# Ur Photografiskt Album för år 1861 öfver fångar förvarade å Landskrona fästning - NMA.0056768 (2)

- By: Mats Landin
- Date: 1861
- Classification: Photograph
- Credit line: DigitaltMuseum, the whole album can be viewed via this link.
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ur_Photografiskt_Album_f%C3%B6r_%C3%A5r_1861_%C3%B6fver_f%C3%A5ngar_f%C3%B6rvarade_%C3%A5_Landskrona_f%C3%A4stning_-_NMA.0056768_(2).jpg)
- Rights: [CC0](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en)
- Picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Ur_Photografiskt_Album_f%C3%B6r_%C3%A5r_1861_%C3%B6fver_f%C3%A5ngar_f%C3%B6rvarade_%C3%A5_Landskrona_f%C3%A4stning_-_NMA.0056768_%282%29.jpg/1920px-Ur_Photografiskt_Album_f%C3%B6r_%C3%A5r_1861_%C3%B6fver_f%C3%A5ngar_f%C3%B6rvarade_%C3%A5_Landskrona_f%C3%A4stning_-_NMA.0056768_%282%29.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

A spread from a photo album of convicts at Landskrona Citadel, Sweden, in 1861. ID nummber NMA.0056768, DigitaltMuseum ID 011013853140. Repro photo made 14 April 2014.

History

In the days of the Swedish Empire during the 17th century, a lot of fortresses were built along the Swedish coastline. Most of the hard work was carried out by convicts. The fortresses also had dungeons and towers where the worst convicts were kept, while they were in operation. In the late 18th and 19th century, when the fortresses were no longer needed for defense purposes, they were rebuilt into prisons for Sweden's worst criminals.\[2\] In old Swedish this coined an expression for "being incarcerated": "sitta på fästning" (litt. "to sit at a fortress").

When Europe imported tea, porcelain, spices and silk from China, the most important commodity for Sweden was the Chinese bureaucracy. Because of this Sweden has one of the longest, still in use, records in Europe of what its citizens were/are up to. Even prisons kept meticulous notes about their inmates.

"No 16. Anders Andersson – 4th stint Theft – Born 1823 in Örebro County. Sentenced to life in 1853. Punished within the prison once for escaping.

No…