Marstrand is known since early 1100 and during the 18th century it was a taxfree zone and partly independant from Swedish authority. This was deliberately decided by the king Gustav III and it also became a religious freezone. As such it became a freezone among others for judaism a reason for it´s jewish population and for many decades it was a busy commercial freezone with loads of shipping from northern Europe.

Today it´s a popular touristdestination but mainly the sailing Mecka of western Sweden. Many international sailraces take place here at high season in summer and the competition with Sandhamn in the Stockholm archipelago (on the last pic) about being the sailcenter of Sweden has been ongoing for decades.

Coming here before highseason as we did,it´s a very tranquile and beautiful place to visit.

The first picture is from Karlstens Fortress on the top of the Marstrand island. It was built after the peace with the Danish 1658 (The peace of Roskilde) and served as a prison during the 19th century.

It still belonged to the armed forces until 1993,but today it´s mainly a touristattraction.