The gallery houses the work of nature photographer Jan Erik Wessel, and his pictures from Røst, Lofoten and Northern Norway.

The gallery, a recently restored log cabin which is more than 100 years old, is well worth a visit. Nature photographer Jan Erik Wessel’s interest in Northern Norway, Lofoten and Røst led him to start Galleri Wessel and there is a permanent exhibition in the gallery of his work. Some of his pictures, mainly from Røst, are for sale.

Jan Erik Wessel
tlf + 47 911 91 953

mail erikwess@online.no

www.erikwessel.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Welcome to Joker Røst, the grocery store with an idyllic location down by the sea and a view of Røst’s famous bird cliff. The 1560 m2 store has a very pleasant coffee alcove, wonderful gift section and a DIY department. We also sell flowers, blocks for local radio bingo and electricity cards for used on the municipality’s public quays.

In-shop post office and groceries delivery

We deliver groceries twice a week, and can also help customers with posting letters and charging mobile phones. Just let us know if there is anything you can’t find in the shop and we will see if we can order it so that it is here next time you come. The store also has an in-shop post office.

Opening hours:
Joker Røst Monday to Friday 09.00-18.00, Saturday 10.00-15.00
Byggtorget: Monday to Friday 09.00-18.00, Saturday closed

Welcome to a very pleasant shopping trip to Joker Røst!

Gleaveien 8
Tel: + 47 76 09 61 03
E-mail: joker.rost@joker.no

https://joker.no/Finn-butikk/Joker-Rost

Through the Querinifest and by celebrating the incredible coastal history of Querini’s tale, the fantastic stockfish, and the magnificent and unique place of Røst in Lofoten, we want to preserve our joint cultural history.

The Querinifest festival is held on Røst in Lofoten in the first week of August each year. All those interested in high quality art and culture can come to Røst, and experience these in the spectacular surroundings at the far end of Lofoten. Welcome to wonderful food, culture, nature, ocean, fish and people.

https://www.querini.no/querinifest/

Illustrations:
One of the events held under the Querinifest is the concert in Røst church.
Tørrfisksentralen 2017 – a festival of food, music and stockfish knowledge.
Line Evjen, a Røst stockfish grader, leading the stockfish grader workshop in 2017.
Photos: Tore Berntsen

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Our quays are used by fishing vessels in the winter, during the Lofotfisk fishing season. However we have plenty of space outside of the season for other boats.

Prices

The price for a space on our fixed and floating quays is NOK 100 per day + NOK 20 per day for electricity.

The charges for using the washing facility on the second floor of the white building are: shower NOK 20, washing machine NOK 30 per wash. 

Paying

There are forms and envelopes in the postbox on the wall of the shed closest to the quays. Enter the name of your boat on the form and the number of days you want to stay. Put the money with the form in the envelope and deliver to Glea’s office, or post in the postbox outside the office if it is closed. You can also pay by card in the office.

The office is open 8.00 am – 3.30 pm


AS Glea
Tel: + 47 760 50 900
E-mail: post@glea.no 

www.glea.no

www.facebook.com/glealofoten/

Røst Bryggehotell has 100 cycles for hire. We also have binoculars and small shelter-tents for hire for those who want to get a closer look at our beautiful sceneries and birdlife. 

Røst Bryggehotell is a modern hotel on the quay with wonderful views of the sea and the towering nesting cliffs. We have rooms in the hotel and three fishermen's cabin suites with two bedrooms in each and space for four people. We also have a conference room that holds up to 25 people.

If you wish to pre-book bikes before arriving, contact us at:

www.rostbryggehotell.no

post@rostbryggehotell.no

Tlf. + 47 76 05 08 00 (07.00–23.00) / +47 995 11 774 / +47 926 80 145

Translation to English: www.lofoten.info

Røst Bryggehotell is a modern hotel on the quay with wonderful views of the sea and the towering nesting cliffs. We have rooms in the hotel and three fishermen's cabin suites with two bedrooms in each and space for four people. We also have a conference room that holds up to 25 people.

A stay at Røst Bryggehotell bases you right on the quay, in the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine. Røst Bryggehotell is the hotel where the near and dear meets the beautiful and exclusive. 

Enjoy a cup of coffee or a cold beer on the quay edge or sit in the shelter of a wall, taking in the sun and enjoy the peace you can only find on Røst. Eat high quality food in our restaurant, and enjoy the most wonderful dishes from both the land and sea.

We at Røst Bryggehotell promise you a warm welcome and wonderful service during your stay. You can, through the hotel, hire bicycles, take a guided bus tour of the island, take a guided boat trip around the island and a guided tour of the stockfish loft where all the stockfish is stored. The island we live on is maybe small, but we have a lot to offer our guests!


8064 Røst
You can travel to Røst by ferry (www.torghatten-nord.no) or fly (www.wideroe.no).

www.rostbryggehotell.no

post@rostbryggehotell.no

Tlf. + 47 76 05 08 00 (07.00–23.00) / +47 995 11 774 / +47 926 80 145

Translation to English: www.lofoten.info

The Fishermen's Home (Fiskarheimen Havly) offers overnight accommodation in rooms and in an apartment in the building. The cafe is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

The Home is a welfare station for journeying fisherman and provides washing machines, showers, post holding and other services. 

100 years on Røst

The Fishermen's Home on Røst (Havly Røst) was built in the First World War and opened in 1919. It was only, at first, open in the winter season and was staffed by a manager, housekeeper, other assistants and preachers. 

The home was requisitioned in the Second World War by the Germans, 50 men living here, The Norway Seaman´s Mission taking over the house again when the war ended. It, however, needed major renovation. The Fishermen's Home has subsequently been redecorated and extended a number of times. After 1945 the home started to remain open all year round and electricity was installed in 1952. 

Volunteers

Harjeet K. Jassal has run The Fishermen's Home since 1994. Volunteers come every year and help staff the home in the hectic winter and summer season. 

Fiskarheimen Havly, Røst
Open every day
Tyvsøyveien 3, 8064 Røst
Tel: +47 488 54 620 / +47 76 09 69 00
E-post: post@havly.no / havly.roest@nm-hotels.no

https://dism.no/fiskarheimer/havly_rost/

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_Indre_Sjømannsmisjon

Source: Ingrid Helland: 100 år på Røst, https://dism.no/fiskarheimer/havly_rost

Photo: https://dism.no/fiskarheimer/havly_rost

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

The Puffin Festival is a culture and nature festival where music, art, culture, historical events focuses joyfully on the tribute of the magnificent Puffins. The festival is taking place on Røst in the weekend closest to St. Hans - midsummer night's eve.

The Puffin Festival is a culture and nature festival where participants are given an update on the state of seabird stocks. It is also a family event for young and old with a concoction of performers and artists from near and far who create a positive experience and festivities. Welcome to happy festival days in Røst.

Telefon: 00 47 911 87 233
E-post: elisabeth.k.mikalsen@gmail.com
Nettside: http://www.lundefestivalen.no

https://www.facebook.com/Lundefestivalen

Photo:
Jörg Hempel / Flickr
UpNorth Festival 2017 / Kjell Ove Storvik

Translation to English: www.lofoten.info

The menu is changed each season. The menu and opening hours can be found on the restaurant's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/querinipubogrestaurantrost/

Anne Cecilie Pedersen has for 20 years, using traditional recipes and through developing her own Italian cuisine inspired dishes, served wonderful food based on Røst's local produce. Her creativity is rooted in the close relationship between Røst and Italy that has always existed, one founded on a common love and knowledge of Røst's stockfish and the produce that is caught and produced on the island.

Anne Cecilie loves to serve whale, tasty dishes of Røst lamb and local beef, and exciting dishes based on stockfish and other local produce.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

Querini Pub og Restaurant
Klakkveien 1
8064 Røst
Tel:  +47 97176826

Anne Cecilie Pedersen
querinipr@gmail.com

Røst video rental is a kiosk with a broad range of products including:

sale of Lofoten wool from Røst sheep
oilskins, boiler suits, work gloves, work boots and fishing equipment
a wide range of books
frozen pizza
ordinary kiosk products

Opening hours
9.00 am – 2.00 pm and 6.00 pm – 11.00 pm

Røst Videoutleie Irene Torsteinsen
Ystnesveien 4

E-mail: rost_videoutleie@hotmail.com

Tel: + 47 412 070 74
www.facebook.com/RostVideoutleie

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

We see Luciano Fabro’s Il nido/Nest long before we reach it, as it lights up in white from within the Vedøya. The only way to reach it is by boat from Røstlandet. Our boatman tells us about the birdlife while we chug across the water. Several species have been severely decimated in recent years. He blames trawler fishing; it rids the sea of certain types of fish, thereby taking away food sources from certain species of bird. Apparently there are still some birds left in the area. From the hotel terrace in Røstlandet, where we enjoyed a beer while waiting for our transport, we could see a house on the other side of the small bay that appeared to have been almost completely taken over by birds. At least, the façade and roof were in their possession, covered as it was in gooey white droppings. It looked as if someone had dropped several hundred litres of white paint on the roof from a helicopter. The birds also reigned on Vedøya. They sat on small projections on the cliffs, which soared carelessly towards the sky.

The ferryboat had to stop short of the shore due to the long shallows. We continued in a dinghy, in between drifting lumps of seaweed and large rocks that broke the water’s surface. Vedøya is also home to a flock of sheep, which came bleating curiously to meet us. Nest is placed in an obvious location, centrally on the island, where the undulating ground levels out after a small ascent from the water’s edge. Although the shape is by no means flamboyant, Fabro’s glimmering white figure stands out in the green, disorderly terrain. Its symmetrical, classicist character bears witness to a world away from the chaotic bird cries, the stinking sheep and the porous massif surrounding them. The location emphasises the island's stage-like shape – an elevated plateau, open towards the sea, with mountains as a backdrop. But as you continue inland, the terrain soon begins to fall steeply towards a cave-like indentation in the mountain.

Nest comprises two thick, half-buried cogwheels that slope up from the ground. In the crack between them are three bird’s eggs. Both the eggs and the cogs are made from Italian marble. It is not actually cogs we see but slices of fluted Greek columns – self-evident with regard to choice of material. It is no coincidence that an Italian artist was chosen: In 1432 the fishing community on the island of Røst was visited by a group of shipwrecked Italian seamen under the command of the merchant Pietro Querini. Trade links were established. While birds fly south (together with the stockfish produced on Røst), the marble was shipped north. The columns and the eggs represent the two spheres that are encountered here: Mediterranean culture and local birdlife.

Greek columns may be interpreted as metonyms for the Greek city state, polis. As we known, it was here that democracy was born. The democratisation that Athens went through in 400 BC stemmed from a need to adjust the power balance; to deprive the higher social classes of their natural right to exploit the lower. In light of this: what about a democracy extended to also include fauna and geological processes – perspectives that are usually foreign to a politician’s viewpoint? It is perhaps such an inclusive and down-to-earth polis that Fabro’s motif topicalises, in which the bleating, bird cries and slow erosion of the marble's surface are heard. Moreover, the cog form that appears as the columns are transformed into protected forms, thus depicting a sense of care for nature – and literally embodies it in the vote-casting assembly – indicates that such an intention to protect is always also instrumentally motivated. One hundred percent moral management of nature is unthinkable. That would require us to be liberated from it. The extent to which the eggs are actually protected by the ambivalent column cogs, or are about to be squeezed, is an open question.

Nest was the target on our route that required the greatest effort to view. It took us a whole day: we had to take the morning flight from Bodø to Røstlandet, where we waited three hours for the boatman. Back in Røstlandet after our excursion to Vedøya, we waited several hours for our return flight back to the mainland. It was a lot of resources to expend on seeing just one piece of art. Not that this is unusual; people frequently seek out remote destinations in order to see art. This ability to mobilise people to move is one of the most distinctive aspects of contemporary art; it makes its audience travel around on an eternal, global journey. To be professionally involved in contemporary art at a certain level entails being constantly on the move, from event to event, exhibitions, biennales, openings, panels, seminars, workshops. 

