Karlskrona was founded in 1680 to meet the need for a naval base in Southern Sweden. The city's shipbuilding, urban planning, and construction and defense technology have been recognized throughout Europe in the following centuries. Karlskrona was inscribed on the prestigious World Heritage List on December 3, 1998, thus becoming Sweden's ninth World Heritage Site.

When UNESCO's World Heritage Committee grants World Heritage status to a cultural-historical site, they assess it against six criteria. According to UNESCO, Karlskrona meets two of these criteria. Karlskrona is an example of how the exchange of human values can influence developments in architecture and technology, among other things, and it is a prominent example of a type of building/architectural/technological complex that illustrates important stages in human history.

“Karlskrona is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a European planned naval town, and although its design has been influenced by similar undertakings it has in turn acted as a model for comparable installations. Naval bases played an important part during the centuries when the strength of a nation’s navy was a decisive factor in European power politics, and of those that remain from this period Karlskrona is the most complete and well preserved.”

- The World Heritage Sites Committee, 1998