Photo. Bjørnåsbatteriet, Torbjørnrød skanse, Bjørnåsen fort, Bjørnåsen batteriet, Skansen in Moss, one of many in the network of forts in Norway, built for protection against the Swedish. © Travel Explorations.
The battery on Bjørnåsen was built on a top of a hill in the forest. It covers the area between Dilling Road and Vansjø. It`s still possible to get a good overview over the area it`s intended to protect.
Photo. Bjørnås batteri, also called Torbjørnrød stronghold, is an artillery position located on the northeast of Bjørnåsen Moss center. The battery was one of many forts, which was established at Eastern in the late 1890's as part of efforts to break Norway from the union with Sweden.
The work for building Bjørnås battery started in 1901. The battery was completed in 1902 and was a part of the withdrawn line Moss - Råde.
Photo. A wonderful view over Moss city in Norway.
Bjørnås battery was built for covering the area between Vansjø and the coast, partly in collaboration with Orkerød battery on Jeløy and a battery on Verksåsen. The latter was never built.
The total length of the battery was at about 50 meters over two floors. The battery had four stand places that were constructed for the 10.5 cm canons. The wall protection was about 70 cm high. On each side of this there were small chambers for storing ammunition. The use of the battery was finished in the 1920s.
Photo. Sight lines. There is still good sight over the area it was meant to cover in Moss city in Norway.
The term border fortifications is a collective name for all the defensive works that were built on the eastern and western side of the Glomma river in the decades before and after Norway broke out from the Union with Sweden in 1905.
Most of the border fortifications have not been used since the 1920s, but some of the installations saw active action during the battles against the German blitz occupation of Norway in 1940.
The border fortifications were built as a clear message to Sweden, as part of the struggle for national independence for Norway.
The outcome of the negotiations at Karlstad in 1905 stipulated that the forts of Ørje, Urskog and Hjelmkollen had to be torn down. The fortress at Kongsvinger was allowed to remain, provided that no new fortresses were built within a radius of ten kilometres from the ancient fortress and that the installations would never be modernised.
As the organisation for national fortifications in Norway writes on its website (the Border Fortifications, Dag Strømsæther, Nasjonale Festningsverk: website: www.nasjonalefestningsverk.no): "The border fortifications have been given much credit as a reason why the two countries never went to war in 1905, and serve as a physical manifestation of great symbolic value for the determination shown by Norway to obtain national independence."
Stein Morten Lund, 8 June 2010
Additional information
Read more about opportunities for exciting adventures in the Moss region in Norway on our global travelguide Travel Explorations: www.TravelExplorations.com
For more information about national fortifications in Norway:
Nasjonale Festningsverk
Website: www.nasjonalefestningsverk.no
Contact for the Border Fortifications:
Dag Strømsæther
Smedjegaten 87, 1632 Gamle Fredrikstad
Phone no. (+47) 90170351
E-mail: dag.stromsaether@forsvarsbygg.no
E-mail this
Print this