Nest embodies the ambivalent relationship between people and nature while also emphasising its insistent placement outside the function of mainstream art, like mobilising pieces (cogs) in the global migration of people, goods, capital. Contemporary art is a “global object”. No matter where it is located, it never belongs. Even a demonstratively localised work such as the one presented here by Fabro, half buried so as to avow that it is here that it belongs, has circulation as a motif, destiny and effect. A mobility and ability to change corresponding to those demonstrated by art and its practitioners, collectors and communicators, are, however, not found in all species.


Stian Gabrielsen, in Skulpturlandskap Nordland, Uten tittel forlag 2017. Reproduced with the publisher's permission.

Translation to English: Alfatekst oversettelser

Facts:

• Completed 1994
• Carrara marble

Two column fragments diameter 85 cm, height 25 cm, and eggs' diameter 25 cm
From: http://www.skulpturlandskap.no/artwork/the-nest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artscape_Nordland

Photo Kjell Ove Storvik

Knowledgeable fishermen who know the local area well, can take small and large groups on fishing or sightseeing trips in the archipelago.

Capacity: up to eleven people

Fishing equipment can be hired.

We also have an area where you can prepare, pack and freeze fish when you come ashore.

Contact Røst Havfiskecamping for prices and availability.
+47 992 58 348
info@rosthavfiske.com
www.facebook.com/HavfiskeCamping

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

We have five 21 foot boats, two aluminium and three plastic, a 25 foot Beason and a 20 foot smack for hire.

All boats are equipped with a chartplotter and an echo sounder.

Fishing equipment and flotation suits can be hired and crab pots can be borrowed.

We also have an area where you can prepare, pack and freeze fish when you come ashore.


Contact Røst Havfiskecamping for prices and availability.
+47 992 58 348
info@rosthavfiske.com

www.facebook.com/HavfiskeCamping

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Røst Havfiskecamping on Færøya is a family-run company with many years of very diverse fishing tourism experience.

A variety of overnight accommodation 

We would like to welcome you to our facility, where we can offer a variety of overnight accommodation no matter whether you are travelling with a group or adventuring here on your own. Stay here for just a short while, or take advantage of our longer term rentals. We have a common sleeping room with bunk beds and common kitchen and we have cabins and masses of camping spaces for motor homes, caravans and tents.

Boat hire

If you are coming here to fish, then you can hire one of our small boats of different sizes for you and your friends to try your luck at deep sea fishing. You can also buy spinners, sinkers and other items you might need when going fishing, in our little equipment shop.

Good tips as to where to fish

Get help from an experienced fisherman to interpret charts and give you good tips as to where to fish. If you are not confident about navigating in sheltered waters, we also have fishing boats with skipper you can hire. 

Tel: +47 992 58 348
info@rosthavfiske.com

www.facebook.com/HavfiskeCamping

The Fishermen's Home (Fiskarheimen Havly) offers overnight accommodation in rooms and in an apartment in the building. The cafe is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

The Home is a welfare station for journeying fisherman and provides washing machines, showers, post holding and other services. 

100 years on Røst

The Fishermen's Home on Røst (Havly Røst) was built in the First World War and opened in 1919. It was only, at first, open in the winter season and was staffed by a manager, housekeeper, other assistants and preachers. 

The home was requisitioned in the Second World War by the Germans, 50 men living here, The Norway Seaman´s Mission taking over the house again when the war ended. It, however, needed major renovation. The Fishermen's Home has subsequently been redecorated and extended a number of times. After 1945 the home started to remain open all year round and electricity was installed in 1952. 

Volunteers

Harjeet K. Jassal has run The Fishermen's Home since 1994. Volunteers come every year and help staff the home in the hectic winter and summer season. 

Fiskarheimen Havly, Røst
Open every day
Tyvsøyveien 3, 8064 Røst
Tel: +47 488 54 620 / +47 76 09 69 00
E-post: post@havly.no / havly.roest@nm-hotels.no

https://dism.no/fiskarheimer/havly_rost/

Source: Ingrid Helland: 100 år på Røst, https://dism.no/fiskarheimer/havly_rost

Photo: https://dism.no/fiskarheimer/havly_rost

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

The visitors' harbour is the small, sheltered harbour on the island of Tyvsoya.
Petrol refuelling is available.

For information on prices and berths contact:
Steinar Greger
Tel: + 47 926 85 601
sjgreger@johngreger.no

www.johngreger.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Café with lunch and hamburger menu.
Open every day 10.00 am to 10.00 pm.

Flyplassveien 2
jassal@online.no
Tel: +47 76 09 60 00/ +47 971 32 320 / +47 455 14 552
www.jassal.no

www.facebook.com/KulwantsCafe

Skomvær Lighthouse has nine floors, is 31.7 metres high, is made of cast iron and is built on a stone foundation. Lighthouses in the outer fairway in North Norway were, before the end of the 1800's, far apart. Sea traffic was, however, heavy here due to timber trading from Arkhangelsk. There was also sea traffic in the fairway to and from Tromsø, Hammerfest, Vardø and Vadsø. Skomvær lighthouse, which was first looked into by the lighthouse commission as early as 1855 and was planned in more detail in 1878, was therefore finally completed in 1887. 

The lighthouse crew on Skomvær included a lighthouse keeper and two assistants and their families. Two concrete houses were built, one for the lighthouse keeper and a semi-detached house for the assistants. The lighthouse keeper also had an outhouse with animal stable, the two assistants sharing another.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration owns the lighthouse station, which is protected under The Cultural Heritage Act. Significant restoration was carried out in 2009–2014, the lighthouse station today having regained a great deal of its original appearance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skomvær_Lighthouse

Kittelsen on Skomvær

The artist Theodor Kittelsen has also helped make the lighthouse well-known. Kittelsen lived on Skomvær for quite a long period of time, coming here because a relative was a lighthouse assistant. 

“We are here on the very outermost of the outermost islands, far out to sea. Sk­omvær is around 20 km south of Røst, the outermost island in the Lofoton island chain. The only people who live here are lighthouse keepers and their families.

The sea is fickle and harsh here, and can for months prevent all contact with the outside world.

The island is not big and is covered by peat and thin, wiry grass. Around the edge of the island are gaping, wild, craggy fissures and cracks, where European otters and cormorant reside, the cormorant swarming in the evenings in large flocks.

Røst residents think, even so, that Skomvær is the most wonderful place on the islands. Beautiful and green, they say.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Kittelsen


Sources:
Lindesnes Lighthouse Museum / kystreise.no and www.nfk.no/fylkesleksikon (Sources of Kittelsen quotes not stated.)

Illustrations

1. Blue elf / Wikimedia Commons CC 3.0
2. Danckert Monrad-Krohn, Riksantikvaren Creative Commons 2.5
3. From the time Skomvær was inhabited and the lighthouse was manned. Note the garden outside one of the houses. Dalsfjord fyrmuseum, Nfk/fylkesleksikon
4. Skomvær fyr 1891 av Theodor Kittelsen / Fourandsixty CC-PD Mark
5. Theodor Kittelsen / Fourandsixty CC-PD Mark
6. Anders Beer Wilse / Frankemann CC-BY-2.5

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

We have overnight accommodation in fishermen's cabins, apartments and houses.

We have in total 50 beds in our houses and apartments. Everything is right by Skomværkroa which is a licensed pub and also a reception.

Our overnight accommodation is right beside the atmospheric and well-established active commercial fishing area and right by the old drying sites for the Norwegian Arctic cod, which has always meant so much to the people here.

A fish dinner is never far away. We sell fresh and frozen fish from our fish terminal right by Skomværkroa.

Rental of small boats.

Contact us for booking and more information

Greger Adventures holidays
Steinar Greger
Tel: + 47 926 85 601
sjgreger@johngreger.no

www.johngreger.no

https://www.facebook.com/rostutleiehusrorbu/

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

At the north end of the island is a lean-to (gapahuk) which all hikers can use. The shelter has a bench to rest on and shelter from the wind. The shelter is facing north, and it's a good place to watch the midnight sun in the summer and the aurora borealis in the winter. The shelter is also equipped with a campfire site. Easily accessible along a good path from the old cemetery.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Querini Opera is based on the unique story of eleven Venetian seamen who were stranded on Røst in 1432 after surviving a shipwreck on their passage to Flanders from Crete.

The idea of recreating the story as an opera came to life in 2007, after the island was visited by a group from the twin town of Sandrigo in Italy, who had travelled by sailing boat in Querini's footsteps from Italy to Røst.

www.querini.no

Røst Municipality and the opera singer and Røst resident Hildegunn Pettersen then began to make plans. Five years later, thanks to the support of Nordland County, The Arts Council of Norway, local and regional businesses and not least the enormous help the people of Røst at all stages, the world premier of the opera 'Querini' was held.

The opera has since then been performed in its entirety in 2014 and in 2018. The next performance is planned in Venice in 2020.

Music: Henning Sommerro
Libretto: Ragnar Olsen
Direction: Ane Aass in cooperation with Anne Marit Sæther / Cirka Teater
Scenography: Gilles Berger, Cirka Teater
Video scenography/costumes: Tone Myskja

https://www.facebook.com/queriniopera

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

If you’d like to see the Querini Opera, then you can watch the film version of the whole performance at Røst’s ‘cinema’. It lasts 1 hour and 15 minutes and was professionally filmed in the summer of 2018 by Nordic Stories Nord. The opera is in Norwegian and is not translated.

Price: NOK 150 per person. Children under 16 years of age, free of charge.

Contact us by email and book a showing at kulturhuset.as@gmail.com or send a text message to the opera director on + 47 917 12 924.


Photo: 1–3 Annar Bjørgli, 4–9 Martin Losvik, 10 og film: Kjell Ove Storvik

Røst Bryggehotells own restaurant with local products on the menu.

The restaurant has room for about 60 people and has a nice cosy maritime environment. At Røst Bryggehotell we spend a lot of time making good home cooked Norwegian meals, where the main ingredients in our exquisite fish dishes comes fresh from the ocean. Together with other quality ingredients from our vendors, this secures a successful food experience.

8064 Røst

To get to Røst the alternatives are either Ferry (Torghatten Nord) or plane (Widerøe). This can be seen further on via the websites of www.torghatten-nord.no and www.wideroe.no

www.rostbryggehotell.no

post@rostbryggehotell.no

Tlf. + 47 76 05 08 00 (07.00–23.00) / +47 995 11 774 / +47 926 80 145

Translation to English: www.lofoten.info

Opening hours, weekdays 10.00 am – 1.30 pm.
Lunch is served from 11.30 am.
Open Tuesday – Friday in the autumn and winter.

Kaikanten Rorbuer

Kaikanten Rorbuer offers overnight accommodation in four to five bed apartments/cabins and hotel standard single and double rooms in the hotel itself. We also have spacious conference and function facilities, and a lunch café. You can also, in the summer, rent boats for sea fishing here.

Røst is surrounded by the sea, millions of seabirds and 365 grassy holms and reefs.

We, in the hotel's main building on the 2nd floor have:
20 single rooms
1 double room
 

We also have:
11 apartments / cabins

Boats

We have 8 Rocad 606 SP 20 ft plastic boats with Suzuki 70 hp outboard motor.

There is a dedicated filleting room for preparing self-caught fish and freezers for storage.

You can also hire a fishing guide, fishing equipment and flotation suits.

Kaikanten Rorbuer cooperates with Fishing Camp Røst www.rostfishing.com – book your fishing experience here.

Conference / function rooms

'Puinn Kaikanten' is a function/conference room on the 1st floor of the hotel. The room can hold 60 – 70 people.  

Guests can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the café on 2nd floor and by agreement. Holds up to 35 people.

Network

There is wireless Internet in the rooms and across the site.

Distances

Ferry quay– 800 m
Airport – 3 km
Joker food shop– 1 km
Training studio/Querinihallen – 1.5 km
Church and municipal centre – 1.5 km
Doctor's surgery – 1.5 km

Contact information

Kaikanten Rorbuer  – Louisiann AS
Tyvsøyveien 24
8064 Røst
www.kaikant.no

Tel: +47 763 01 003  / +47 924 62 595
E-mail: kaikant@online.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

We have 8 Rocad 606 SP 20 ft plastic boats with Suzuki 70 hp outboard motor. There is a dedicated filleting room for preparing self-caught fish and freezers for storage. You can also hire a fishing guide, fishing equipment and flotation suits.

