Vardø
A fishing town in far north-east Norway with the Steilneset Memorial, built for the ninety-one people killed in witch trials from 1621 to 1692.
Practised and told of here
Best time: June to August for light and access. The midnight sun lasts into late July.
Vardø sits on a small island in the Barents Sea. Finnmark's trials took place in the seventeenth century, and the victims were often Sami and Norwegian fishing people, many of them women. A major storm in 1617 that drowned forty fishermen helped set the fear in motion.
The trials
Ninety-one people were convicted and killed, out of a small local population. Among them were at least eighteen Sami, who were accused in part because of their drums and healing customs. Scholars connect the persecution to a strong royal and church campaign on the northern edge of the kingdom.
The memorial
The Steilneset Memorial, opened in 2011, was designed by the architect Peter Zumthor and the artist Louise Bourgeois. A long wooden hall holds ninety-one small windows, each with a light and a plaque on a victim's life and trial. Louise Bourgeois's installation, The Damned, the Possessed and the Beloved, sits in a separate glass hall.
Visiting
Vardø is reached by road through an undersea tunnel, or by the Hurtigruten coastal ship. It is cold for much of the year.
A respectful visit to Vardø
Living communities are not a show. Ask before photographing a person or a ceremony, and follow local rules.
- Steilneset Memorial Walk the long hall and read the plaques.
- Vardøhus Fortress See the fortress where the trials were run.
- Harbour Look at the working harbour and the fish racks.
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Vardø" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets and ceremonies change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Steilneset Memorial: Stylegar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source