Kristiansten festning

Following a fire that destroyed most of Trondheim on 19 April 1681, King Christian V commissioned Jean Caspar de Cicignon and his chief of staff Anthony Coucheron to redesign the city's fortifications, and Kristiansten rose on a hill above the rebuilt town between 1682 and 1684 as a free-standing star fort. Further bastions followed through the 1690s, and the fortress proved its worth in 1718 when it helped repel a Swedish siege. Decommissioned in 1816, it survives today as Norway's best-preserved 17th-century tower fortress, its distinctive donjon visible from across the city.