The small village of Hegra is located in Stjørdal in the mid part of Norway.

About 2500 people lives in Hegra. The area has got some really interesting ancient remains, such the rock carvings in Leirfald and the “Ingstadkleven Fort“, or, Hegra Fortress as it is known as today.

The fort was the last Norweigan fort to surrender to the invading Germans in May 1940.

Canon at the Hegra Fortress

The way up to the fortress is very interesting itself, we were there in late summer and the fog was laying around us as our car struggled uphill for quite some time.

It’s hard to imagine the feeling in being in the fort, trying to protect it, and the attacking forces are starting to show over there, in the forest.

Small gate in the fort

One of the small gates inside the fort

It felt kind of abandoned, but I guess this fort is nothing you will pass everyday, and even if you do pass it, there are no signs telling you how nice this place actually is. But I can recommend that you go there, if you ever pass. We ran around there for a couple of hours, and I think there was just one other couple there at the time. So it was a bit scary, but very cool indeed.

This is close to the main entrance

Check out the picture gallery:

Picture gallery of the Hegra Fortress at remains.se

in the western part of Ireland

A Viking necklace that suppose to be about 1150 year old has recently been discovered in Burren National Park. The cave, in which the necklace was found, is located in the western parts of Ireland.

Photo: Thorsten Kahlert, copyright Marion Dowd

Archaeologists are surprised about the discovery, since the evidence of Norse settlements in this region of Ireland hasn’t been very much.

Dr. Marion Dowd announced the finding this week. She is an archaeologist from the Institute of Technology Sligo, and she is the leader of the excavation.

“The necklace is the largest Viking necklace to have been found in Ireland. Normally, Vikings necklaces that have been found have five to six glass beads, but this has 71 glass beads covered with gold foil.“, she said to the reporters.

She continues;  “It is really bizarre how this necklace from a high-status Viking came to be in a cave in the Burren. There is no parallel for it in Ireland and it is puzzling on a number of fronts. The necklace would have been imported into Ireland from Scandinavia in the late 9th and early 10th century.

Small numbers of these beads have been found with Viking burials at Kilmainham, Dublin, but nothing like the number found in Glencurran Cave. Such necklaces were worn by high-status Viking women and they might denote a woman’s cultural and religious affiliations. These were certainly prestigious items.”

How the Viking necklace got there

The 9th century Viking necklace is believed to have come from Gaelic chieftains from Burren, whom bought the necklace from the town of Limerick and brought it back home.

The Burren National Park is quite small, just about 1500 hectares and the cave in which the necklace was found is located in a remote site of the park.

Dr Dowd says that the park “has been the site of important archaeological discoveries since 2004. It is the largest cave excavation in Ireland and the finds have been enormously significant.”

If you want to read more about this, please visit the following sites:
Remains.se – pictures from Ireland (Donegal, Glencolumbkille, Malinbeg, Enniskillen, Slieve League)
Irish Times
Irish Herald
Independent

The photo of the necklace:  Photo: Thorsten Kahlert, copyright Marion Dowd

- a small medieval stone church in Sweden

The “Södra Vings Kyrka” is one of the few Christian monuments from that time around Ulricehamn, Sweden. The church is a stone building whose oldest section was built in the 1130′s.

The original chancel was demolished in the mid to late 1200s and was replaced by current conditions in the Gothic style with a little church sculpture here and there. During the 1400′s was the nave ceiling cross vaults, which were decorated with murals, I think it was by the same people who built the ancient castles around the area that did the job with the Christian buildings aswell. The sacristy was built in the 1600s and 1700s expanded the church with the tower and the nave was extended westward.

Inside the old church:

- Current altar with carvings derived from the Middle Ages.
- A image of Holy Mary in late gothic style, is a relic from an altar screen from 1400.
- The pulpit in Baroque style was added in the 1600′s.
- In the church tower are two medieval bells. The big clock was donated in the year 1293 (by Tune Anundson who was patron of the church). The smaller bell is from 1400.

Here follows a gallery with images from the medieval stone church “Södra Vings Kyrka” in Ulricehamn, Sweden. If you want to watch other nice pictures of Church monuments, Christian buildings and ancient castles, please visit the main site, www.remains.se.

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- the San Cristobal cathedral in Havana, Cuba

It was the spanish who founded Havana (Habana). The old parts of the city is listed on UNESCO‘s world heritage list. There are a lot of old, american cars driving around on Cuba, but the don’t have the american engines left, they are replaced by Russian made diesel engines.

