The stone used for the famous monolith in Vigeland’s Park in Oslo was cut out of a huge block of granite in the Iddefjord, just outside Halden. It was at the time the largest single piece of rock ever to have been extracted from the Norwegian bedrock, weighing an impressive 278 tons, and measuring 17m in length.

Precambrian grey granite from the Iddefjord is a high quality building material that is easy to cleave and very durable. It is used throughout the world for paving (in places as far as Buenos Aires and Havanna), bridges, historical monuments and stately buildings (including the Ritz Hotel in London!).

The granite has been quarried on a large scale ever since the mid-19th century. In 1914, around 2,000 stone masons were employed in quarries on the Swedish and Norwegian sides of the Iddefjord.