Kongsvinger

Kongsvinger lies beside the Glomma in southeastern Norway, near the routes to Sweden. The wider Vinger district was connected by river travel, and the area served as a trading centre in the Middle Ages. Rivalry with Sweden later made the crossing strategically important. Work on Kongsvinger Fortress began in 1682 and was completed in 1690, forming the basis for the settlement that grew below it. The name Kongsvinger was first applied to the fortress and later to the town. Wooden houses in Øvrebyen, the upper town beneath the fortress, recall the community that developed around this military post in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.