When we went to Cuba a while ago, we found this old and very beautiful cathedral (Catedral de San Cristóbal de La Havana) next to a very nice square. It looked very dirty at first, but then I realized that it is suppose to look like that. Anyway, the dirty look made it look so beautiful. I went inside to take some pictures, but there was a lot of tourist hanging around that particular day, so I went up in one of the clock towers instead. The stairs was very small and you shouldn’t have any problems with small spaces if you decide to go up there. And the view from up there wasn’t as good as I thought; maybe that is because I had to stop after one stair. There was a bee nest or something, under the next stair, which made me stop. I think I’m allergic to those guys.

I have uploaded 79 photos on the San Cristobal cathedral in Havana, Cuba. You can see them on the main site, http://www.remains.se. A galleri with some of the images you will find under this text. Enjoy!

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The medieval fortress at the town of Kungälv, Sweden

Bohus Fästning (“The fortress of Bohus”, originally Bagahus) is situated at the former Swedish / Norwegian border. It was Haakon V Magnuson, the king of Norway (between 1299-1319) who gave the construction order. He also initiated the construction of Akershus in Oslo, Norway. At this time, Bohuslän (where Kungälv is situated), belonged to Norway.

Bohus fortress was invested 14 times and badly damaged, but not once taken. At one point, the border was moved north and the fortress was to no-use to Sweden anymore. Then the norweigans built Fredriksten fortress.

Photo galler of Bohus Fästning (Bohus Fortress)

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yet another temple in ancient Egypt

Edfu can also be spelled as Idfu or Edfou. It’s situated very close to the city of Luxor. In Edfu lives about 60 thousand people. The Edfu Temple was built between 237 B.C and 57 B.C, and it’s the temple that is best preserved of all temples in Egypt. It doesn’t look very inviting when you first see it from the “big road”, but as soon as you see what’s beyond the entrance, you will not regret the visit for a second. The temple has a  lot of beautiful pillars, hieroglyphs,  statues and other, classic Egyptian remains. A perfect place for tourists that are fund of egyptian remains, and would love to see the remains of the work of  every Pharoah Egypt had had.

Just outside the temple entrance you will find a very nice taverna. Near the area you can also find the Colosses of Memnon. All those site gets you thinking of if ancient Cleopatra every wandered around on those premises? She probably did, during her Egypt Dynasty, checking out the Egypt Kingdom that was in so many ways very impressive. I would love to go back sometime, and then maybe not just running around, taking a lot of photos, but stand still and breathe the old, Eegyptian air and think about what happened within those walls. Cool.

Here are some photos from the Horus temple / Edfu temple. Please visit www.remains.se for more photos.

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The egyptian architect

- here on the blog are some pictures of his market in the Kharga Oasis, Egypt

During our honeymoon to Egypt, we decided to go for one night in the Sahara desert, near the Kharga Oasis.

On our way there, we passed a market place that was designed by one of the greatest architects in the egyptian history, Hassan Fathy. Unfortenately, the marketplace was never to be completed, but I guess it was a very good start.

Here you have some pictures from the Kharga marketplace in New Baris. Look at the very nice “air cooling system“.

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You can read more about Hasan Fathi and also see pictures of his other works here.

get an account on mostphotos.com and sell YOUR photos

I joined Mostphotos the other day, to try sell some photos I’ve been taking on castles and similar stuff, but also photos that hasn’t got any historic interest. The thing is that anybody can earn money by uploading their photos and sell them, even Bachchan Blog! Even if you’re not a profesional photographer.

Go ahead and join Mostphotos.com today!

- an unique grave ship was recently found by swedish archaeologists.

The viking-aged grave ship’s discovery was placed in Sunnerby, a place clos e to the castle of Läckö, near the lake of Vänern (see a map from the area here) . The ship is probably from the 7th century.  At least two human remains, one young and one old person, was found. It seems to have been a very highly placed person’s funeral.  There was also remains of sacrified animals. The ship was burnt after the funeral.

Only in England has a grave ship like this been found before.

At remains.se, you can find a photo gallery from the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.

In thursday, Dresden Elbe Valley was removed as a U.N. World Heritage site. It is the the second landmark that has been removed from the list ever. The reason was that a four-lane motorway bridge was built over the river.

Read more at UNESCO’s website

For pictures of castles, forts and other historical remains, visit http://www.remains.se

Here I will write a short description of my road trips to different historical places, where I take a lot of photos and enjoy the most often beautiful environments. I´m not a professional photographer, but I´m doing as good as I can, to show you how nice those leftovers are. You can read anything about castles and, castles medieval times, medieval castles history, middle ages architecture and other.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! And be sure to visit the “main page”; http://www.remains.se

Kind regards,
Henrik