To strengthen the power the king exercised over the Sound, he built the Malmö fortress, founded the market town of Landskrona and made Copenhagen the capital.

By royal order, this work was now accelerated, and the new fortress came to form the western defense point of this seawall.

The fortress, known as Møntergaarden ("The Mint"), was of the castle type, i.e. a rectangular structure surrounded by high walls with a gate tower.

The fortress once had an outer bailey to the east, but this disappeared when the present castle moat was built in the 1530s.

[4] In 1525, Frederick I ordered his lord of Malmö Fortress, Albert Jepsen Ravensberg, to build a new castle.

It is mainly through clear traces in the existing walls that the oldest building phases of the castle have been identified.

In 1534, The Count's Feud broke out and the burghers demolished the huge wall with its ramparts that ran from the main building and surrounded the castle's inner courtyard.

Between 1537 and 1540, the castle was instead reinforced on the orders of Christian III by the construction of a moat and ramparts with four large brick corner towers.

During the years 1554-1559, the heir to the throne, later King Frederick II, resided at Malmö Castle.

It was also used to hold political prisoners, including Jörgen Krabbe and Anjala man Carl Gustaf Armfeldt the Younger, who died here in 1792.

A county prison according to the Separate system was built off the eastern side of the Malmö Castle moat in 1854-1855 with 102 light and five dark cells.