Baltic Crusades: Did you mean...?

The Bismarck was a German battleship, the largest and most powerful capital ship in the Kriegsmarine. For all its weaponry and armour, the ship was involved in only one major operation which, after the sinking of the British battlecruiser...

Ragnar Lothbrok (Old Norse Ragnarr Loðbrók, also anglicised as Ragnar Lodbrok), whose epithet means 'Hairy-breeches' or 'Shaggy-breeches', was a legendary Viking king, with Old Norse sagas, poetry, and medieval Latin sources telling of his...

Map showing some of the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) trade routes that existed in North-West Europe during this time. Among the places depicted are such major trading centres are Hededy, Ribe, Birka and Kaupang from Viking Scandinavia; York...

Peter the Great Meditating the Idea of Building St Petersburg at the Shore of the Baltic Sea, by Alexandre Benois, 1916.

Built in the 16th–18th centuries, the Salzspeicher (salt storehouses) of Lübeck, Germany, stored salt to be shipped to the Baltic region.

Nautical chart of the North-East Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, accompanied by a circular world map. Alleged author: Cristopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506 CE) Gallica Digital Library

Reconstructed Viking boats near the site of Birka on the island of Björkö in Sweden. Birka was an important trading center and strongly fortified town in the Viking Age which flourished from the 8th through the 10th centuries CE. Along with...

Bryggen - "The German Dock", is the Hanseatic quarter in Bergen, Norway. The Hanseatic merchants traded stockfish from Northern norway in Bergen between the 14th and 18th centuries CE and exported to the Hanseatic towns in the Baltic and...

Bryggen - "The German Dock", is the Hanseatic quarter in Bergen, Norway. The Hanseatic merchants traded stockfish from northern Norway in Bergen between the 14th and 18th centuries and exported to the Hanseatic towns in the Baltic and on...

Medieval castles were built from the 11th century CE for rulers to demonstrate their wealth and power to the local populace, to provide a place of defence and safe retreat in the case of attack, defend strategically important sites like river...