Kaikanten Rorbuer cooperates with Fishing Camp Røst www.rostfishing.com – book your fishing experience here. 

Kaikanten Rorbuer Room Rental and Cabins

Kaikanten Rorbuer offers overnight accommodation in four to five bed apartments/cabins and hotel standard single and double rooms in the hotel itself. We also have spacious conference and function facilities, and a lunch café. You can also, in the summer, rent boats for sea fishing here.

Røst is surrounded by the sea, millions of seabirds and 365 grassy holms and reefs.

We, in the hotel's main building on the 2nd floor have:
20 single rooms
1 double room

We also have:
11 apartments / cabins

Lunch café 

Opening hours, weekdays 10.00 am – 1.30 pm.
Lunch is served from 11.30 am.
Open Tuesday – Friday in the autumn and winter.

Conference / function rooms

'Puinn Kaikanten' is a function/conference room on the 1st floor of the hotel. The room can hold 60 – 70 people.  

Guests can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the café on 2nd floor and by agreement. Holds up to 35 people.

Network

There is wireless Internet in the rooms and across the site.

Distances

Ferry quay– 800 m
Airport – 3 km
Joker food shop– 1 km
Training studio/Querinihallen – 1.5 km
Church and municipal centre – 1.5 km
Doctor's surgery – 1.5 km

Contact information

Kaikanten Rorbuer  – Louisiann AS
Tyvsøyveien 24
8064 Røst
www.kaikant.no

Tel: +47 763 01 003  / +47 924 62 595
E-mail: kaikant@online.no

www.facebook.com/kaikantenrorbuer

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Take a guided tour of Røst Sjømat's stockfish loft, where the 'gold' of Røst is stored. Here you will find all shapes and forms of stockfish. 

Learn from the lecture and guided tour all about stockfish qualities, why the stockfish sorter sorts fish into 20 qualities, about stockfish's and Røst's history and whether the Italian nobleman Querini really did begin Norwegian stockfish export. 

Ring or send an e-mail to book a guided tour.







Røst Bryggehotell AS
+ 47 76 05 08 00
post@bryggehotell.no

Geir Børre Johansen
Tel:  + 47 926 80 145
bojohans@online.no

www.rostbryggehotell.no
www.rostsjomat.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Røst Bryggehotell is a modern hotel on the quay with wonderful views of the sea and the towering nesting cliffs. We have rooms in the hotel and three fishermen's cabin suites with two bedrooms in each and space for four people. We also have a conference room that holds up to 25 people.

A stay at Røst Bryggehotell bases you right on the quay, in the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine. Røst Bryggehotell is the hotel where the near and dear meets the beautiful and exclusive. 

Enjoy a cup of coffee or a cold beer on the quay edge or sit in the shelter of a wall, taking in the sun and enjoy the peace you can only find on Røst. Eat high quality food in our restaurant, and enjoy the most wonderful dishes from both the land and sea.

We at Røst Bryggehotell promise you a warm welcome and wonderful service during your stay. You can, through the hotel, hire bicycles, take a guided bus tour of the island, take a guided boat trip around the island and a guided tour of the stockfish loft where all the stockfish is stored. The island we live on is maybe small, but we have a lot to offer our guests!


8064 Røst
You can travel to Røst by ferry (www.torghatten-nord.no) or fly (www.wideroe.no).

www.rostbryggehotell.no

post@rostbryggehotell.no

Tlf. + 47 76 05 08 00 (07.00–23.00) / +47 995 11 774 / +47 926 80 145

Translation to English: www.lofoten.info

Kaikanten Rorbuer offers overnight accommodation in four to five bed apartments/cabins and hotel standard single and double rooms in the hotel itself. We also have spacious conference and function facilities, and a lunch café. You can also, in the summer, rent boats for sea fishing here.

Røst is surrounded by the sea, millions of seabirds and 365 grassy holms and reefs.

We, in the hotel's main building on the 2nd floor have:
20 single rooms
1 double room

We also have:
11 apartments / cabins

Boats

We have 8 Rocad 606 SP 20 ft plastic boats with Suzuki 70 hp outboard motor.

There is a dedicated filleting room for preparing self-caught fish and freezers for storage.

You can also hire a fishing guide, fishing equipment and flotation suits.

Kaikanten Rorbuer cooperates with Fishing Camp Røst www.rostfishing.com – book your fishing experience here.

Conference / function rooms

'Puinn Kaikanten' is a function/conference room on the 1st floor of the hotel. The room can hold 60 – 70 people.  

Guests can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the café on 2nd floor and by agreement. Holds up to 35 people.

Lunch café  

Opening hours, weekdays 10.00 am – 1.30 pm.
Lunch is served from 11.30 am.
Open Tuesday – Friday in the autumn and winter.

Network

There is wireless Internet in the rooms and across the site.

Distances

Ferry quay– 800 m
Airport – 3 km
Joker food shop– 1 km
Training studio/Querinihallen – 1.5 km
Church and municipal centre – 1.5 km
Doctor's surgery – 1.5 km

Contact information

Kaikanten Rorbuer  – Louisiann AS
Tyvsøyveien 24
8064 Røst
www.kaikant.no

Tel: +47 763 01 003  / +47 924 62 595
E-mail: kaikant@online.no

www.facebook.com/kaikantenrorbuer/

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Would you like to practice and play/sing without disturbing others?

Røst Municipality has a rehearsal room just outside the town hall in a container-like building. There is equipment in the rehearsal room that everyone can use.

Equipment

There are microphones, amplifiers and a mixing console. There is also an electric piano and drum kit. If you want to use other instruments, then you must bring with you.

The Municipality's service office arranges hiring. Contact us for a list of the equipment available and information on availability. The 'musikkbingen' rehearsal room can be hired free of charge.

Røst Municipality
Tel: +47 76 05 05 00
postkasse@rost.kommune.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Mikalsen

The swimming pool on Røst is open every Thursday, and can also be rented outside opening hours both on weekdays or at weekends.

The swimming pool hall and sauna is part of the school and is open to the public on Thursdays 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm.

The pool is reserved between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm for small children and their parents, for youth and children who can swim between 6.30 pm and 8.15 pm and for adults between 8.15 pm and 9.30 pm.

For information on availability and rental, please contact the Municipality's service office
Røst Municipality
Tel: +47 76 05 05 00
postkasse@rost.kommune.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown
Photo: Elisabeth Mikalsen

The racks on Røst are built so that tractors can easily drive under them. The height of the racks is also designed so that the working position on the flatbed of those who hang the fish is comfortable. Tons of fish are lifted and hung by hand each day in the course of the spawning cod season.

With the belly facing the north

Two fish are hung together by the tail, the pairing called in Norwegian 'sperre'. The paired fish are hung over the rack bars. It is important that the fish are hung with the belly facing the north. Rain from the southwest is heavy on Røst, as it is across Lofoten. It is therefore important that the open belly does not hang facing south or southwest, so collecting rain. Collected rain reduces drying and can result in poorer quality of finished stockfish.

Til sortering og modning

Stockfish producers on Røst know exactly when the fish was hung on each of their many racks. When the fish is brought in from the racks depends, however, on when it was hung and on drying conditions. Sometimes in May, but usually in June, the hanging lines then being cut, the fish being put in boxes and tubs and brought in for first sorting and maturing.

Mild climate

Temperature and humidity are important factors in drying. Røst’s climate is, however, mild and the average temperature is above freezing all year round. The island group is at the far end of Lofoten and is therefore the northernmost place in the world which does not have a winter with sub-zero temperatures. This makes it perfect for hanging fish outside in the weather and wind after being landed in January.

Bursting of fish cells

There are periods of frost during the winter further east in the Lofoten chain and a risk here that the fish will be ruined before the milder temperatures of February and March arrive. Frost leads to the bursting of fish cells and to poor rehydration during soaking.

Many factors determine the quality classes

Temperatures can also be too high and the skin and outer parts of the fish can then dry too quickly, locking moisture and fluids behind the skin. The fish can then sour and in the worst case begin to rot. Flies can also, in mild weather, come out of hibernation and lay eggs in the fish. On Røst, however, the wind blows so often and hard that flies cannot land and lay on the fish, as the local saying goes.

There are many factors that determine the three quality classes, which are:

Prima – First class
Sekunda – Second class
Tipo B – African quality

Original text: Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (eds.): TØRRFISK – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini, Orkana 2018.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations: Kjell Ove Storvik 1–3, Elisabeth Johansen 4–10

We opened, in 2008, a pleasant pub/café just north of where the Tyvsøybrua bridge once was. You must visit us when on Røst!

We arrange events such as parties. The pub has a large screen and projector.

Skomværkroa is also the reception for Greger Adventures holidays rorbu rental and the campervan park, and you can also hire bicycles here.

Welcome to our pleasant, maritime atmosphere.

Contact us via our Facebook page Skomværkroa bar/pub

https://www.facebook.com/skomvaerkroa/

Steinar Greger
Tel: + 47 926 85 601

sjgreger@johngreger.no

www.johngreger.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

The stockfish creates strong bonds between Røst and Italy in so many ways. There are strong stockfish traditions in Sandrigo, in the Veneto region where the annual Festa del Bacalà stockfish festival is held, stockfish being called bacalà here. Residents of Røst visit Italy at this time to present themselves and their product in the twinned town.

The annual stockfish festival 

The stockfish fraternity 'La Venerabile Confraternità del Bacalà alla Vicentina' was established in Sandrigo in Italy in 1987, the year in which the annual stockfish festival in praise of stockfish started in the small village. The purpose of the fraternity is to protect, preserve and promote typical dishes from the Vicenza region and to encourage cultural exchange, local gastronomy and tourism.

One of Italy's five national dishes

Bacalà alla Vicentina has been crowned one of Italy's five national dishes and is the only dish to be depicted on a stamp. The other four dishes are Pizza Margarita (Napoli), Brasato al Barolo, Castagnaccio Toscano and Cannoli Siciliani.

https://baccalaallavicentina.it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccalà_alla_vicentina

Via Querinissima

Via Querinissima is a cooperative project between Nordland County Municipality and the region of Veneto in Italy. The goal is to develop a European cultural heritage route based on Querini’s journey to and from Røst. At the heart of this is the stockfish and Querini’s description of the stockfish dependent society far to the north and the large trading network Røst and Venice at that time were a part of.

Stockfish – a unique product

Food is culture. There are not many countries where this is more so than Italy. The history of food, where it comes from and its special qualities is therefore important. Stockfish from Lofoten is a unique product and was in 2014 awarded Protected Geographical Indication by the EU. The IGP marking, Indicazione Geografica Protetta, is to be used as a guarantee to importers and consumers that the stockfish really is from Lofoten and has the quality expected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_traditional_specialities_in_the_European_Union

Original text: Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (red.)
TØRRFISK – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini, Orkana 2018

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations:
From the traditional stockfish festival in Sandrigo. Photo: Tove Andreassen
Representatives of the stockfish fraternity 'La Venerabile Confraternità del Bacalà alla Vicentina' visiting Røst in the summer of 2017. They travelled north along Via Querinissima. To the far right of the picture is Røst's mayor, Tor Arne Andreassen and his wife Tove Andreassen. Photo: Einar Stamnes
Product development and brand building is important. John Greger AS and AS Glea have developed a number of new ready-to-cook products including stockfish filet and filet of the stockfish variants 'boknafisk' and 'hjellosing'. The picture shows Olaf Pedersen from the company AS Glea. Photo: Einar Stamnes
Stockfish packaging recently developed by John Greger AS. Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik
Stamp showing Bacalà alla Vicentina. www.poste.it
Bertilla Fabris prepares her version of Bacalà alla Vicentina. Photo: Trond Antonsen / Kyst og fjord

We have a very important eyewitness report of trade in stockfish to Bergen and life in the fishing and farming community on Røst in the 1400s. It is a story about the Venetian merchant and nobleman Pietro Querini and the crew of his trading ship that became stranded on Røst’s cliffs in January 1432. Querini wrote his version of the journey and the crew dictated their stories to a writer in Venice. The tales are found in the Vatican Library in Rome and are translated into a number of languages, including Norwegian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Querini

‘La Querina’

The Venetian ship ‘La Querina’ left Crete with a crew of 68 on 25 April 1431. ‘La Querina’ was a large cog of seven hundred barrels, loaded with wine, herbs and spices, cotton and other valuable goods. The planned destination port was Flanders, probably Brügge. The ship, however, met bad weather and began to drift northwards up through the Irish Sea and onwards out into the northern Atlantic ocean. On 17 December 1431, the crew abandoned ship for the two lifeboats. Their voyage in small boats in unknown, cold and threatening waters would be long and horrifying. Only one of the lifeboats reached land.

