Flakfortet
Encyclopedia
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
. The island and fort are simply known as Flakfortet, the name of the island, Saltholmreb, is seldom used.
The fort was built in the years 1910–1915 as part of Copenhagen's sea-fortifications. Until 2001 the island was owned by the Danish Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (Denmark)
The Ministry of Defence of Denmark is a ministry in the Danish government. It is charged with overall planning, development, and strategic guidance of the entire area of responsibility of the Danish Defence minister, including the armed forces and the emergency management sector...
, who had not used it actively since 1968. It was put up for sale in 1999 under the guidance of Statens Ejendomssalg (commonly known as Freja) which is the department under the Danish Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Finance of Denmark
The Ministry of Finance of Denmark is a ministry in the Government of Denmark. Among other things, it is in charge of the government budget , paying government employees and improving efficiency in government administration...
responsible for selling state-owned property that is not used by the State anymore.
In June 2001 it was sold to the Swedish company Malmökranen, but since the fort is a Danish designated protected area the new owners must maintain the area and make it publicly available. The sale also had to be approved by the Danish Skov- og Naturstyrelsen which is the organization responsible for such areas in Denmark.
In 2008, the new owners, together with the Swedish conductor, Kristofer Wåhlander
Kristofer Wåhlander
Kristofer Wåhlander is a Swedish conductor, born 12th November 1974 in Loddekopinge in southern Sweden. Founded the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra in Russia in 2001 and recorded Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony on the La Forza label with the same orchestra .Served as artistic director for the Nordic...
arranged the fort's first ever classical music festival, Music at the fort, with audience shipped from both Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.