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Kristiansten Fortress (or Christiansten) was built during the period from 1681 to 1685 . CONSTRUCTION General Johan Caspar Von Cicignon , who was chief inspector of Norwegian Fortifications , was responsible for the new town plan of Trondheim after the great fire of April 18, 1681 . He also made the plans for the erection of Kristiansten Fortress.123From this fortress you can see where the waterline was for old time. The "line" can be seen streching out in the hills around Trondheim, but is best seen from the fortress, towards Byåsen .The land in Norway is still rebounding from the enormous weight of the glacial ice ( Isostatic Rebound ), "growing out of the sea" with several mm a year, especially the eastern part of the country and the inner part of the long fjords, where the ice cover was thickest. This is a slow process, thus the sea covered substantial areas of what is today dry land for thousands of years following the end of the ice age. The sea formerly reached an elevation 180 m higher in Trondheim . GREAT NORTHERN WAR In the final days of the Great Northern War, Karl XII of Sweden initiated a second invasion of Norway in the fall of 1718. While Karl XII led his main army in an attack from the south at Fredrikshald , an army under General Armfeldt (or Armfelt) was sent into Trøndelag to seize Trondheim. Armfeldt advanced against Trondheim, which was defended by an army of 6,900 men under Vincens Budde . The Swedish forces were resisted both by Norwegian forces and by the people of the countryside, who bitterly recalled the previous Swedish occupation of Trøndelag. Provisions were not available, and the Norwegian winter set in. Although he reached the city and laid siege, the strength of Kristiansten Fortress and other fortifications was such that he chose to retreat toward Verdal . Karl XII issued a sharp rebuke and ordered Armfeldt to take Trondheim. Although Armfeldt's forces surrounded Trondheim, Budde's forces were able to keep him at bay. Camping in the open and poorly fed, many of Armfeldt's troops fell ill and his capable forces were reduced to 4000 men. When Karl XII was killed in December, Armfeldt's forces retreated to Sweden. On their way back across the mountains, almost the entire army was lost, mostly because of snow, cold temperature and a strong blizzard; the retreat has been likened to Napoleon’s from Moscow for the severity of casualties. 4 THE 20TH CENTURY on December 4 , 2005 celebrating the Norwegian Prince who was born the previous day]] The Norwegian war flag with the badge denoting the union with Sweden was hauled down on June 9 , 1905 , and the ‘pure’ war flag was hoisted instead, with full military honours and gun salutes for both flags. On November 18 , 1905 a twenty-one gun salute was again fired from Kristiansten Fortress to proclaim the election of Prince Carl of Denmark as the new King of Norway under the name of Haakon VII Of Norway . The flag of union with Sweden was hauled down and that of Norway hoisted. MEDIA REFERENCES AND NOTES |
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