Bollgång

Bollgång is a historical architectural term used in Swedish and Nordic texts to describe a covered or protected passage that runs along a building, fortress, or ship. The word is encountered in studies of military architecture, urban design, and historic building descriptions, and its exact meaning can vary between sources and time periods.

In medieval and early modern contexts, bollgångs were designed to allow guards, messengers, or workers to move between parts of a complex while staying sheltered from weather or enemy fire. They may appear as narrow corridors, arcades, or enclosed passages that connect rooms, courtyards, or buttressed sections of a fortification or large house. In fortifications, bollgångs often served as protected routes for patrols and for the controlled transfer of people and goods along the inner or outer perimeter.

The term also appears in maritime or harbor-related descriptions, where similar sheltered passages enabled crew movement and protection for access between different parts of a ship or quay facilities. Across different contexts, bollgångs share the common feature of combining movement with protection, whether from the elements or from external threats.

Today, bollgång is primarily of historical interest and is used mainly in scholarly writings, architectural histories, and museum labels. Because the term covers a range of contexts and periods, its precise definition can vary among sources. Contemporary usage is limited, but the concept helps explain how built environments were designed to manage security, weather, and traffic in the past.