Slottsfjellet is a hill in Tønsberg town in Vestfold county with a height of 63 m. On the plateau at the top are the ruins of a church and Tunsberghus fortress from the Middle Ages, as well as Slottsfjellstårnet, the city's landmark, erected in 1888.
The tower on Slottsfjellet was erected on a private initiative as a memorial to Tønsberg's thousand-year anniversary a few years earlier. It is a 17-metre (60 ft) high stone lookout tower shaped in a simple, round-arched Neo-Renaissance style that may give associations to castle towers from the Middle Ages. The facade is decorated with the inscription "871-1871 Maa Byen som paa Tunet staar, faa bloom new Tusind-aar", and the royal signatures "Haakon R 1. August 1906", "Olav R 1. July 1958" and "Harald R. 9. March 1992". Slottsfjellstårnet was in use as the Tønsberg museum from 1894 to 1930.
The stone tower replaced a wooden lookout tower that Tønsberg Seamen's Association built in 1856 and which burned down in 1874.
Tunsberghu's fortress at the top of the hill probably dominated the town and the surrounding agricultural areas also before the 12th century when the Baglers entrenched themselves there during the siege by King Sverre and the Birkebeinerne. Tunsberghus underwent a large-scale development during the reign of Håkon Håkonsson and Magnus Lagabøte in the 13th century. The fortress was the seat of residence for Tønsberg County until 1503, when it was burned down and not rebuilt. Today, only low ruins remain of the plant on Slottsfjellet.
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www.871.no/kanonene-pa-slottsfjellet/ - Info about the canons (Norsk)
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no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slottsfjellet
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no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slottsfjellt%C3%A5rnet
