimane scene za film Kraljev izbor, iz topova dugih 28 cm ispaljeni su ćorci. Novine Aftenposten navele su da su topovi, tom prilikom, radili prvi put nakon travnja daleke 1940.
Nakon podužeg razmatranja, 2014., Oscarsborg tvrđava imenovana je zaštićenim lokalitetom.
Nakon Drugog svjetskog rata Oscarsborg više nije imao neku veliku stratešku važnost tako da je s vojnim radom prestala 1. siječnja 1993., a desetak godina kasnije tvrđava je i službeno ukinuta.
- Parlament je odlučio osnovati nacionalnu zakladu za utvrde (“Nasjonale festningsverk”) čija je dužnost bila održavanje 14 povijesnih utvrda, a među kojima je i Oscarsborg.
www.visitnorway.com/listings/oscarsborg-fortress/2633/
