Norway's best-preserved northern trading post sits on a sandy beach backed by dramatic granite peaks. Fifteen protected buildings from the early 1800s through the 1880s line the shore at Kjerringøy, complete with warehouses, boathouses, the original shop, and a grand two-storey Empire-style main house. The complex holds over 8,000 artifacts and a surviving Nordlandsbåt from 1820.
The story of Kjerringøy is really the story of Erasmus Zahl. He arrived in 1849 as a 23-year-old clerk. When the merchant died, Zahl married the widow, Anna Elisabeth Sverdrup, on Christmas Eve 1857. She was 56, he was 31. It was a calculated move that cut her nieces and nephews out of the inheritance and gave Zahl control of the post. During the great herring boom of 1865 to 1876, up to a thousand fishermen sheltered here at a time, and Zahl's fortune nearly doubled to 265,000 speciedaler. He became northern Norway's richest man, running a credit-and-barter system that bound fishermen economically to the post.
When Anna Elisabeth died in 1879 after falling down the staircase in the main house, Zahl turned teetotal and banned all alcohol sales at the post, a radical decision in coastal Norway. He died in 1900 with no heirs. The estate was auctioned the following year.
The young Knut Hamsun knew Zahl personally. In 1879, Zahl lent Hamsun 1,600 kroner, a significant sum, accepting a life insurance policy as collateral. Hamsun later used Zahl as the model for the character Mack in four novels: Pan (1894), Sværmere (1904), Benoni (1908), and Rosa (1908). The fictional Sirilund is Kjerringøy. The 2002 film "I Am Dina" with Gérard Depardieu was also shot here.
The post's decline was caused by progress: its shallow sandy beach could not accommodate steamships, and when motorised boats arrived, fishermen could bypass it entirely. What killed the business preserved the buildings.
The story of Kjerringøy is really the story of Erasmus Zahl. He arrived in 1849 as a 23-year-old clerk. When the merchant died, Zahl married the widow, Anna Elisabeth Sverdrup, on Christmas Eve 1857. She was 56, he was 31. It was a calculated move that cut her nieces and nephews out of the inheritance and gave Zahl control of the post. During the great herring boom of 1865 to 1876, up to a thousand fishermen sheltered here at a time, and Zahl's fortune nearly doubled to 265,000 speciedaler. He became northern Norway's richest man, running a credit-and-barter system that bound fishermen economically to the post.
When Anna Elisabeth died in 1879 after falling down the staircase in the main house, Zahl turned teetotal and banned all alcohol sales at the post, a radical decision in coastal Norway. He died in 1900 with no heirs. The estate was auctioned the following year.
The young Knut Hamsun knew Zahl personally. In 1879, Zahl lent Hamsun 1,600 kroner, a significant sum, accepting a life insurance policy as collateral. Hamsun later used Zahl as the model for the character Mack in four novels: Pan (1894), Sværmere (1904), Benoni (1908), and Rosa (1908). The fictional Sirilund is Kjerringøy. The 2002 film "I Am Dina" with Gérard Depardieu was also shot here.
The post's decline was caused by progress: its shallow sandy beach could not accommodate steamships, and when motorised boats arrived, fishermen could bypass it entirely. What killed the business preserved the buildings.