A Miracle from Landskrona, Sweden

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Written by Richard L. Thornton

Ett mirakel från Landskrona, Sverige

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner

About 52 years ago, the Mayor and City Council of Landskrona presented me with several precious gifts in a reception staged two weeks before my contract with the city ended, They included a full-size archival copy of the 1580 AD ink drawing above and an exact copy of the original Medieval seal of the city from 1387 AD.

The Landskrona Stadsarkitektkontoret was located in this handsome, brown brick building. At that time, this harbor in the foreground was used exclusively by fishing boats and the Swedish Royal Navy. My office was on the ground floor, facing the harbor. That was very convenient for ordering fresh fish for supper or communicating with my secret contacts in the Swedish and Danish Navies.

Over the years the Landskrona Seal became something of a magic charm. I was wearing it when I was invited by the Carters to socialize with them right after I got back from Europe. That afternoon, a 30-year old Joe Biden stopped by the governor’s mansion to ask Jimmy to run for president. This was only six weeks after his wife and child had been killed in a wreck.

I wore the seal in Virginia, while meeting architecture clients for the first time or marketing our farmstead cheese. I was wearing it on the night that I met Vivi the French Courtesan and when I met Susan the Swedish FBI agent for the first time.

About 31 years ago, my (justifiably) soon-to-be-ex wife sold to antique dealers in Northern Virginia all of my most valuable personal belongings, including family heirlooms, my gold Georgia Tech ring, my fraternity pin, my watches, my great-grandfather’s pocket watch, a $22,000 sterling silver tea service from Taxco, Mexico that I had inherited at age 16 and the Landskrona Seal. Since then I have assumed that all these items were gone forever.

THEN . . . I stumbled upon a Swedish ad for this seal online a week ago. An estate slae company in Pennsylvania apparently recognized the engraved Swedish words on the back and so advertised on the Swedish equivalent of Ebay. The Landskrona Seal that I thought was lost forever arrived at my home this past Monday. Nothing but good things have been happening ever since then.

Life is like a box of chocolates

A week ago, I was using Swedish search words on Google in an effort to find a digital copy of the ink drawing at the top of the article. The original hangs on the wall of my living room. I planned to send it to a female architect pen pal in Europe. As you see, I found the digital image, but also I noticed three photos of the Landskrona Seal for sell as antiques.

I was stunned. The City of Landskrona had made several exact copies of the original 1387 seal around 1970. Apparently, they were given out as awards to special citizens or to foreign “dignitaries” such as myself. One of the medallions was less expensive, but included strange statement in Swedish that shipping from the USA would be determined by the purchaser’s location in Europe.

That seller turned out to be an estate liquidation company in Pennsylvania! I contacted them. They had been unable to sell this item in the USA. All the writing on the back was determined to be Swedish so they advertised it in Swedish on a Scandinavian website similar to EBAY.

I asked to see a photo of the back of the seal. It was my medallion! City officials had engraved some additional words on the back for my ceremony. Shazam!

A message to the People of the Lie

While I was moving in boxes to this house in 2018, a prominent Trumpite matron here in Habersham County stopped by to check me out. She asked me questions about my past and the memorabilia that I was taking out of the boxes. She had been told by local law enforcement that I was a gay prostitute with AIDS and a sexual predator, plus I was poor because all the buildings that I designed fell down. So, she didn’t believe a word I said.

As she was leaving, she smiled and said, “Don’t tell people that you worked in Sweden, had a Swedish girlfriend for 15 years, traveled all over Mexico, formerly owned a famous goat cheese creamery and that Chef Julia Child personally gave you an award for your goat cheese. People here will think you are crazy!”

To answer that charge, here is the certificate that accompanied the Landskrona City Seal.

14 Comments

  1. Mr. Thornton, I gather you are from Georgia and went to GA Tech, a University well known to me because of family connections to that institution in Atlanta.
    Your story is interesting and shows how interconnected we all are.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. So I’m sure you know something about GA geography and geology. I understand the Appalachian chain ends around Macon, with rivers running east or west from there. I was struck by the change in the land as I drove from Savannah to Macon for medical school, and by the change in religious and social atyitudes.
        Someone I worked with, later in Columbus, claimed other Georgians referred to the “State of Chatham”. I would have to agree. I think the ports along the coast set the coastal cities apart from more inland towns and cities.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Actually, the Blue Ridge Mountains end on the eastern side of Pickens County, GA, but reappear in East Central Alabama. There is a low ridge, only visible on topographic maps that runs through Downtown Atlanta. West of there flows into the Gulf of Mexico. East of there flows into the Atlantic.

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      3. Good info. That helps explain how the rivers flow, and the fact that the soil in Macon is hard and rust-colored, packed like clay, which I believe is so fine that it reaembles the mud in salt marshes here. But the mud here dries to hard blocks.

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  2. That explains your interest in Creek Indians, I guess. I spent years in Macon and in Atlanta in medical school and Emory residency programs. I live in Savannah and have traveled all over the state for work assignments. I visited Plains, GA on a trip to Marananth (sp?) Baptist Church, where Jimmy Carter was/is a member.

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    1. Actually, I am on the tribal council of a Creeks tribe and was the Architect for Oklahoma’s Trail of Tears Memorial in Tulsa. I am a Creek Indian. Some of my direct ancestors signed treaties with Great Britain during the Colonial Era.

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      1. I have a “creek”, as we called them, running by my house, twice every day. It’s mud the rest of the time, and salt water, when the tide comes in. I used to know that river well, since I spent my childhood here, and made great use of the river, for water sports like swimming, crabbing, shrimping, and boating. It has changed a lot in my lifetime, as have all the challenges brought by “progress” to this land.

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    1. Yes, as I told Edna below, I have googled words related to Landskrona well over a hundred times because the petroglyphs there are like the ones in the Georgia Mountains. The photos of the seals never appeared before.

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  5. Yes, they do! The thing is that I so happened to type in the right words at the right time. Over the years, I have googled words related to Landskrona well over a hundred times. A section of my last book about the experiences in Sweden . . . but they were not just the right combination.

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  6. Hey Richard , I just “discovered” your writings via the origins of “Amichel” settlements.There are strange things happening all the time…my name is A. Michele. : -) I am a very observant person with a crazy MFA from SFAI now living in Arkansas. I’m pretty sure I’ve “discovered” a tree covered pyramid hiding in plain sight. However…what do I do with that knowledge???

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