A deserted place?

The seafarers, despite beaching at an apparently deserted place far north, were rescued by local fishermen farmers who were in fact a branch of the same trading network which the Venetian’s belonged to. They had come to what was the very outer limit the known world, seen from Venice, where the people produce stockfish, a trading good which allows them to buy many goods from elsewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice

‘Stockfish dries in the sun and wind without salt’

They were taken well care of on Røst by the local population. Querini tells that Røst’s inhabitants keep livestock, each farm having cows which provide milk and tame ducks, eider, which provide eggs and down in the spring. It is however the fish which is their bread and butter.

Querini says

They, in the course of the year, catch an enormous amount fish, but only two types. One, which is found in large, yes even immeasurable amounts, is called ‘Stocfisi’. The other, flounder, is less numerous, but of a surprising size, up to 200 pounds each.

They dry the stockfish in the sun and wind without salt and, because it has little liquid fat, becomes as hard as wood. When they eat it, they hammer it with the backside of an axe, which makes it threadlike and sinewy. Then they spread butter and herbs and spices on it to give it taste. Stockfish is a large and valuable trading product on Germany's sea and for export to Germany.

Venetian merchants

Stockfish was not introduced to Italy by Querini. This is a myth. The story is, however, no less interesting for this. Venetian merchants traded in England and Flanders where stockfish was an important good. It was therefore well know as a trading good, as Querini’s text also implies. Querini and the crew were, however, the first Venetian eyewitnesses of how and where stockfish was produced.Adding herbs and spices may indicate that it was an ingredient in a prepared warm dish. Using stockfish almost as a wafer bread with butter is an old tradition which still lives on in Iceland and the Faroe islands. It is a common snack in Iceland, harðfiskur með smjöri. In The Faroe Islands, the blubber of pilot whales is used with the stockfish.

Herbs and spices

What, however, was unique on Røst, as Querini mentions, is that they used herbs and spices. He does not, however, state which herbs and spices they used. Little of these were grown on Røst, as Querini and the crew mention, except perhaps some traditional plants such as angelica and onion. Querini and his people were well known for trading in herbs and spices, Venice dominating the herbs and spice trading in the eastern Mediterranean for a long period of time. The tale and archaeological finds however both show that people on Røst had the opportunity to buy luxury items in Bergen, which herbs and spices were. A range of herbs and spices were available in the Hanse area, including cinnamon, pepper and ginger, many of the stockfish dishes from the Middle Ages also being based on exotic herbs and spices.

Map from 1450

Knowledge of Norway and Røst was communicated to Venice after the tales of these voyages became known. There is an interesting document from Querini’s time of how the world was seen from Venice. The world map of Brother Mauro of St. Michael’s monastery in Murano in Venice was dawn around 1450. It is today displayed in Museo Correr in Venice. Mauro, who had been a merchant, obtained the information needed to draw the map from Venetian merchants, Querini’s voyage in fact being mentioned on it. Querini or someone close to him was probably the source of the information on map.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Correr

Stockfish may have been introduced to Italy from several directions. Southern Germany had an early stockfish tradition, and it is not far from here to Italy. Most of the stockfish must, however, have arrived by sea. Italian seafarers knew of stockfish as a provision and trading good in Flanders and Holland. They could have introduced stockfish to the Italian port towns. Italian areas with stockfish traditions all have important harbours, such as the ports of Genova in Liguria, Livorno in Toscana, Napoli in Campania, Messina in Sicilia, Reggio in Calabria, Brindisi in Puglia, Ancona in Marche, Venice in Veneto and Trieste in Friuli–Venezia Giulia on the border with Slovakia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messina

We know for certain that stockfish was known as a food in Italy in the 1500s, the recipe book of the papal chef Bartolomeo Scappis from 1570 mentioning a number of stockfish dishes.

To Bergen with stockfish

‘In May they departed from the island in a large boat of fifty barrels’, Pietro Querini states in his tale from Røst from 1432. The tale informs us that the boat was skippered by their host on Røst, who was a fisherman, his three sons and some other relatives. The boat was therefore sailed to Bergen by Røst inhabitants. This is the first report we know of local fishermen themselves transporting stockfish from the north southwards. This is probably an example of the organising within the community which later was known as the ‘jektefarten’ transport of goods from North Norway, the so called ‘bygdefaret’.

Local fishermen transporting stockfish

The skipper who owned the boat was ideally from that place, Querini stating that the skipper was their host, a local fisherman. The skipper had an agreement with others to transport the stockfish they had produced to Bergen for a fee. The crew, the so called ‘håsetene’, were representatives of the local fishermen.

Querini says:

Loaded with fish, they sailed to somewhere in Norway more than a thousand miles away called Berge. Similarly ships of three hundred to three hundred and fifty barrels arrive here from many places, loaded with all sorts of goods brought from Germany, England, Scotland and Prussia, everything that is required to live and clothe oneself. Those who come with fish (and there are countless boats) exchange fish for goods they need …

Querini tells about the approaching departure in May:

… had a woman married to the man who controlled all the islands, but who was away, heard about us stranding somewhere out there. She sent his deputy in a boat rowed with twelve oars, and on behalf of the woman he delivered to me, standing above the others, sixty stockfish dried in the wind and three large rye bread as round as ourselves ...

The deputy, a German monk, demanded that Querini and the crew pay for their stay on Røst. They gave him some silver objects in payment. ‘The monk travelled with us to visit the archbishop and to give him his share of this bounty’, says Querini.

The country’s largest stockfish exporter

We know that in the 1500’s the archdiocese was actually the country’s largest stockfish exporter and therefore earned significant sums on stockfish trading and had the so called ‘setesvein’ on Røst, which agrees well with Querini’s description. Tithes, fines and fees were often paid to the church in kind. It is well-known from the sources that ‘setesveinen’ on Røst in 1521 were directly involved in stockfish trading with Bergen. We also know that there were nobleman’s rights on Røst which include catching rights and which probably included ownership of some farms. This gives us an insight into the power structure in the community at that time. It was important to signal power and presence on an island which was, due to the stockfish, important.

At the end of May

Querini, his people and the archbishop’s man were therefore onboard the cargo ship loaded with stockfish that departed from Røst at the end of May. We do not know what type of boat this was. The crew tells us that the boat was rowed through the sound and then sailed on more open stretches.

Querini tells about an interesting meeting on the way south:

On this journey, we met the archbishop who the monk was to visit and who was the head of all these places and the islands. He was called Archiepiscopus Trunduniensis. He was accompanied by two whaling ships and more than two hundred people.

The man they met was Aslak Bolt, the archbishop and the country’s largest stockfish merchant.

Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018) Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Stamsund: Orkana forlag.

Reference work:
Berge, Geir. (1996) Tørrfisk. Thi handlet du red’lig og tørket din fisk. Stamsund: Orkana Forlag
Bertelsen, Reidar (1978) Lofoten og Vesterålens historie 1500–1700. Stavanger: Dreyer a/s
Harwood, Jeremy. (2010) To the ends of the Earth: 100 Maps that changed the Earth. London: David & Charles
Joensen, Jóan Pauli (2015) Bot og Biti. Matur og matarahald i Føroyum. Tórshavn: Faroe University Press.
Magnus, Olaus. (ny utgave 2010) Historien om de nordiska folken. Hedemora: Michalisgillet og Gidlunds förlag.
Nielssen, Alf Ragnar (red.) (2014) “Fangstmenn, fiskerbønder og værfolk” i Norges fiskeri og kysthistorie. Bind 1. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget
Sølvberg, Ingvild Øye. (red.) (1980) Mat og drikke i middelalderen. Bergen: Bryggens Museum
Wallem, Fredrik M. (1893) Handelen med Tørfisk og Klipfisk. Kristiania: Fabritius
Wold, Helge A.  (2004) Querinis reise. Il viaggio di Querini. Stamsund: Orkana Forlag

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations:
UpNorth street art with motif from Querini’s shipwreck, Glea. Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik
Venezia was built on trade and shipping. Here from Canal Grande. Photo: Alex West / Stockphoto
Brother Mauro's map of the world from the 1450s. On the excerpt is printed the text 'As is known, Piero Querini came ashore in the province of Norway'. Photo: Elisabeth Johansen
Olaus Magnus' 'Carta Marina' from 1539 shows terrible conditions including in Northern Norway. Excerpt, Carta Marina Wikimedia Commons
From Bartholomeo Scappi’s cookbook Opera. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
From the unveiling of the memorial monument on Sandøya in 1932, 500 years after Querini was shipwrecked. Photo: Nordlandsmuseet
Three types of ships from exhibition at the Maritime Museum in Chania in Crete. Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

Kari-Anne Nilsen has been a sheep farmer for five years. She owns a fishing boat, has 300 sheep, dries Fenalår (a cured lamb) in the boathouse, sells sheepskin rugs from her own animals, supplies wool for knitting and enjoys life as farmer. Lamb from Røst is the best!

All-year-round outdoor grazing

"I want my sheep to graze outdoors all-year-round as this gives them the best wellbeing. I graze my sheep out on the islands and we transport them from islet to islet so that they always have fresh grass".

Seaweed is good food

The islands that make up Røst are quite small. The sheep therefore graze where the land meets the sea, including the shore area. So they have access to seaweed which they can eat if they want. "They prefer seaweed to ordinary food", says Kari-Anne Nilsen. "The salt and the grazing on the islands gives a lot of fat in the meat and the animals grow well. Being a little fat and in good condition when they lamb means that the lambs are good". People are queuing up when the butcher's van arrives with lamb from Røst!

Special, super high quality wool

Wool from sheep which graze outdoors has a completely different quality than other wool, she says, wearing a sweater made of wool from her own sheep. "Wool from sheep that graze outdoors all-year-round has a denser structure than wool from sheep kept indoors" she enthusiastically tells us. Wool from her sheep provides the basis for another business, Lofotenwool, on Vestvågøy.

https://www.instagram.com/rostlam.no/
https://www.lofoten-wool.no/

In the last year, Kari Anne Nilsen has also acquired cows.
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown
Photography: 1–4 Elisabeth Johansen, 5–7 Kjell Ove Storvik

The landscape of Røst consists of flat grazing lands interspersed with marshes and countless freshwater and brackish ponds. This is in sharp contrast to the steep, towering bird cliffs which rise up from the sea to the southwest.

http://www.seapop.no/en/sites/rost.html

The enormous sea bird colonies have, from time immemorial, been an important source of food for the people of Røst. Eggs from gulls, teal and large birds such as auk and common murre were the only eggs available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillemot

Fresh eggs for Christmas

An older Røst man told how they laid out eggs in an earth cellar outside the house in the summer and had fresh eggs for Christmas. In the spring and summer, puffins and cormorant chick are salted or preserved to add to a fish rich diet, down and feather gathering also being a part of this food gathering on Røst.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin

The year is divided into four bird seasons

Winter

Winter, with its mild climate, attracts species which normally have migrated from this part of world, such as starlings, curlew and redshank.

Spring

Spring comes early here and oystercatchers can be found from the beginning of March. By Easter, large flocks of common murre, auk and puffin gather at sea under the bird cliffs. Puffins nest on all cliffs, while teal have traditionally kept to Vedøya. Røstlandet is a wader area.

Summer

The summer is the time of foraging to raise chicks. It is, however, also short and many of the waders migrate south as early as July and by August the sea cliffs are quiet.

Autumn

Autumn is migration time and it is not unusual to find up to 20 different wader species on Røstlandet. Greylag goose, fieldfare and redwing are frequent visitors, while autumn storms can drive Little Auk and other seabirds towards land.

There were, until 2018, around 300 species registered in the Municipality of Røst.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabird

Source: Steve Baines and Tycho Anker-Nilssen: Fugler på Røst, Røst kommune, 1991.

