Karlshamn - Townplan and Architecture

Townplan and Architecture

The settlement of Bodekull naturally took place on the flat area between the steep rocks east and west of town. The designer of the regular town plan for Karlshamn from 1666 is not known. This first map "Regulierung der Gassen in Bodekulla" shows 24 rectangular blocks of which one is open as a square. The main street "Drottninggatan" is parallel to the river and linear with the navigable inlet to the inner harbour. The grid expanded gradually during the 18th and 19th centuries. Later the town expanded over the meadows and hills to merge with the adjacent Asarum, a rural village north of town. Two old houses remain from the founding time at the square, one is "Asschierska huset" erected as town hall in 1682. The streets of the town was orderly lined with one-two storey buildings, generally a block was subdivided into ten lots on more posh streets and even smaller subdivisions in poorer parts of the town. The church was erected north of the square 1680–1702, the drawing being approved by Erik Dahlbergh. The separate belltower is from 1792. "Skottsbergska gården" is a courtyard shaped by a complete set of merchant buildings from 1766 open to visitors. During the early 19th century the merchants of the town experienced a boom which materialised in added storeys and more decorations on the facades. At the end of this century and the following years some public buildings were erected: the school at the southeast corner of the square inaugurated 1864, the girls school 1879 (now parish's meeting rooms) the navigation school 1863 (demolished), the hospital erected 1883 (now partly police post and music school) the Bodestorp folk school 1909, the "realskola" designed 1912-17 by architect Gunnar Asplund and his 1929 addition in modernist/"functionalist" style. 1900 the town hall eas erected south of the square replacing a wooden building. It was substantially expanded in 1990-95 by a series of additional buildings designed by Nyréns architects.