Batteri Landsort

ERSTA-batteriet på Landsort - Landsort Artillery Battery

Useful Information

Location:	Northern Landsort, 300 walk from the harbour. (58.764903, 17.863644)
Open:	JUN to AUG Tue-Sun 11:30, 13:30. [2020]
Fee:	Adults SEK 100. [2020]
Classification:	Secret Bunker
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=60 min. Min 4, max 10. Min age 10.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Batteri Landsort, 149 95 Nynäshamn S. Jaak Kriisa, Tel: +46-722-000506. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1973	start of construction.
1984	construction completed.
1991	start of decommission.
1999	designated a state-owned listed building.
2013	opened to the public.

Description

Batteri Landsort (Landsort Artillery Battery) is the last part (at least that's what they tell us) of the world's most high tech and secret defense system. During the Cold War Sweden was in an unfortunate location. If the Soviet Union had ever thought of expansion to the west, Finland and Sweden would have been the first. Between 1973 and 1984 six of those forts were constructed between Holmön in the north and Ystad in the south. They were intended to defend important parts of the coast and give fire support to the ground troops. For this each battery had three separate 12 cm cannons which allowed to fire a 22kg shell to per second on targets in a radius of 30 km. There are two observation posts to verify the hits.

The battery was a bunker which was constructed to withstand atomic and chemical warfare. And it contained a Command Operations Centre. So it actually served not only as a cannon battery, it was also an emergency . The bunker had four levels which included ammunition stores, workshops, mess and barrachs for 25 men crew. A diesel generator provided electricity and a deep well drinking water. It was equipped to survive a month without external supplies.

The batteries were constructed from 1973, which is rather late. Many Cold War bunkers were constructed ten years earlier, and so the whole system was rather modern. And it was less than a decade old when the Cold War ended and the bunker was decommissioned. In the 1990s the guns were removed, but fortunately the equipment is still untouched. The structure was sealed with concret. Again things changed pretty fast, atomic bunkers became tourist sights and cultural heritage. The site was declared a landmark and reopened.

Batteri Landsort is located on the small island Öja off the coast, south of Stockholm. Öja was also once home to a system of 38 state-of-the-art military installations, buried almost invisibly across the island. However, this is the only one which is open to the public, at least for the short Scandinavian summer season. Tours are available only over the age of 10 and require walking shoes, as the stairs are rather steep. A jacket is also a good idea, as the bunker is not heated and as cold as a cellar. Öja is best reached on the state road 73 to Nynäshamn, from there on a small road to the hamlet Herrhamra, from where the ferry to the island starts at Ankarudden brygga. Only a few hundred meters from the harbour on the only road of the island, a single lane track branches off to the left, leading to the battery. However, if you reserve, you may be picked up at the ferry by Jaak Kriisa (“5% of the island’s population!”) with his golf cart.