Bird research

The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) has had a research station on Røst for many decades. Researchers follow the development of seabird populations, the finds often being disquieting. Populations are falling.

There has been an 80 percent fall in the number of breeding pairs in the last 40 years – from 1.5 million to just under 300,000 sea bird pairs, 98.5% being puffin, according to Tycho Anker-Nilssen.

https://framsenteret.no/2018/03/meet-the-puffin-man

Illustrations:
The seabird watching cabin was set up in 2018 by the ornithologist Steve Baines, who has followed birds on Røst for many decades. Photo 1–3 Elisabeth Johansen, 4 and 7 Kjell Ove Storvik, 5–6, The old picture show bird foraging on cliffs. Archive: Nordlandsmuseet, 8 Jari Tarvainen/SVT, 9 NINA, 10 Figure:  Tycho Anker-Nilssen, NINA

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Brygga is an old trading post on Meland where there was both a ship arrival point and post office. The trading station was established in the last half of the 1800s by Jacob Kristiansen, the stone walls of the main building, stable, shed and boathouse still standing. Right alongside the quay is Alidastua. The entire facility is owned by Røst municipality and is the closest one can come to a museum on the island. It is at times open to the public.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations: Nordlandsmuseet and Einar Stamnes / wikimedia commons

1. It is as certain that the spawning cod will fill the racks on Røst each winter as that the sun will never set in the middle of summer.
   Fishermen, who secure their winter income and work for Røst islanders, travel from many places in Norway to Røst to work with fishermen who fish all year round from the island. At the height of the season as many as 300 to 400 fishing boats can be in operation, the quays packed with small and large fishing vessels, side by side, delivering their catch. 'Eros' is here landing the day‘s catch from Landegode at AS Glea.
2. The spawning cod is lifted ashore from the boats in containers. Spawning cod is bled as soon as it is brought onboard, and bled again once ashore, both of which are vital to fish quality.
3. The forklift truck driver transfers the spawning cod onto a bulk elevator.
4. The fish moves from here onwards via a conveyer belt to the cleaning line in the reception hall.
5. There is a semi-automated production line for fish cleaning in the reception hall. The fish is cut along the belly from the neck bone and down to the anus. The entails of the fish are then removed and sent to ensilage production, ending up as livestock or fish feed. The roe and liver are sorted into separate bins for human consumption.
   
   Film of fish cleaning: https://vimeo.com/251138861
   
   
6. The fish, after being cleaned and gutted, proceeds to automatic weighing and temporary storage on its way onwards.
7. Fresh high quality spawning cod is placed in bins ready for the next step. Some of the largest fish are too large to be dried and are sent to salt fish production. The salt fish is then dried and becomes clipfish. Some of the fresh spawning cod is packed in ice in polystyrene boxes and is sent straight to fresh fish markets both at home and abroad. Large quantities are, however, paired and hung on racks.
8. The fish are prepared for hanging by two fish of around the same size being tied together by the tail by a string.
9. Automated pairing production, which otherwise takes place by hand, is being trialled.
10. Cod tongue cutting is a traditional activity and a good source of income for children and youth of the fishing villages of Lofoten. Thora Ekrem is here earning some extra pocket money.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_fisheries


Original text: Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (eds.): TØRRFISK – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini, Orkana 2018.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photos and film: Kjell Ove Storvik

This is one of the three public quays owned and run by Røst Municipality.
Water and electricity is available on this quay. 

Prices for 2019 are as follows:
Calling fee: visiting leisure boats of more than 15 m, NOK 50 per arrival.
Quay fee: under 15 m – NOK 100 per started 24 hours, over 15 m – NOK 120.

To check availability, book and pay, contact the Municipality's service office:

Røst Municipality
Tel: +47 76 05 05 00
postkasse@rost.kommune.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

Italy has for a long period of time been the most important market for stockfish from Røst. Direct contact between Røst and Italy is, however, a relatively new phenomena, export for a long period being via Bergen.

Export from Lofoten

Northern Norway companies began to appear after the 1800s and became increasingly more significant. J.M Johansen in Stamsund, Berg and Sons in Svolvær, H. Sverdrup on Reine and J.M. Langaas in Sund were among the well known names. Export continued for a surprisingly long period of time from Bergen, primarily because of the competence required for stockfish quality sorting was found in Bergen. Stockfish is sorted by size and special criteria. It was important to both know the different qualities and the different markets’ preferences. There was a long tradition of stockfish sorting in Bergen, carried out by stockfish sorters.

Bergen

The priest and historian Olaus Magnus writes in 1555 in his report about the Scandinavian people: 

This fish from Bergen is however not one single type, but has different values depending on size and quality.

Several qualities

In Bergen, around 30 qualities of stockfish were eventually used. Today stockfish sorters on Røst sort the fish into 20 categories. 

As for many high profile foods, stockfish years vary depending on a number of factors. The weather during drying plays a major role. So does the food the Atlantic cod has fed on before the catch and the catch and production method before being hung.

Rain and frost

The fish is hung with the back turned towards the most humid wind direction, so that it dries thoroughly. Stockfish is also very sensitive to frost, particularly early in the drying process. There is always therefore a great deal of expectation around the quality of the year’s production.

Stockfish sorter from Bergen

The fishing settlement owner in Sund on Lofoten, Johan Langaas, managed in the early 1900s to break Bergen’s export monopoly by bringing in a stockfish sorter from Bergen who began to train the local people in the art of sorting. This training formed the humble beginnings of stockfish sorting in Lofoten, which was essential for the later direct export from Lofoten.

Regulation of the fish export

The Dried and Salted Cod Act, which regulated the export of dried and salted cod, was in 1937 expanded to include stockfish. The Norwegian stockfish exporters’ national association was founded in the same year, export licences being linked to association membership. The association was dominated for many years by the Bergen companies. However, in 1985, they were forced to give up their reserved places on the board.

The first company from Røst to acquire NTL membership and export rights was AS Glea in the middle of 1960s.

Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018)
Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Stamsund: Orkana forlag.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Reference work:
Berge, Geir. (1996) Tørrfisk. Thi handlet du red’lig og tørket din fisk. Stamsund: Orkana Forlag
Gjertsen, Georg. (1949) Våre fisketilvirkere i Lofoten og Vesterålen. Stokmarknes: Stokmarknes Aktietrykkeri.
Magnus, Olaus. (ny utgave 2010) Historien om de nordiska folken. Hedemora: Michalisgillet og Gidlunds förlag.
Tande, Thorvald sr. og Thorvald Tande jr. (1986) Norsk tørrfisknærings historie. Norges tørrfiskeksportørers forening

Illustrations:
From Bryggen in Bergen. Photo: Andreas B. Wilse / Wikipedia CC BY 2.0.
Transportation of stockfish, from Olaus Magnus
Loading of stockfish, photo: Nordlandsmuseet
Today stockfish sorters on Røst sort the fish into 20 categories, the sorters Ansgar Pedersen and Line Evjen, photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

There are many traces of early man on Lofoten and in the Røst archipelago there are traces of early settlement on the uninhabited islands. Archaeologist Leif Erik Narmo has researched Sami traces on Lofoten and says the longhouse building is a Germanic, Norse settlement while the gamme sod houses are Sami. This summary is in accordance with a historical research tradition on these sod houses.  However, we do not know to what extent the people who lived in these house types at that time had an understanding of their ethnicity.

Sami traces in Hyttebukta

Narmo highlights Hyttebukta in the Røst archipelago, also called Grindteigen, on Vedøya as somewhere with Sami traces and where he describes there is ‘an example of early settlement in the Sami trapper lands.’ There are registered here 26 sod houses at different heights above the sea, on beach terraces of between around six and around eleven above sea level. There are also other cultural relics in the bay, such as stone walls for capturing animals and bird trapping cabins.

Sod house from the early Metal Ages

Most of the sod houses are pit sod houses with internal dimensions of 4.5 m x 3.5 m and dated to 2900 to 2600 BC. There are also three sod houses after a pit house. They are significantly larger than the others, all the way up to 10 m x 9 m. These are from the early Metal Ages, around 1900 to 1500 BC. One of the sod houses is a round gamme sod house which has a diameter of four metres and is surrounded by a 1.5 meter thick rampart. This sod house is dated to the end of the early Metal Ages, from 520 to 190 BC. There are also sod houses which previously have been interpreted as a number of pit sod houses side by side. Narmo however believes that there are grounds to see this as a number of adjacent rooms in a Norse longhouse, or perhaps preferably the remains of a Sami joint gamme as found in Lofoten and Vesterålen.

Housing quarters and stables in the same building

Joint gamme have housing quarters and stables in the same building, the housing quarter and the stable being separated by an aisle. The size and divisioning into rooms indicate that this can be correct.

The Lofoten cultural relic plan highlights Vedøya, as the sod houses support a continuous sequence which shows development from deep rectangular pit houses from the Stone Age, via shallow sunken pit houses in the early Metal Ages and round gamme sod houses around year 0. Along today‘s beach on Vedøya are also registered at least 14 boat landings and a stone jetty.

Vedøya is a short boat trip from Røstlandet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people

Original text: Elisabeth Johansen / John Roald Pettersen
LOFOTEN – en kulturminneguide. Orkana 2018

Reference work:
Narmo, Lars Erik: Germansk fangstmark og samisk bosetning. Bårjås 2006

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

The stockfish producers from the north gradually developed close ties with citizens and merchants in Bergen who gradually took over the Hanse’s dominant position. The Hanseatic towns and the Dutch had for a long period of time been the most important market places for Norwegian stockfish to Western Europe and for trading goods from the south. Amsterdam was, after the 1600s, Europe‘s most important maritime town and stockfish metropolis. Stockfish in Italy has often been known as Bremer and Dutch stockfish, which stems from the markets the Italians obtained their stockfish from.

Stockfish export tripled

A new fishing boom period began in the 1740s. Stockfish export tripled in the period out to the end of the century. Low prices in Netherlands led to the start of exports to Italy, 27 per cent of the total stockfish export in 1795 being to Italy and 12 per cent to France. Around 1800, about half of total exports were to Mediterranean countries and only a quarter to the Netherlands.

The Bergen merchants lost the monopoly

Around 1800 ‘jektefart’ to Bergen was still of key importance. However, the Bergen merchants lost the monopoly they had in practice held in fish trading with Nordland in the course of the 1800s. Trondheim again became an important stockfish port.

A new trading system took over. A growing class of local fishing settlement owners hired out fishermen’s cabins and racks to visiting fishermen and local merchants with trading posts at strategic points along the coast.

Large, specialised ‘jekt’ boats

‘Jektefart’ took place for a long period of time on large, specialised ‘jekt’ boats with square sails. Lofoten fishing for spawning cod for a long period of time used traditional open boats with roots further back in time. The ‘jekt’ boats and nordland boats were gradually replaced in the 1900s, ‘jekt’ boats with cutters and yawls and nordland boats with smacks.

30 000 fishermen came every year

Lofoten fishing was throughout this time the largest fishing in the north. Until 1910 and with few exceptions, more than 20 000 fishermen came every year to Lofoten. This number was 30 000 in the boom period between 1880 and 1900. The poor state of the rest of the economy also meant more took part in the fishing. The number was around 20 000 from 1930 to 1940 and at the beginning of the 1950s, but fell steeply from 1954 and has continued to fall.

Not easy to predict

The migration of the Atlantic cod is not easy to predict and the area where most of the fish comes has varied. If the fish was further in along Lofoten, then there was often little on Røst. If the fish were around Røst, then catches were large on Røst and poorer further in along Lofoten.

Amund Helland tells about this in Norges Land og Folk around 1908:

Large and previously rich fishing villages such as Henningsvær diminish and fisherman’s cabins are dismantled and are moved when so few spawning cod year come and the fishermen prefer Røst

Memories from the start of the 1900s

There are still quay facilities on Røst from the hectic time around the start of the 1900s when fishing around Røst really was strong. The row of quay buildings on Kårøya is a good example.

Røst is one of the bastions of coastal fishing in Norway. Boats in the harbour are tightly packed in the fishing season. It was however, in the heydays, really busy on little Røst. There were 2,100 fishermen in 1904 on Røst during the Atlantic cod fishing season.


Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini Orkana 2018

Reference work:
Helland, Amund. (1908) Norges land og folk : topografisk-statistisk beskrevet : topografisk-statistisk beskrivelse over. 18 D. 4 : Nordlands amt Salten og Lofoten og Vesteraalen Fogderi. Kristiania: Aschehoug
Tande, Thorvald sr. og Thorvald Tande jr. (1986) Norsk tørrfisknærings historie. Norges tørrfiskeksportørers forening

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations:
”Jekt” with stockfish cargo, photo: Th. Iversen, Norsk folkemuseum / Public Domain
Paiting by Frederik Sørvig, 1866, “jekter”, Bergen Harbour, 
http://prosjektbryggen.no/bryggenleksikon/jekt/
Røst around 1900, foto: Nordlandsmuseet

Around 70 per cent of the water in stockfish is lost during drying and some of this has to be returned before it can be used in food preparation.

Stockfish is rehydrated by soaking in cold water, the water being changed every day. The fish, once soaked, should be treated as if it were fresh and therefore be stored at five degrees C or lower.

Split fish

The fish we present in this book is round fish. A second type called ‘rotskjært’ or filleted stockfish is produced in much smaller volumes. This fish is split in two along the spine, which is removed, the two separated fillets being hung together on the rack. The head is removed from both types.

Round fish and fillets

Round fish is soaked for five to seven days, depending on size, fillets taking about half as long.

Peel off the skin and remove all bones before use. All recipes presented here are based on soaked stockfish from which skin and bones have been removed.


Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (eds.): TØRRFISK kysktultur kokekunst Querini Orkana 2018.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photos:
From the stockfish festival in Acerra, just to the east of Napoli. Stockfish filets being soaked ready for use. Photo from Arne Johansen

Filetting of soaked stockfish. Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

In Italy they soak large pieces of fish, different soakers having different ways of soaking. The soaking tub of a stockfish soaker in Genova and soaking of fish in Napoli. Photos from Gian Paolo Orlandi

Contact with Italy is of very great importance to the stockfish industry on Røst. Around 85 per cent of the stockfish produced on Røst went to Italy, initially via a number of middlemen. Agents were for a long period of time important middlemen between exporters and importers. The stockfish, on its journey to dinner tables in Italy, passed through the hands of the importer, then the wholesaler and finally the soaking company. These soaked the fish so that it was ready for use and then sent on out into the market. Many soaking companies also today have import licences. Each early summer, representatives of Italian soaking companies therefore came to Røst to see the year's stockfish. The ties between those who produce the stockfish and those who make it ready to cook in Italy are today stronger than at anytime before.

There are a number of moments of high expectation in stockfish production. Large amounts of the raw material are purchased for stockfish production a long time before the stockfish is sold onwards and the loan amounts required make each season nerve-racking. A number of factors also play a significant role: weather, the quality the year's stockfish, currency rates and what is going on in the markets. Buyers from Italy are all well informed about this and Italians are well-known for their negotiating skills.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy

Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018)
Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Stamsund: Orkana forlag.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

https://vimeo.com/228815493

Representatives of the family company Tagliapietra from Mestre, Venice regularly visit Røst. Representatives are here visiting Arne Johansen, General Manager of A. Johansen A/S.

Photos: Kjell Ove Storvik and Einar Stamnes

Grain was the most important barter good for the fish in Bergen and a three-way trade developed. Hanseatic ships transported grain, flour and beer from the Baltic ports to Bergen, continuing from Bergen with stockfish to England or Flanders. Wool cloth was then transported from England and Flanders back to the Baltic harbours.     

Herbs and spices

There were, however, a number of other goods available in Bergen. This included herbs and spices and dried fruit that came to Flanders and England by ship from, for example, Venice and Genova. It also included finer cloth, glass items and wine. Luxury goods such as leather, furs and walrus teeth also came from other parts of Scandinavia and Greenland.

Luxury items

There is a number of farm and settlement remains on Røst which have been built up as large raised areas in the landscape over hundreds of years. Luxury items have been found at a number of these sites that indicate early and profitable trade. This includes the find of embossed gold rings on Skau farm and a finely scalloped chess piece in walrus tooth in the farm remains on Ystnes. This comes from the Middle Ages, walrus tooth being one of the most important trading goods from Greenland. One can imagine it being made in one of the many craftsmen’s workshops in Bergen at that time.

Increase in imported goods

Investigations from Vågar, the trading centre by Kabelvåg in Vågan, indicates that the development from a more seasonal fishing village to a more town-like settlement and function took place in the period between 1200 and 1400. Finds in Northern Norway farm remains also show a clear increase in imported goods from the 1200s, indicating an increased trade in stockfish which was profitable enough to allow expensive import goods to be acquired at a number of places.

The price of stockfish increased

The devastation of plague had a very significant effect on settlements and trade in Norway. There were more than 20 outbreaks in the period 1349–1654, the Black Death being the most well known. These continuous outbreaks led to many farms being deserted. On Røst, the farms on the mountain island of Storfjellet appear to have been abandoned in the 1300s. Røst was therefore subject to pandemics despite its isolated location. More was clearly brought home to the island from trading with the hinterland and Bergen than goods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

The price of stockfish increased significantly compared with grain in the period 1350 -1500 due to lower production levels and gradually increasing demand. This is reflected in the impression gained from the finds in farm remains, higher prices yielding more import goods. Total stockfish export was estimated to be around 2000 tons in 1577. This equals the amount exported solely to England in the early 1300s. But now almost all export of Norwegian stockfish went to the German Hanseatic towns.

Trade from Bergen

Trading between the west coast and North Norway and the farm produce trading system between North Norway and Bergen became established in this period. Trade from Bergen continued. However the number of inland merchants became so reduced that North Norway residents began to transport fish to Bergen themselves rather than merchants from the south collecting fish from Lofoten.

Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Stamsund: Orkana forlag.
Original text: Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018)

Reference work:
Nielssen, Alf Ragnar. (red.) (2014) “Fangstmenn, fiskerbønder og værfolk”. Norges fiskeri og kysthistorie. Bind 1. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget
Simonsen, Povl. (1991) Fortidsminner nord for polarsirkelen. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

The trade in stockfish was gradually taken over by specialised cargo ships (‘jektene’). Many ‘jekt’ boats were built in the Northern Norway fjord villages where there was a rich source of good wood. There is an interesting report on Røst in ‘Lofoten og Vesterålens beskrivelse’, written by Erik Hansen Schønnebøl in 1591. The author says that there were hard times on Røst and Værøy, the rich fishing being further in along Lofoten. Remains of larger buildings from previous boom periods show that there had been good fishing here:

The very best fishing

Here the sea and weather in former times gave a large and unusual trading and merchant activity greater than anywhere else in all Norland, because all the fish which now is caught both out in Voge and Skrogen and elsewhere along Lofoten previously was out at Röst and Verröe where the very best fishing was and exceptional trade. Here also lived very rich men, which you can still see to this day in the wonderful buildings and houses that have been built with brick chimneys and other features which are now destroyed.

The truth of this is difficult to determine. It does, however, tell about Lofoten fishing which varied depending on where the bulk of the spawning cod was. Schønnebøl tells more about Røst having ‘jekt’ boats to transport goods with:

All the wood which they used they bought in Salten and transported home by ‘jegter’.

Petter Dass

Petter Dass (1647–1707), parson, stockfish merchant and poet is a good source of reports of Lofoten fishing, ‘jektefart’ and stockfish trading in the work Nordlands Trompet. Fishing could vary a great deal in scope and yield. The last half of the 1600s and the beginning of 1700s were, however, a time of crisis in fishing. The period in which Petter Dass wrote Nordlands Trompet, the end of 1600s, were furthermore dark years for fishing in Skrova and Vågan, he says. Here the good times are remembered:

I am reminded of some earlier years,
That Vaagen and Skroven each winter and spring
Were well-known places ...
Where every other North Norway man strove …

He describes that there were many fishermen from Helgeland and Salten here on Værøy and Røst:

At these two common places,
A mass of sturdy Salten residents were found
and Helgeland farmers too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petter_Dass

Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018)
Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Stamsund: Orkana forlag.

Reference work:
Bagge, Sverre og Knut Mykland (1996) Norge i dansketiden. Oslo: Cappelen forlag
Dass, Petter (2006) Opptrykk ved Didrik Arup Seip: Nordlands Trompet. Oslo; Aschehoug Forlag
Lindbekk, Kari (red.) (1978). Lofoten og Vesterålens historie 1500–1700. Stavanger: Dreyer a/s
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations:
Karl Erik Harr, from the book Mit navn er Petter Dass – som boer ved verdens ende, Orkana 2007. Reproduced with the artist's permission.

The church ruins which tower above the terrain are from the 1800s. This is not the medieval stone church which many believed it to be. This stone church was built after a hurricane thundered through, destroying the previous church on a January day in 1835.

New church

The church was built in 1839 by skilled stonemasons from Overhalla, 18 alen long and 14 alen wide, ‘… very neat and spacious enough for the small congregation’, wrote the pastor who got the church built, the pastor of Værø and Røst Christian August Grønvold.  He describes the process and dedication in his memoir, an interesting contemporary depiction of how a travelling scholar experienced Værøy and Røst in the first half of the 1800s.

The pastor describes

‘On my inauguration to the office, there were on Værø around 170 souls and on Røst around 70,’ he says. The church was inaugurated on 21 July 1839.

Hurricane on the island

The altar piece, chalice and cassocks were preserved after the hurricane and are now found in the new church which was built at a different site in 1899 when the stone church became too small for the growing congregation.

The church was demolished when a new church was built, only the stone walls of the original remaining.


Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen / John Roald Pettersen:
LOFOTEN en kulturminnebok, Orkana 2018

Reference work:
Grønvold, Christian August: Mit Liv i Aarene efter 1814.
Meddelt ved Didrik Grønvold. Cammermeyers boghandel 1943

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Riksantikvaren and Elisabeth Johansen

The Norwegian word for stockfish (tørrfisk) comes from the old Norwegian word of þurrfiskr, the word turrur fiskur still being used on the Faroe Islands. Stockfish can be produced from a number of lean fish. We, however, here mean stockfish produced from spawning cod. Enormous amounts of spawning cod (the ready to spawn Arcto-Norwegian cod) have always come to Lofoten between January and April. Spawning cod (skreið in old Norwegian) is a migrating cod which can migrate far. It comes all the way from The Barents Sea. The spawning cod fishing tradition also extends all the way south to the county of Møre, although has been primarily centred on Lofoten.

To Lofoten to spawn

The cod first moves along the outer side of the Lofoten islands and then moves to the inner side, into Vestfjorden. Some continue all the way into Lofoten to spawn, so forming the basis for the long fishing tradition here. A great deal of fish also stops by Røst. Where and when the main arrival and spawning takes place varies from year to year and determines whether the Lofoten fishing year is good or poor.

Fishery for a thousand years

The fishing of migrating spawning cod can be traced back across a thousand years or more and so can the drying of the fish. The weather and climate however play an important role in catching such large amounts of fish. An amazing aspect of this tradition is, however the coinciding of the arrival of the spawning cod with the favourable season for drying. On Røst, spawning cod is hung on racks in January immediately after it is brought ashore and left to the beginning of April.

Super conditions on Røst

Fish drying conditions on Røst are among the very best. Mild winters without much frost which can damage the fish, a cold spring and summer, the right humidity, plenty of wind and the right amount of sun. Everything needed to produce high quality stockfish. If the fish had arrived in the summer or the autumn, then the weather would have been too hot and humid for drying.

The stockfish is dry and ready to eat from the middle of May to the end of June.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockfish

Stockfish – an ancient product

Drying is one of the oldest food preservation methods we know of and stockfish has been produced ever since trappers first discovered that fish that was hung to dry under favourable conditions could be stored for a long period of time. Catch sizes could vary greatly and the ability to have onboard provisions, which included stockfish, with long storage lifetimes was a necessity on long fishing voyages. The salting of fish along the Norwegian coast is a significantly more recent phenomenon, even though we know that some sea salt was produced here in the Middle Ages.

