Press room

A previously unknown barrier installation, made of timber carved in the winter of 1113, has been discovered near Karlskrona in Blekinge. Thousands of wooden piles were driven into the seabed, and during the late Viking Age and early Middle Ages defended the entrance to the river Lyckebyån in what was then Denmark. The church, the king and the local elite all wanted to gain control over the area, and the barrier likely played a vital role in preventing intruders from coming ashore, perhaps to plunder or disrupt crucial iron exporting along the river.

Welcome to the press preview of Vrak – Museum of Wrecks on 16 September.

In September, a new maritime archaeology museum is opening on Djurgården in Stockholm. Please join us as a special guest at a press preview of Vrak – Museum of Wrecks on 16 September, and at the inauguration of the museum by His Majesty The King of Sweden on 22 September.

Maritime archaeologists at Vrak – Museum of Wrecks have today identified the wrecks found at Vaxholm in the autumn of 2019. The ships in question are Apollo and Maria, both built in 1648 and deliberately sunk in 1677 at Vaxholm.

The results are in. Wood samples from the two large warships found in November by divers outside the island of Vaxholm have now been analysed. The wood samples, taken from the ships’ massive oak planks, confirm assumptions by maritime archaeologists at the Vrak – Museum of Wrecks that the ships were built in the first half of the 17th century.