Number of islands: 24,000
Area: 2,162 sq mi (5,600 sq km)
Stockholm Archipelago is a cluster of 24,000 islands situated East of Stockholm, capital of Sweden, in the Baltic Sea. It covers a total area of 2,162 sq mi (5,600 sq km). The Stockholm archipelago (in Swedish, Stockholms skärgård) is the largest in Sweden and one of the largest in the Baltic Sea. Stockholm archipelago extends from the coasts of the city of Stockholm up to 60 km in the open sea. It has islands between the coasts of Uppland and Södermanland, from Björkö-Arholma in the north to the island of Öja, Nynäshamn with the Landsort lighthouse in the south. It is also connected to the Åland archipelago.
In the year 1719 it had a population of 2800 people in total.
Having been populated initially by fishermen, nowadays it has become
a summer resort for the population of Stockholm and tourists. The
permanent population is concentrated in the islands of Vaxholm,
Värmdö and in other similar large ones. Many of them live
permanently there and work in the city. They are calculated in 50
000 houses distributed in the area. Public transport with the rest
of the city is done by boat with the Waxholmsbolaget.
The archipelago has been a source of inspiration for many writers,
painters and other artists, among them August Strindberg, Roland
Svenssonn, Ernst Didring and Aleister Crowley. External parts of the
archipelago (Stockholms and ttre skärgård, an area of 15,000 ha)
have been protected as a Ramsar site since June 12, 1989 (nº ref
4354).
The Stockholm archipelago has long been important
as a commercial and military entry route to Stockholm. During Gustav
Vasa's time as regent (1523–1560) in Sweden, it was decided to
fortify Vaxholmen to protect Stockholm's inland seaway via Kodjupet
and Vaxholmen against hostile attacks, and in 1549 the first defense
facility was completed, which at that time consisted of a single log
house in wood that later was reinforced with a tower in stone during
the time of Johan III . The fortification at Vaxholmen was expanded
in several rounds for several hundred years and got its present
appearance after a total rebuild that was not completed until 1863.
In 1889 the fortress got its own permanent staff, which in 1902 was
converted toVaxholm Coast Artillery Regiment , located on Rindö . In
2005 the regiment moved to Berga war base and changed its name to
the First Amphibian Regiment.
During the 1600s, the Stockholm archipelago was mapped by
cartographer Carl Gripenhielm . In 1719, the Stockholm archipelago,
as well as large parts of the east coast, were hit hard by the
Russian raids, where many archipelago villages were plundered and
burned down. The Battle of Stäket is in this context one of the most
well-known killings of this time. Stockholm's archipelago, which
gained a more significant resident population only from the end of
the 14th century, had a population of about 2,800 people at the time
of the Russian raids in the 18th century.
After World War IIand towards the 1950s, a gradual relocation from
the archipelago took place to the nearest mainland towns, which
offered a greater supply of jobs. The relocation was also largely
due to the fact that the compulsory schooling was gradually
expanded, with many having to apply to the mainland where the
schools were located for higher studies after the elementary school.
Fishing was a significant industry for a long time, but gradually
declined in importance and today constitutes a very small part of
the archipelago industry. During the latter part of the 20th
century, from around 1960 onwards, the Stockholm archipelago has
been developed primarily to take on the role of summer resident for
mainland residents from mainly the Stockholm area, with rented or
own summer houses and as an outdoor recreation area for recreational
boats with overnight accommodation like camping.on the mainland
side. The development has led to a strong seasonal need for manpower
in various service industries in the archipelago.
The Stockholm archipelago has at all times had the character of
small farming combined with fishing for its own household, unlike
the Gothenburg archipelago which has had the character of purely
fishing communities. These clear differences in living conditions
and living opportunities have led to major differences in culture
and development in both types of archipelago communities.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the archipelago's living
conditions were characterized by economic scarcity compared to the
living conditions on the mainland. In the smaller farms with small
agricultural areas, there was limited scope for the sale of
agricultural products. What was produced was mostly eaten in our own
household and forage for farm animals during the winter months.
Fishing accounted for a significant part of the household, but also
as a source of income, where the larger islands with a large
population often fished in working teams with jointly owned larger
fishing gear to streamline fishing, which mainly applied to the
spring and autumn fishing. The herring fishery, and the fishery in
general, which, as early as the 1400s, developed as one of the main
industries of the archipelago mainly for the residents of the middle
part of the archipelago which had limited access to agricultural
land, was also conducted as large-scale operation around some of the
outermost inserts of the free fishing waters, so-called krone
waters, which belonged to the state. Significant "Fishing Harbors or
Fishing Piers" are mentioned in 1744; Håkanskär, Vattungarna,
Norrskär, Tyfskär, Karlskär, Långskär, Skärf, Swedish Högarna,
Gillöga, Kubbarna, Nassa, Björkskär, Horssten, Grönskär.
The congestion at these fishing spots was at times
great and the order must be maintained with careful regulations. A
"Harbor Skull" was established as early as 1448 by Karl Knutsson
(Farmer) (c. 1409–1470) and the Main Cutting Act 1450 by Erengisle
Nilsson dy . Majestyrenewed "Harbor Ordinance" in 1726. According to
these regulations, there would be a port steward at each fishing
port, which regulated the distribution of fishing waters, allocation
of port space, and land for fishing boats and boathouses and space
for net drying. No one was allowed to start fishing in the morning,
before the port guard gave a start signal with a bell. In the
evening, the network laying also did not start until after such a
start signal. The Port Authority also settled disputes between the
Fisheries Act. The intense seasonal fishing out on the islands in
the outer archipelago with great distances to the permanent
settlements, meant that many lived out at the fishing villages for
longer times, which is why the church felt there was a need to build
chapels on the most populated islands, such as Horssten, Gillöga and
Svenska Högarna. . The clergy from the nearest churches had an
obligation to appear during the fishing season and "sacra ibidem
peragere" and the fishing law had to appear for the worship services
held. At Horssten there was also a tavern. In some islands,
cemeteries were also built because they were too far to row ashore
the deceased. The lack of enough soil on the bare rocks caused a low
stone wall to be built around the grave, which was filled with soil.
