ERSTA (ERSättning Tungt Artilleri, which means Replacement Heavy Artillery in Swedish) used to be a secret Swedish line of defense along the Baltic Sea coast. It was built during the 1970s in strategically important locations as a replacement system for the older coastal artillery batteries from the Second World War that had become outdated, partly because of the nuclear bomb threat. It was planned to build a total of 18 batteries along the coast, but only six were completed: Söderarm, Slite, Ystad, Trelleborg, Holmögadd and Landsort. ERSTA was one of the world’s most advanced artillery systems of its time, unbeatable in terms of accuracy, protection and endurance.
After the turn of the century, ERSTA batteries were dismantled and all traces of them have been wiped out. They have been pulled down as methodically as they were built and the landscapes around have been recreated as far as possible to what they looked like in 1960.
Landsort battery is an exception, it has been preserved and made available to the public. The facility includes an impressive four-storey steel house built inside the rock and designed to withstand a nuclear attack. There was enough space and supplies for a crew of 25 soldiers who could live and fight for a month without any external support. Remarkably, all the technical equipment was exclusively of Swedish origin. At the heart of the facility there is a gigantic 150-ton heavy Bofor cannon that stands in an 18-meter-deep shaft and is protected by a 16-ton heavy armor dome. The cannon was custom made and could fire 22 kilos of heavy projectiles, one per two seconds, against targets as far as 30 kilometers out at sea.
Photo: Hålger Ellgaard
