Floating Castles: the Built Environment and Social Signaling in Medieval Scandinavia

Medieval castles and their built environments served military, economic, administrative, social, and artistic-expressive functions critical to maintaining elites’ status.

In the late medieval period, some monarchs extended their reach by launching ´floating castles´: purpose-built warships armed with artillery. The Danish-Norwegian King Hans was an early adopter of this new technology. His flagship, Gribshunden, sank in 1495 while the king was sailing to a political summit in Sweden.

Preserved on the wreck are elements demonstrating the hard and soft power aspects of his floating castle.

This ship will be compared to the well-preserved stately fortress Glimmingehus in southern Sweden (then Danish territory), built 1499.

Through limited shipwreck excavation, digital archaeology and investigation of recovered artifacts from Gribshunden and Glimmingehus, archival research, and comparison to other castles on land we will develop and publish novel and comprehensive interpretations of these sites specifically, and on medieval ships and castles in general.

The combination of monumental architecture on land and sea were the physical means by which some late medieval elites constructed their place in the social hierarchy, and solidified their dominance.

Comparative research will reveal how medieval Scandinavian nobles and kings adapted new technologies to achieve their political, economic, and social goals.