Kalmar Castle

I had an appointment in Kalmar at a foot-specialist who had promised to fix a corn on my foot before summer holidays. Four times a year I have a treatment, it always comes back.

Lunch was had at a restaurant/café in the former pilot-station which has the best sea-view in town and also very good food. It can be very windy there but today was almost completely still. (first extra)

After lunch and my treatment, I was on my way to Kalmar Castle where I wanted to see an exhibition about one of our early female journalists, explorer and feminist; Ester Blenda Nordström. She was active from 1914 to 1945 and has had a tremendous importance  spreading the female point of view and helped to make way for women's right to vote in 1921.

On my way to the castle I passed one of the excavating sites. The city of Kalmar is replacing the old water pipes in the remaining old town opposite the castle. This was, from about 1100 to 1640 the place for the old city of Kalmar, a city taking shelter behind the huge castle, built to defend Kalmar and the Swedish border towards Denmark. After a few years of war with Denmark from 1611, the castle was under siege by Danish troups and was lost to the Danes. The city of Kalmar was burned and later, after Swedish troups had regained control over the castle again, the King decided to move the whole city and rebuild it in a safer place, to the west of the castle. This move was completed in 1660. But, everytime someone wants to dig holes in the ground where the old town was, there has to be excavations to map the remains and details of the original city of Kalmar. The second extra shows one of those holes, you can see a part of a house foundation where the man in the middle is waving a metal detector. I find it very interesting to learn more about the ancient history of the city I live close to.
The main shows one of the many canons on the defence wall, defending the castle, probably the same one that was in use during the siege in 1611.