Baggensstäket

[citation needed] Baggensstäket, which was known as Harstäket earlier, was since time immemorial the southern waterway between Stockholm and the Baltic Sea.

Baggensstäket was the main waterway to Stockholm until the end of the Middle Ages, when the post-glacial rebound made the channel shallower while at the same time ships progressively had larger drafts.

Eric XIV decreed that all ships from foreign countries were to be inspected in Vaxholm and pay toll fees for goods transported to Stockholm.

In response, some merchants transferred their cargoes to smaller vessels which were passed in via Baggensstäket, which in this manner became a well-utilized smuggling route.

A boat from Pernau in Estonia had the contagion onboard and when the skipper died at the Erstavik inn at Baggensstäket, the plague gained a foothold in the country.

In 1719 a Russian invasion fleet attempted to reach Stockholm through Baggensstäket, but were beaten back by Swedish forces at this last line of defence (see Battle of Stäket).

The 19th and early 20th centuries saw several proposals of widening and deepening the waterway being laid forth, in order to reopen a convenient route for Stockholm-bound sea traffic from the south.