Organised Norwegian Arctic cod fishing

Organised fishing for spawning cod on Lofoten is believed to have begun early. Egil’s Saga tells about Torolv Kveldulvsson on the Sandnes farm on Alsta in around the year 875:

In the spring Torolv returned to his farm. He then sent people out to fish Atlantic cod in Vågar and some to fish herring …. Torolv had a large ship which was suitable for sea crossings. … He loaded spawning cod, hides and stoat hides and sent them with a great deal of squirrel winter fur hides and other leather products which he had brought with him down from the mountains … He allowed Torgils Gjallande to sail the ship west to England to buy cloth and other things which he needed…. They made good bargains, loaded the ship with wheat and honey, wine and cloth and returned home in the autumn.


Original text: Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes TØRRFISK  – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini, Orkana 2018

Reference work:
Heggstad, Leiv. (1962) Egilssoga. Oslo: Det norske Samlaget
Nilsson, Magnus. (2015) The Nordic Cook Book. London: Phaidon Press Limited
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations: Kjell Ove Storvik 1–5, Elisabeth Johansen 6–8

Lofoten has a long Atlantic cod history. People with access to such a large resource quickly learn how to use it, drying the fish being the best and most efficient way to store large amounts of this food resource. The second century is considered to be the period in which stockfish really began to be of significance as an international trading good. Stockfish was, before this, know as a provision and a good that was used in trade between tribes.

From Grettir saga

Grettir Saga, about the Icelander Grettir Åsmundarsson, also provides us with an early insight into second century Lofoten fishing and the transport of stockfish. Åsmundarsson spent some of his winters living with sheriff Torfinn on Haramsøy on Møre and the merchant Torkjel in Salten. Both had trading ships which they used to trade in stockfish in Vágar in Lofoten. Torkjel from Steigen also had a ship which he despatched to England with goods. Vágar, today Storvågan near Kabelvåg, most probably developed during the 1100 and 1200s to become a more organized trading centre, the first real town in North Norway.

England – the main market 

England was the main market for Norwegian stockfish for a long period of time. Some stockfish was traded directly with England. Most however, was traded via Trondheim and Bergen. Trade with England gradually came to be primarily via English and German ships, only a few Norwegian ships being involved. The presence of the German Hanseatic League grew steadily in Norway in Tønsberg, Oslo and Bergen, but not without opposition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League

An agreement was entered into in 1294 between the Norwegian crown and the German merchants. This agreement was very favourable for the Hanseatic towns, which now received the right to free trade in Norwegian towns. Around 1300 Hanse were the dominant exporters from Norway, exporting to England, Germany and also Western Europe. Bergen was now Norway’s most important export harbour for stockfish, the German office in Bergen being set up in around 1360.

Trade with England

The oldest records that show how extensive trade with England was are found in customs scrolls from the east England towns of Ravense, King's Hull and Boston from the early 1300s. They show that the main export product from Norway to England was stockfish. It is, in fact, estimated that stockfish represented 82 per cent of the export value, around 2000 of the 3000 tons of stockfish exported annually.

Stockfish – with exotic herbs and spices

Stockfish early on became a well known product in England, Flanders and the German areas. Dishes which have been recorded in writing and which we therefore know about are often intended for the more prosperous and often contain expensive ingredients such as exotic herbs and spices.

Demand for stockfish increased across the whole of Europe due to fasting rules and growing town populations. It was prohibited to eat meat in the fasting period up to Easter and on Fridays throughout the year. Fish was, however, permitted.

Historical stockfish recipes

Marx Rumpolt’s ”spanische Krapfen” / Spanish puff pastry and Stockfish with peas, apple, and raisins can be found here:

https://fishandships.dsm.museum/?cat=58

Literary Park Francesco Petrarca e dei Colli Eugane

This text is from ”The cod roads from Røst to the literary parks –roundtrip.” www.parcheletterari.com / www.ladante.it

Many recipes of traditional Italian cuisine are based on ancient dishes cooked in the convents. This is the case, for example, of a few "meager" dishes designed especially for meat withdrawal periods, but equally substantial and tasty thanks to the monks. The recipe for cappuccino cod, spread in Friuli Venezia Giulia and part of Veneto, is just a striking example of this ingenuity: the presence of "sweet" flavors such as raisins and cinnamon, clearly mentions the medieval and the Renaissance. When there was no clear distinction between sweet and salty dishes. The stockfish was chosen for its nutritional properties, similar to those of the meat, and for ease of conservation.

A recipe for use in the Padua convents

Cappuccino sauce, that with anchovy, raisins and pine nuts, was a recipe for use in the Padua convents. For years it ended in oblivion, until the architect Giulio Muratori and a group of gourmet friends decided to bring him back to life in 2011, also establishing a brotherhood to enhance it. The "blood pact" was signed at the ancient Ballotta di Torreglia trattoria and there was the ceremony of "baptism" of the Patavina Confraternita del Baccalà. 

500 g of dried stockfish
1 onion
½ glass of extra virgin olive oil
8 anchovy fillets
50g of grapes pass
50 g of pine nuts
Flour
Salt and pepper
Cinnamon
3 teaspoons of sugar
Bread crumbs

Apply the well-soaked cod and cut into pieces that you will pass to the salted flour. Sprinkle a large chopped onion with half a glass of olive oil and anchovy fillets. Then brown on each side in the blond sausage the sausage cut into pieces in the salted flour. Add the pine nuts, a pinch of pepper and a cinnamon. Let it simmer until the liquid has been nearly absorbed by placing salt and pepper. At ¾ of cooking the grapes go. Then sprinkle the fine breadcrumbs and three teaspoons of sugar, which will spill with the cooking bottom and go into the oven for a final gratin. Give it to the table warmly.

Original text: From Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018)
Tørrfisk – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Stamsund: Orkana forlag.

Reference work:
Holm-Olsen, Ludvig (Oversetter). (1994) Grettes Saga. I Norrøn Saga. Bind 5. Oslo: Aschehoug
Nielssen, Alf Ragnar. (red.) (2014) “Fangstmenn, fiskerbønder og værfolk” i Norges fiskeri og kysthistorie. Bind 1. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget
Sawyer, Birgit og Peter. (1993) Medieval Scandinavia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Illustrations:
Pages from Bartolomeo Scappi’s cookbook, from Bartolomeo Scappi. www.wikipedia.org
Stockfish dish, foto: Kjell Ove Storvik
Pieter Bruegel / Pieter van der Heyden: The Elder’s Thin Kitchen (1596). A man hammering stockfish. www.metmuseum.no
Pages from Max Rumpolt: Ein new Kochbook, from Ein new Kochbook, www.wikipedia.org

Røst Havfiskecamping on Færøya is a family-run company with many years of very diverse fishing tourism experience.

A variety of overnight accommodation 

We would like to welcome you to our facility, where we can offer a variety of overnight accommodation no matter whether you are travelling with a group or adventuring here on your own. Stay here for just a short while, or take advantage of our longer term rentals. We have a common sleeping room with bunk beds and common kitchen and we have cabins and masses of camping spaces for motor homes, caravans and tents.

Boat hire

If you are coming here to fish, then you can hire one of our small boats of different sizes for you and your friends to try your luck at deep sea fishing. You can also buy spinners, sinkers and other items you might need when going fishing, in our little equipment shop.

Good tips as to where to fish

Experienced fishermen will help you interpret charts and give you good tips as to where to fish. If you are not confident about navigating in sheltered waters, we also have fishing boat with skipper you can hire.
The fishing season here is from March to September.

Tel: +47 992 58 348
info@rosthavfiske.com

www.facebook.com/HavfiskeCamping

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

They are (as I mentioned previously) the most righteous Christians, and they never fail to attend mass on holy days.  They kneel always in church when they pray, and they never mumble incantations, curse saints or say the devil's name. ( … ) They always fast on the designated days and all the celebration days in the course of the year they hallow with Christian piety. 

Røst 1432

In this sod house are remains of small crucifixes which point to its Catholic origin. This is a unique occurrence in Norway, similar finds having been made in Norse churches on Greenland. Lofoten has no preserved medieval churches, so this is the closest you can get. The Italians who stranded on Røst in 1432 and who described day-to-day life there, tell about the religious life of Røst islanders.

The site of the church from the 1400s to 1715

They were occupied with their relationship with God and tell that of the 120 who lived where, 72 received communion when celebrating Easter and were believing Catholics. The church was 5 km from where they lived.  A ‘miglia’, which was their unit of measurement, was 1739 metres. The church was therefore just under 900 meters by road from the house. This leads us over the marshes and to the old overgrown church ruins which were in the fields. This was the site of the church from the 1400s to 1715.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages


Original text: From Elisabeth Johansen / John Roald Pettersen: LOFOTEN en kulturminneguide,  Orkana 2018

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Reference work:
Information on Røst municipality board
Pietro Querini in Wold, Helge A.: Querinis reise / Il viaggio di Querini. Orkana 2003

Photo:
Church ruins. Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

Røst is made up of 365 grassy islands, the figure being more like 1900 if you include all the grey islets and reefs. The northernmost and largest island was previously called Hjemlandet (Home land).  It is around 2.5 km long and almost as wide.  It is today bound together with other islands by roads and embankments and is now called Røstlandet.  

Seven other islands were inhabited

A tale by pastor Svendsen states that seven other islands were also inhabited when he was there in the 1800s. These were Skomvær, Sandø, Glæa, Tyvsø, Kaarø, Lyngvær and Stensø. Stavøen and Storfjeldet, which were said to have been inhabited, were abandoned according to Svendsen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Røstlandet

Innumerable small lakes and sea inlets

Svendsen claims that even though Røst is flat, it is not easy get around.  There were previously only poorly marked paths and you had to ‘navigate by using the location of the houses, orientation or even a compass.’ Other obstacles, he says, were the innumerable small lakes and sea inlets which blocked the way. To the great pleasure and as a sign of Røst’s progress, all on the island had ‘in recent years laid out an excellent path from one end of the island to the other.’

Hand built stone structures

If you move away from the asphalted roads, you can find traces of the time when Røst islanders fought against these obstacles and made roads.  There are a number of places where there were waves in inlets and where Røst islanders have built what they call ‘spenger’.  A spong, several spenger, in the local dialect.  These are impressive hand built stone structures which bind the land together.

The old road

One large and wonderful spong is Tangsponga between Brasen/Ystnes and Klakken.  This is the old road to Ystnes. Tangsponga is the largest stone spong on Røst. The year it was built is unknown. It is, however, undoubtedly from before 1900 according the cultural relic plan of the municipality. There are also remains of older boat landings and small quays in the area alongside Tangsponga.  The area north west of the spong has probably been one of the approaches to the oldest known church on Røst for those who lived in Storfjellet.


Original text: Elisabeth Johansen / John Roald Pettersen: LOFOTEN – en kulturminneguide, Orkana 2018

Reference work:
Stamnes, Einar: Kulturminneplan for Røst 2017–2022. Røst kommune 2016
Svendsen, Reinert: Historiske efterretninger om Værøy og Røst av Reinert Svendsen, fhv. sogneprest til Værøy. Aschehoug 1916. Ny utgave Sentraltrykkeriet 1981

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

The house is right on the edge of the islet.  It is like one of the large hotels in Venedig, the gondola standing ready to sail by the stairs.  The facade of the house is not so impressive, but the route by sea between the islets can compete with any canal.

This is how Carl Dons describes the buildings on Glea when he came one day in the 1940s. The short quote says much, all the space on the islet bring utilized through placing buildings right by the sea, the island community being bound together by boat traffic. There are many small and large islands here and a boat is needed to get to the other islands.

Memories from the 1930s

Another authentic depiction of the small fishing community is written by Håkan Mørne after visiting some years previously:

The small steam ship which brought us here navigated through an archipelago of shallows and reefs and tied up under the radio antenna by merchant Pedersen’s quay on the islet of Glea. It was no more than ten decares of rock, but accommodated a shop, post office, radiotelegraph office, hospital, warehouses, cabins, tavern and a number of farmhouses. Between the buildings were knolls covered with racks of hung cod, and around the beaches ran wooden jetties with old-fashioned capstans which looked like windmill sails hung up between high posts. Yes, there were so many buildings and other products of human endeavour on the little islet that it was almost as though it would tumble over the edge.