Remains of such cemeteries are found at Horssten and Svenska
Högarna, among others. The lack of enough soil on the bare rocks
caused a low stone wall to be built around the grave, which was
filled with soil. Remains of such cemeteries are found at Horssten
and Svenska Högarna, among others. The lack of enough soil on the
bare rocks caused a low stone wall to be built around the grave,
which was filled with soil. Remains of such cemeteries are found at
Horssten and Svenska Högarna, among others.
At the far end of the archipelago, with thin soil layers that were
only enough for smaller horticultural lands, for example, potato
cultivation and a few grazing animals, fishing and hunting for seals
and seabirds accounted for the main sources of income. Remains of
hides for bird hunting in the form of the stone cane can still be
found on many of the islands in the outer archipelago. Before
starting to use firearms, often in combination with whistles (bird
traps), for hunting seabirds, they used large nets that were split
up between high poles where they knew that the low-flying bird
trappings emerged, such as eiders . Bird eggs were also picked out
on the islands, which, like catches with bird nets, was soon banned
because it developed into a serious threat to the entire bird
population in the archipelago.
Those who lacked agricultural land were usually specialized in
fishing alone or different types of crafts such as boat or house
construction. Uninhabited islands with good meadows further into the
archipelago included in the estates were often used as grazing lakes
for cattle that were transported out by boats and went out and
milked on site. They also often mowed the tall grass on islands that
were not grazed and transported it home in boats to the farm which
feeds the animals. Many of the islands in the archipelago called
"Ängsholmen" or "Ängsholmarna" have their origins in use as grazing
lakes or islands to which you rowed, mowed the grass and kept after
the sly .
Households in the archipelago were often completely self-sufficient
and most of them were manufactured on their own farm or locally on
one of the nearest larger islands. The visits to the nearest major
town on the mainland were rare where it was mostly about selling
salted fish, seals and handicraft that they had manufactured during
the dark winter months and replenishing their supplies of basic
goods that could not be procured outside the islands. The insulation
against mainland life became especially evident during the winter
months, where it was mainly about surviving and saving on the
supplies that had been bunked up. Ice formation in the archipelago
winter time, which has varied greatly over the centuries, used to be
of crucial importance in the past for the ability to survive and
move between islands and into the mainland. Winter Months,
The regular meeting place often became the church on Sundays for
those who could get there depending on the weather and ice
conditions. The church was also used for parish meetings if there
was no special village yard , where everything was discussed and
planned for decided measures within the parish.
The school in the archipelago
Through the general school duty , introduced in Sweden in 1842 as a
replacement for the church's basic reading education, many smaller
schools in the late 1800s came to build on the larger islands in the
archipelago within a 5-10 year period. Often one or a maximum of two
teachers were responsible for teaching all subjects in the basic
4-year school and from 1882 the 6-year compulsory primary school .
The school building was mostly built as a combined school and
residence for the teacher's family, who usually came from the
mainland and in most cases did not have a family background as an
archipelago residence.
The teacher, the priest and the district doctor were the three
instances that, well into the 19th century, in practice accounted
for much of the basic everyday order in the archipelago society and
resolved many minor disputes by having usually the best education
and good contacts with society's central functions and various
authorities. The police system in the form of a county magistrate
(from 1675, the Crown County magistrate) was only addressed in major
disputes and pure crimes by the way out in the archipelago was about
day-long journeys. For the local common direction of the development
of society, the parish meetings respondedas a governing body and was
often held in the church with the church pastor as chairman. Before
the publication of the newspaper was widely disseminated and
literacy became more widespread, important announcements and
proclamations from authorities in the oral form were preached by the
pastor from the pulpit when they were gathered for the service on
Sundays.
Because the number of pupils in many schools in the archipelago was
low, as was often the case in the 19th century in the sparsely
populated countryside in Sweden, and one or at most two teachers
taught from first to sixth grade in all curricula including craft,
students were often divided in age groups, where the teacher
conducted teaching in parallel in several different year classes by
changing the subject during the lesson hours. For pupils in the most
remote islands, in some cases they had to resort to accommodation in
connection with the school because of the difficulty in getting to
school in bad weather. Teaching in schools was largely driven by the
requirement that all employed family members were needed on the farm
for the family's livelihood, especially during harvest times and
other important seasonal tasks. The schooling was therefore seen by
many archipelagoers for a long time as "a necessary evil" where it
was mainly about getting the students to learn the basic subjects
reading, writing and counting. There was rarely any opportunity to
study further on the mainland after the basic 6-year schooling, for
both practical and economic reasons, conditions that often applied
as far back as the 1950s, which delayed the general theoretical
level of education compared to conditions for mainland residents.
For the archipelago residents, the great need was mainly in
practical knowledge in agriculture, machine maintenance, animal
husbandry, fishing, seafaring and craftsmanship, because these
skills were crucial to being able to support themselves and take
over the family farm.