To the End of the World and the Gates of Hell

We took a long (and occasionally terrifying) roadtrip on Sunday, from Vadsø to Hamningberg down again to Vardø. 

I could see Russia and the Arctic Ocean from the road. Huge incredibly sharp rocks were on either side of the road and it was very narrow and perilous. That’s the reason it took us so long to get to Hamningberg; it isn’t actually that far away. It also isn’t a real village. People only have cabins there during the summer, but the road closes during wintertime. It’s known as the end of the world and I can understand why. It’s beautiful in a desolate way. This trip almost made me feel like Vadsø is a big city.

The road here was even lonelier than the highway across the top of Nevada.

 

We had to take a tunnel under the sea for three kilometers to get to Vardø.

It’s a tiny place, about three times smaller than Vadsø, but it has a very bloody history. From 1600 to 1692, 91 people (mostly women) were executed for witchcraft in Finnmark. The most common form of execution was to be burnt at the stake. The worst tortures and trials happened in Vardø and most of the “witches” came from there or Vadsø. We went inside the memorial, but I didn’t take any pictures in there. It was far too horrifying.

The first part of the memorial is like a long skinny ship. There’s one very dark hallway inside of it. Along the walls there are tiny lights and windows for every person who was killed. There are also texts about them by their lights with historical information from the court cases. People were often burned simply because their neighbors had a grudge. Many women were blamed for shipwrecks off Finnmark’s coast. Europeans at the time thought Vardø was the gate to Hell because of the supposed Sami magic and its proximity to the Arctic Ocean. Unlike in Salem, there was no way for the witches to save themselves. Even if they confessed, they were tortured until they confessed more. Then, they were burned.

The second part of the memorial was absolutely terrifying. It’s a huge shiny black room. Inside, there’s a metal chair inside a concrete circle. The bottom of the chair is constantly in flames. Suspended from the ceiling is a ring of huge mirrors all focused around the chair. Their angle causes the viewer to see themselves in the flames.

-A far away view of the memorial

Nearby there’s also the Vardø Festning (fort). During WW2, it kept the Norwegian flag up longer than anywhere else in the country. It’s the most northern fort in the world. Vardø is also Western Europe’s only city in the Arctic climate zone. The city doesn’t actually have summertime. The current fortress is the third one built on the island. The first was in 1299 for Håkon V Magnusson. The second was during the witch burning period, and the third was a prison.