Vardøhus Fortress: Norway’s Arctic Star Fort

Site at a Glance

Rating

★4.3

Popularity

Low

Country

Norway

Primary era

Early Modern

External website

Open ↗

Eras represented

Early Modern, Modern

Civilizations

Norwegian

Site type

Military

Remains

Fort

History

Vardøhus Fortress is a Norwegian fortress on Vardøya in the town of Vardø, first erected by the medieval Norwegian kingdom in 1306 and rebuilt as an eight-pointed star fort between 1734 and 1738. Its position near the mouth of the Varangerfjord, on the Barents Sea and close to the Russian border, made it an important base for asserting Norwegian authority in the far north.

Frontier and trade in the medieval north

The surrounding region was shaped by trade, fishing, and competition between northern powers. The fur trade with the Karelians later declined as the Hanseatic League’s trading center at Novgorod redirected commerce, but the fishery remained economically important. Stockfish, traditionally cod preserved by air-drying without salt, was exported to Bergen.

Clashes between Norwegians and Karelians in northern Finnmark in 1251 led to diplomatic exchanges between Norway and Novgorod and ended in a peace treaty. The earliest surviving record defining the Norway-Russia border dates from 1326. In 1340, the Archbishop of Trondhjem made further efforts to strengthen Norwegian conditions in the region.

King Haakon V Magnusson, who ruled Norway from 1299 to 1319, ordered the first fortification in 1306. It was called Varghøya. The following year, the Archbishop of Trondhjem visited Vardøhus to consecrate the new Vardø Church.

Successive fortifications and royal claims

A second fortification was built at Østervågen, or East Bay, between 1450 and 1500. This rectangular work had two corner bastions and was distinct from the later star-shaped fortress. By 1511, the captain of Vardøhus held a share in the local fishery, whose abundant catch supported settlement in the region.

Norway’s northern claims came under renewed pressure during the sixteenth century. In 1583, England formally recognized Norwegian rights in the Arctic, and vessels sailing toward the White Sea had to stop at Vardøhus and pay duty. During territorial disputes from 1597 to 1600, Boris Godunov, a Russian regent and later tsar, claimed Vardøhus and the surrounding Lapp country for Russia. King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway asserted Norwegian sovereignty instead.

Christian IV, who ruled Denmark and Norway from 1588 to 1648, visited Vardøhus in 1599. He instructed the governor to collect taxes from Russians in the province, including the Kola Peninsula, and to exclude Swedish claims. In 1610, he strengthened Norwegian control in Finnmark by ordering the construction of Altenhus Fortress near Alta.

The eighteenth-century rebuilding

By the 1730s, Vardøhus had become dilapidated, and the seat of government for Finnmark was transferred to Altengaard. Major improvements then transformed the fortress into the present work. Construction is generally dated to 1734-1738, and the fortress still retains substantially the same appearance it had in 1738.

Vardøhus also became associated with astronomical observation. In 1761 and again in 1768-1769, Maximilian Hell, a Hungarian priest and astronomer, observed transits of Venus from the fortress. A transit of Venus occurs when the planet passes across the face of the Sun as seen from Earth. A memorial plaque at Vardøhus commemorates Hell’s observations.

Vardøhus during the Norwegian Campaign

From the beginning of the Second World War until the German invasion, Vardøhus was an active unit under Naval District No. 3 in Tromsø. During the Winter War, fought between Finland and the Soviet Union, 15 to 20 Finnish soldiers were interned at the fortress after Soviet advances pushed them across the border.

When Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, Captain Johan Basilier Basilier commanded Vardøhus. The garrison consisted of a retired lieutenant, two privates, ten non-combatant military personnel, and two civilians. Additional troops were mobilized between 9 and 11 April. About 150 men were available after full mobilization, and approximately 215 men were assigned to Vardøhus by the cease-fire on 10 June.

Basilier took sick leave on 13 April and Navy Lieutenant B. Bjerkelund replaced him. During the mobilization, the entire island was placed under guard. Coast-watch and air-observation posts were activated, telephone lines connected the outposts with the fortress, and members of local rifle associations helped guard important objectives.

On 20 April, General Carl Gustav Fleischer ordered a German prisoner-of-war camp at Vardøhus. The steamer Nova arrived on 24 April with 155 German prisoners, most of them members of the Kriegsmarine, Nazi Germany’s navy. Many had served aboard the destroyer Erich Koellner, which had been sunk during the Battles of Narvik. The prisoners, including its commander Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, were held in the Quarantine Detention building before being transferred to Skorpa on 13 May. They were released on 12 June after mainland Norway capitulated.

The fortress also operated a 12-bed field hospital and a radio station. From 23 May, it came under the newly established East Finnmark Naval District. On 4 June, a Luftwaffe bomber attacked Vardøhus. The Luftwaffe was Nazi Germany’s air force. The bomber missed the radio station but damaged the church and the commandant’s quarters. Fire from the fortress’s 65-millimeter Hotchkiss gun damaged the aircraft and wounded its navigator.

