Posts Tagged History
The White Lady, Halden
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on October 30, 2010
All self-respecting fortresses have their resident ghost, and Fredriksten is no exception. The White Lady in Halden Fortress has been spotted by several eyewitnesses over the years, many of them soldiers keeping watch at night, back in those days when Fredriksten was still an active garrison. A pale figure dressed in white, whose feet don’t seem to touch the ground, the White Lady is usually seen walking away from the Kommandantbolig (the chief officer’s residence), setting guard dogs barking and disappearing into the night after one last wave of the hand. She has been linked to one of the officers at the fortress, a young lieutenant said to have been murdered in a jealousy drama in the early 19th century, and whose corpse was found under the Clock Tower in 1926. It has also been claimed that she was the officer’s mistress, and committed suicide after he was killed by Swedish forces. But no-one really knows who the White Lady was, and why she is still haunting the grounds of the fortress perched high over Halden.
Did you know? About Gamlebyen
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on October 24, 2010
- Gamlebyen is one of Norway’s most popular man-made attractions, visited by hundreds of thousands every year. But the Old Town also counts 300 permanent residents.
- The statue in the middle of Gamlebyen’s main square is that of Frederick II. The Danish king founded the town, which is named after him, in 1567, although he never actually visited Fredrikstad!
- Gamlebyen was ravaged by fire several times throughout the course of its history. The town burnt to the ground no fewer than five times in the first two centuries of its existence, the last time in 1764.
- 200 canons once guarded the Old Town, which was until as late as 2002 still used as a garrison town. Today around 80 canons (most of them replicas of the original weapons) can still be seen on the ramparts, although their use is no longer military, only decorative.
- Local businesses in Gamlebyen include shops, restaurants, cafes, galleries, a post office and a museum, but also three schools, various offices, a doctor and a dentist surgery, and even a funeral parlour.
- Gamlebyen’s latest attraction is its model railway. The work on a local enthusiast, who took five years to build it, it is one of Scandinavia’s largest, with almost 3kms of tracks. And it’s already a huge success – visited by 5,000 curious rail enthusiasts in the first month of opening alone.
- In cold winters the water in the moat around Gamlebyen freezes over, turning the star-shaped moat into a huge ice rink, much to the delight of local children.
Straddling the Glomma in Askim
Posted by admin in History and architecture, Photos and videos on October 19, 2010
Solbergfoss Power Station
Posted by admin in History and architecture on October 19, 2010
Enjoying a great location by a scenic stretch of the River Glomma north of Askim in Indre Østfold, at the end of an equally pretty road, this is a real find, and a must see in this area. Solbergfoss hydroelectric power station consists of two stations: the impressive Solbergfoss I, which was completed in 1924 (the oldest, and actually the only one visible from outside the complex); and the newer Solbergfoss II, built inside the mountainside, which opened in 1985.
The first power station was designed by Bredo Greve, one of the leading Norwegian architects of the time. The construction of Solbergfoss I was a complicated job, made worse by the lack of construction material and shortage of staff, several strikes among building workers, and steep price increases. It was a huge building site – as many as 700 men worked here simultaneously (two of whom died when a hanging bridge collapsed during construction).
It is Solbergfoss II, the newer plant, however, which is in use year round, as it is the most efficient of the two, while Solbergfoss I is only used at times of floods as a reserve station. The Kaplan turbine in Solbergfoss II is Norway’s largest, with a diametre of 8.3m. It weighs a whopping 170 tons. When fully opened, it lets through 600 cubic metres of water every second.
There is a little park around the complex, which makes a good picnic spot, and on the other side of the river, which you can cross via a bridge over the waterfall, you will find an outdoors exhibition with black and white photos depicting the construction of Solbergfoss I and II.
Borregård and the big landslide of 1702
Posted by admin in History and architecture on October 9, 2010
Another manor with ties to the Glomma River, and not least the Sarpsfossen, Sarpsborg waterfall. Borregård, just like Hafslund, enjoyed a great location on the bank of Norway’s longest river. As it turned out, the manor’s great location was also to play a key role in its demise. In 1702, Borregård belonged to the Dane Jens Wernersen. One night in February 1702, as his pregnant wife went into labour, he summoned the midwife. When the woman came to the house, she noticed big cracks in the ground just outside the main entrance. Understanding that a landslide was imminent, she raised the alarm. Everybody came out of the main building just before it disappeared into the waterfall, but not all the servants made it: 15 of them were killed as they were trying to rescue the cattle in the barn. Almost 200 animals perished with them. The Maria Church, which had been built by St Olav himself back in the 11th century, had gone too. The landslide was the biggest natural catastrophe in Østfold’s history. After that tragic night, the manor was rebuilt in nearby Kulås, where it stands to this day.
Grete Prytz Kittelsen (1917-2010)
Posted by admin in Art, culture and literature on October 4, 2010
The grande dame of Norwegian design, Grete Prytz Kittelsen, died last month in Oslo, aged 93. But her legacy endures.
Educated at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (where her dad, Jakob Tostrup Prytz, worked as rector) and at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Kittelsen went on to become one of the most talented designers of her generation. Maybe it was in her genes. She was the fifth generation of goldsmith in the J. Tostrup family firm. Famed for her silver and enamel work, particularly her kitchenware, she was one of the best-known Norwegians in the Scandinavian Design movement.
Kittelsen wanted to bring good design to the masses by making jewellery and everyday objects people could afford, and she pioneered the use of large-scale manufacturing methods later used by industrial designers. She was also known to improvise and make her own tools, using for example a dentist bore to draw on silver, and to create works so big she had to use ovens designed to fire bathtubs.
Kittelsen studied in the US, and her work kept taking her back to the States. Unsurprisingly maybe, her designs were often inspired by American art, characterized by clear, plain colours and simple shapes. Her Lotus enamel bowls, produced in Cathrineholm in Halden, Østfold, in the 1960s, sold in their millions. Today they are collectors’ items. From the factory in Halden hundreds of thousands of her pieces were exported to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England, the US and Canada, but also to countries as far away as New Zealand, Venezuela and South Africa. Such was her reputation.
Østfold in Pictures: Gamlebyen’s main square
Posted by admin in History and architecture, Photos and videos on September 29, 2010
