Byvik Fort, Coastal battery in Rindö, Sweden

Byvik Fort, also called the 8th Battery, is a fortification on Rindö in Vaxholm Municipality. It was blasted into the bedrock inside deep triangular moats, with granite walls where the rock was weaker and a concrete-reinforced top. Its armament included four 12 cm guns in armoured turrets and several 57 mm guns in turrets and flank galleries.

Byvik Fort was built between 1897 and 1903 as the 8th battery of the Vaxholm Line, after Oxdjupet was dredged in the 1870s and Vaxholm Castle was deemed obsolete. It left the wartime organisation in 1926 following the 1925 defence decision and became a store. Its four 12 cm guns were moved to Lidö in 1941.

The fort reflects how Sweden organized its coastal defense in the early 1900s through military infrastructure positioned on the island. Walking through the site, you notice how the layout reveals the strategic thinking of that era.

To visit the fort, take a ferry from Vaxholm to Rindö island, which takes about half an hour. The site is accessible on foot with paths leading you through the different structures and positions around the grounds.

The fort's guns were removed in 1941, when the four 12 cm pieces were moved to Lidö for the outer Havsband line. After that battery closed in 2000, three were brought back to Rindö, but a 2008 government sale decision stopped the plan: two were scrapped and one went to Vaxholm Fortress Museum in 2009.