Fish production has steered development

Merchant Pedersen still governed Glea. Many of the early buildings listed by Mørne are preserved. Here the telegraph building stands proud, here the farmhouse is as it once was and behind the knoll is one of the ‘state wells’ which were installed in the water poor fishing village. On the quays it is, however, different. Fish production has steered development – production halls and landing halls, every square metre utilised. There are, in a large warehouse on the old ferry quay, lines for the cod in the winter. Here the fish are tied two by two together by the tail so that they can be hung to dry. When the spring comes, the large hall is filled with finished stockfish which is then sorted.

Modernization

The islet is today connected to the rest of the small islands by large embankments which form flat roads between the halls, on which fork lift trucks and lorries in today‘s modern production world can run. Fishermen and fish buyers previously had to lift every kilo of fish, time and time again. First onboard the boat, then ashore, then on to the quay for gutting, then into vats for rinsing, so to tying before the fish, two by two, are threaded on yokes to be taken under the racks for the last lift as fresh fish. They lifted the tied fish up on to the rack to become perfect stockfish, perhaps even of the Hollender or Bremer class. A great deal is today automated. One thing however remains unchanged, the good quality of the end product.

Please take care

Please take care when in the visitors’ area and respect the access prohibited signs.  These signs give those who work there the space they need to do their work and to ensure that visitors are not exposed to dangers from, for example, loading cranes or fork lift trucks. Guided tours of both the facility and stockfish sorting are given to tourist and school groups. Please contact the company.

www.glea.no

Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen / John Roald Pettersen: LOFOTEN en kulturminneguide Orkana 2018

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Reference from:
Dons, Carl: De tusen øers land. Johan Grundt Tanum, Oslo 1946
Mørne, Håkan: Værbitt sagaland. P.F. Steensballes boghandels eftg. (Bj. Reenskaug) 1939

Illustrations:
Glea, photo: Nordlandsmuseet and Elisabeth Johansen
Olaf Johan Pedersen, General Manager of AS Glea, regularly brings in 'boknafisk' from the racks. A good 'boknafisk' should be hung for five weeks, says Pedersen. Large fish are hung on Røst. Elsewhere they may say two to three weeks is enough, a split cod also needing much less time to dry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boknafisk

Around 520 people live 100 km out to sea in the Røst archipelago, alongside one of Europe's largest sea bird colonies and one of the world's richest fish stocks.

Røstlandet

Half of the archipelago's total landmass is on the main island of Røstlandet. The island's extreme location and flat terrain, which rises to no more than 11 m at its highest, however, means there is a lot of sky on Røst. Artists from all around the world have, for generations, let themselves be inspired by the special light here and the special atmosphere among the birds, fish and people.

Perfect climate

The location, far out to sea, gives all year around temperatures above freezing, the islands at the far end of Lofoten being the northernmost place in the world with no meteorologically defined winter. Conditions here are therefore perfect during the Lofoten fishing season, in February and March, for large amounts of North East Arctic cod to be hung on racks and to be turned by the weather and wind into top quality stockfish.

Fishing is Røst's main source of income. There are, therefore, many active commercial fishermen and women and six fish landing facilities here. Other island activities include active animal rearing of sheep and cattle, trading and some service industry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Røst

Røst, therefore, uniquely combines a living fishing and agricultural society with an open and international culture.

Text: From www.rost.kommune.no, Elisabeth Johansen, Anne Cecilie Pedersen, Einar Stamnes (2018) TØRRFISK – kystkultur, kokekunst, Querini. Orkana forlag, 2018, På Røst AS.

Illustrations:
Røst was built on fishing. The registration number of this fishing boat, N-76-RT, shows that the boat is based in Nordland County (N) and in Røst Municipality (RT).
The landscape of the entire south side of the island has been formed by fishing.
The town hall and the primary and secondary school, which also houses the library, is in the middle of the island alongside a sports hall named after Querini. On the other side of the road is Røst church, the doctor's surgery and an old people's centre. An unusual amount of snow fell in January 2019 and there were frequent showers.
The sheep on Røst graze outdoors all year round, but can shelter if the weather is too hard.
Agriculture was once widespread on the north end of the island, as shown by the stone walls crisscrossing the landscape.


Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

The UpNorth Festival 2017, a cooperative project with Urban Nation Berlin, brought leading world artists in urban art to Røst. The artists were spread around the island, a few of them shown here. 

The artists were:
Isaac Cordal (es)
Klone Yourself (isr)
Ino (gr)
Lora Zombie (rus)
Spidertag (es)
Franco Jaz (arg)
Elle (us)
Pastel (arg)
Nespoon (pl)

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatekunst

The Last of the Viking Whalers are pictures from the 'Lofotfisk' spawning cod fishing season and common minke whale hunting in Vestfjorden, taken by the photographer and journalist Marcus Bleasdale for the National Geographic. 

Marcus Bleasdale donated pictures from the National Geographic article to Røst Municipality. They are hung at locations around the island. 

Walk or cycle around the island and search for and experience exciting artworks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Geographic

Text: Røst Municipality
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown
Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

Open to the public 3 2 days a week.
The library has a section for local literature from Røst and the rest of Lofoten.

Opening hours
Tuesdays 11.30 am –2.00 pm and 17.00 pm - 20.00 pm
Wednesdays 11.30 am –2.00 pm 

The library is partially closed in holiday periods.
Check holiday periods here:
https://rost.kommune.no/bibliotekets-apningstider/category927.html

Røst Municipality
Tel: +47 76 05 05 00
postkasse@rost.kommune.no

Librarian Hanne Ødegård
Tel: +47 76 05 05 29
hanne.odegard@rost.kommune.no


Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Mikalsen

The menu is changed each season. The menu and opening hours can be found on the restaurant's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/querinipubogrestaurantrost/

Anne Cecilie Pedersen has for 20 years, using traditional recipes and through developing her own Italian cuisine inspired dishes, served wonderful food based on Røst's local produce. Her creativity is rooted in the close relationship between Røst and Italy that has always existed, one founded on a common love and knowledge of Røst's stockfish and the produce that is caught and produced on the island.

Anne Cecilie loves to serve whale carpaccio, tasty dishes of Røst lamb and exciting dishes based on stockfish and other local produce.

Anne Cecilie's STOCKfish ravioli

2 large eggs
200 g wheat flour
¼ teaspoon of salt

Mix all the ingredients into a compact dough. Knead the dough thoroughly for five minutes. Pack the dough in plastic and let it rest while preparing the fish.

150 g soaked, skinned and filleted stockfish
2 dl water
2 small potatoes
1 table spoon of olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
pepper

Divide the stockfish up into small pieces. Boil the water and let the fish poach for ten minutes. Peel and cook the potatoes. Blend the potatoes, fish and olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and ground pepper to taste.

Roll the dough out until thin.
Lay out the fish and potato puree in teaspoon sized portions, five cm apart on half the dough.
Fold the other half of the dough over this.
Cut square ravioli pieces using a cutting wheel or pizza cutter.
Pinch around the edges to seal the dough.
Boil plenty of water, add 3–4 tablespoons of salt per litre.

The recipe gives 20 ravioli.

Pepper, capers and olive sauce

1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 clove of garlic
2 table spoons of capers
150 g black olives
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small bunch of parsley
5 cherry tomatoes

Wash and dry the peppers. Split the peppers lengthwise in two and remove the stems and seeds. Place the cleaned peppers in an ovenproof dish or on a tray and cook in the oven at 225 °C for 15 minutes or until brown spots appear on the skin. Pack the peppers in plastic film and leave it for 10 minutes. Peel off the skin and divide the peppers lengthwise into one cm wide strips.

Chop the garlic. Heat the olive oil carefully in a frying pan, add the garlic and let it slow-fry for a while on low heat. Then add the other ingredients and let it slow-fry for 25 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the sauce before serving.


Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Kjell Ove Storvik

Querini Pub og Restaurant
Klakkveien 1
8064 Røst
Tel:  +47 930 07 458

Anne Cecilie Pedersen
querinipr@gmail.com

This is one of the three public quays owned and run by Røst Municipality. It is the largest of the three and is mainly used by fishing boats that come here during the Atlantic cod fishing season between February and April. There are numerous water and power outlets on the quay and there is a Joker food shop 500 metres away, which is the island's main shopping centre. 

Prices are found on the Røst municipality website rost.kommune.no

The floating quay at the end of the public quay in Gleaveien can be used by the public between 1st May and 30th November. The quay is reserved for the fishing fleet between November and May. Special prices apply for this quay.

To check availability, book and pay, contact the Municipality's service office:

Røst Municipality
Tel: +47 76 05 05 00
postkasse@rost.kommune.no

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

Røst airport is on the north side of the island of Røstlandet, just a few minutes by car from the fishing harbour and ferry quay on the south side. There are two return flights to Bodø every day from the airport, a stop on the outbound or inbound leg at Svolvær connecting Røst to this town. All flights to and from the airport are operated by the airline Widerøe. 

www.wideroe.no

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Røst_Airport

Text: På Røst AS
Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown
Photo: Elisabeth Johansen

Video: Housetown Productions Youtube.com/wideroepilot

Røst church was built in 1899 and was consecrated in 1900, originally as an annex church of Værøy. The church is a long church in timber and seats 285. The interior is in the art nouveau style, the interior being in the colours of the time. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Røst_Church

Reredos

The reredos was made in the northern Nederland, probably Utrecht, somewhere between 1511 and 1520. It is part of the so-called 'Lekagruppen' collection of reredos, which are found in churches in Ørsta, Grip, Leka, Hadsel and Røst.

There is a legend of unknown origin about the reredos. On 15 July 1515 the 14 year old princess Isabella of Burgundy/Habsburg, later Elisabeth, embarked on a journey to Copenhagen where she was to marry the Danish-Norwegian King Kristian 2. Accompanying her on the journey was the Archbishop of Nidaros, Erik Valkendorf, her priest and pastor. During the journey they encountered terrible weather and the princess became very unwell and afraid. She sent a message to the Archbishop, promising to bestow a gift upon her new country if they arrived safely. The gift was five reredoses. Archbishop Valkendorf chose five churches in his diocese, which extended from Sunnmøre to Finnmark, to receive the reredos.

The centre section of the reredos

The reredos was originally gilded with small gold plates which were tacked in place. The tack marks can still be seen today.

The sculptures

In the middle is Saint Olav. He is the most popular Norwegian saint and is found on almost all reredoses in Norway from the period.

On each side stands a bishop. It is a little uncertain who they are, possibly Bishop Nikolaus, the seaman's saint and to the left and right Saint Augustine or Saint Laurentius.

Reredos doors

The paintings on the doors are mostly original. Two important women saints in Norway in the Middle Ages are depicted on the inside: to the left Saint Catherine of Alexandria and to the right St. Margaret of Antioch.

Saint Olav and a bishop were originally pictured on the outside of the doors. This was, however, painted over in the1700s of a picture of Moses with the lions and Aron.

The reredos doors were partly retouched in 2018 by Stephanie Backes under the guidance of The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research, NIKU.


Text: Einar Stamnes

Source: Therese Hervig Johnsen: 'Leka-skapene bestillingsverk eller markedsproduksjon?' Master thesis in Art History at the University of Oslo, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas Spring 2007

Photo: Einar Stamnes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_churches_in_Nordland

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown

Far out to sea, west of Bodø and southwest of Lofotodden, is the Røst archipelago. The large cliff lined shore rises up from the sea, the landscape reminding us of its Lofoten origins. Røstlandet and the islands around are, however, completely flat and open and dominated by the merciless wind.

One of the first things you notice when you disembark the ferry is the significance of fish on Røst as marked by old and new fish landing facilities, stockfish lofts, fishermen’s’ cabins and fish drying racks. The island’s location and climate has made Røst into a stockfish production island.

50 paces up above the ferry key towers a fenced-in look-out post on which there is a board that marks places which are important to Røst. Lofotodden 48 km to the north east, Bergen 859 km to the south and Røst's twin municipality of Sandrigo in Italy 2432 km to the south, the bond of friendship marked by the naming of a square in the town 'Piazza Røst'.

Torghatten Nord ferry timetable: http://ruteinfo.thn.no/bm/default.aspx?rnr=82


Original text: from Elisabeth Johansen og John Roald Pettersen:
LOFOTEN en kulturminneguide, Orkana 2018.

Translation to English: Alasdair Graham-Brown