During the attack, Corporal Olav Børve fired thirteen rounds of case-shot from the Hotchkiss gun, after which the machine guns also opened fire. A new anti-aircraft position was completed on nearby Kirkeberget, but no guns were installed there before the cease-fire.

Bjerkelund evacuated to the United Kingdom on 8 June and was replaced by Coastal Artillery Lieutenant H. Johannesen. Most fortress personnel were demobilized on 9 June. The remaining officers, non-commissioned officers, and twelve soldiers continued to serve until the German arrival.

German forces did not reach Vardø until 17 July. Vardøhus therefore became the last armed Norwegian unit to lay down its arms during the Norwegian Campaign, the 1940 fighting between German invasion forces and Norwegian and Allied troops in Norway. The surrender took place on 20 July. Captain Roald Rye Rynning continued as commander and became a symbol of Norwegian sovereignty as well as an intermediary between German authorities and Norwegian military and civil officials.

Occupation, postwar use, and the fortress today

Between 25 July and 7 November 1940, Norwegian personnel repeatedly raised the civil ensign after German soldiers removed it and raised the German flag. Each time the German flag was removed, it was burned. On 7 November, Rynning was arrested on the order of Josef Terboven, Nazi Germany’s Reichskommissar in occupied Norway. He was held as a political prisoner in Norway, transferred to prisoner-of-war status in December 1942, and deported to camps in Germany and occupied Poland. He returned to Norway on 7 June 1945.

German occupation forces strengthened the defenses around Vardø and built two coastal-artillery batteries. Vardøhus served as barracks for their crews. In 1944, General Lothar Rendulic ordered a scorched-earth withdrawal through Finnmark. This policy involved destroying settlements and resources to deny them to an advancing enemy. Vardø was burned and the German coastal batteries were demolished, while Vardøhus remained intact although badly deteriorated.

From 1945 to 1947, the demilitarized fortress served as a prison for people convicted of treason during Norway’s postwar legal purge. In 1947, it returned to fortress status with a commander and a small military detachment. The Royal Norwegian Navy now remains responsible for Vardøhus. The fortress has a commander and four soldiers and functions mainly as a salute fortress, firing on Norway’s Constitution Day, the anniversary of the dissolution of the union with Sweden, and royal birthdays.

Vardøhus also fires a two-round salute on the winter day when the sun becomes visible again after the polar night. The salute traditionally tells Vardø’s school pupils that they have the rest of the day off to celebrate the sun’s return. The fortress contains a museum and continues to serve as a site of cultural and military history.

Remains

The star fort and historic buildings

Vardøhus is laid out as an eight-pointed star fort, a polygonal defensive design with projecting points that allowed overlapping gunfire and reduced sheltered areas. Its stated materials include brick, earth, sand, stone, and wood. The present plan belongs to the eighteenth-century rebuilding carried out between 1734 and 1738, while the earlier Østervågen fortification had a separate rectangular plan with two corner bastions.

Barracks and museum

The barracks building constructed in 1811 houses a small museum. One exhibit is a historic beam bearing the initials of visiting kings, from Christian IV through Harald V. The building forms part of the surviving fortress complex and connects the site’s military use with its royal associations.

Quarantine Detention building

The Quarantine Detention building was used in April and May 1940 to house the 155 German prisoners of war brought to Vardø aboard the Nova. Their confinement there formed part of the fortress’s wartime role before the prisoners were transferred to Skorpa.

Wartime defenses and damage

Fortress artillery

In 1940, the fortress was armed with four Krupp Model 1887 8.4-centimeter field guns, two 37-millimeter Armstrong cannon borrowed from the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1914, one Hotchkiss Model 1896 65-millimeter cannon, and one Maxim Model 1898 37-millimeter autocannon. Its smaller weapons included two Model 1915 Madsen machine guns in 6.5 by 55-millimeter Krag caliber. An additional heavy machine gun of unknown manufacture was initially present, and several more machine guns were added during the campaign.

Local blacksmiths made improvised anti-aircraft mounts for the machine guns. On 4 June 1940, Corporal Olav Børve used the 65-millimeter Hotchkiss gun against the attacking Luftwaffe bomber. The church, commandant’s quarters, radio hut, and other buildings were damaged in the attack, while the intended target, the radio station, was not hit directly.

Kirkeberget position and coastal batteries

The anti-aircraft position on nearby Kirkeberget was completed during the Norwegian Campaign, but its guns were not installed before the cease-fire. German occupation forces later built two coastal-artillery batteries in the Vardø area. These batteries were demolished during the German withdrawal in 1944, while Vardøhus survived the destruction that affected much of the town.

Observatory memorial and grounds

A memorial plaque at the fortress commemorates Maximilian Hell’s observations of the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1768-1769. The memorial preserves the association between the fortress and eighteenth-century astronomy.

A rowan tree was planted beside the commandant’s house in the 1950s and was long regarded as the only tree in Vardø’s Arctic climate. It was wrapped for protection each winter, but died during the severe winter of 2002. A replacement rowan was planted in 2004.