Schwedenschanze, Archaeological fortress in Stralsund, Germany.

Schwedenschanze is a former Prussian fort built in 1870 as the Pommersche Batterie, laid out as a lunette of the neo-Prussian school with seven fronts and a broken gorge. It was built of the then-new material concrete together with granite. A dry ditch about ten metres wide encircled the work, secured by caponiers, and a cross redoubt in the centre housed the garrison and defended the entrance. Three ring mounts for 15-cm ring cannon stood on the sea side, a fourth on the north front.

The Schwedenschanze was built in 1870 as a fort to guard the sea route, when Stralsund's older works were already unmaintained. A French squadron operating in the Stralsund bay during the Franco-Prussian War prompted a ring of forts, and this battery joined the Rostocker Werk, Fort Paschenberg, the Dänholm works and Fort Grahlhof on Rügen. Renamed Pommersche Schanze in 1886, it has been called Schwedenschanze since 1902 despite no link to Sweden or the Thirty Years' War.

The preservation of Schwedenschanze enables researchers and visitors to examine historical military engineering techniques and regional defense strategies of northern Germany.

Signs point to the Schwedenschanze, but finding it is somewhat difficult; the deep ditch running around the fort is the clearest guide. The ramparts are largely levelled, and the whole area is overgrown, especially with raspberry bushes, so exploration is hard. A few trodden paths lead to steps and concrete remains, and the ring positions only become visible in the thicket. Nearby are remnants of the terrace of the restaurant run here until the 1980s.

The name Schwedenschanze dates only from 1902; before that the work was the Pommersche Schanze, renamed in 1886 from Pommersche Batterie. It has no connection to the Thirty Years' War or to Sweden. In the 1880s the site served as a test ground for the new building material concrete.