Today the island is a popular recreational area, with good bathing and a popular restaurant. 

Open from 20 May to 3 September. Boats depart daily every hour from Ravnkloa.

Trips can be arranged for groups from the middle of April until the end of September. Please contact Lilletorget Hotel and Conference Center

In days of yore
The Bay of Naples has its Castel del Nuovo, and Trondheim fjord has its Munkholmen. It often takes the fresh eyes of an outsider to see the picturesque that is around you everyday. Thus it was that Edward Clarke, the Egyptologist, wrote in 1799 that this little island in the north by far outshined its Italian counterpart.

After Trondheim was ravaged by a major and destructive fire in 1681, the city planner from Luxembourg and the Danish army, Major General Johan Caspar de Cicignon, drew up a new city plan, where Munkegata (one of the main streets) was placed at an angle to the rectangular downtown area so that it was perfectly aligned to highlight Munkholmen and Nidaros Cathedral. The sombre grey walls of the buildings on Munkholmen have many secret messages, layer upon layer of history, some of which is echoed in famous literature.

In summer, when winter's hard gusts of wind that cover the tiny island with frothy salty foam have abated, droves of sun-bathers come to the island to swim in the clear waters and bask in the sun by the old fortification walls. Amateur theatrical performances also attract visitors. In days of yore though, the earls ruling the region preferred to use the island as a place of execution. After having been so violently removed from their bodies, the heads of Håkon Earl and his thrall Kark were placed on stakes here to their everlasting shame, only a few years before Olav Tryggvason had rowed into the fjord on his way to founding the city of Trondheim, then called Kaupangen (trading place).

According to Icelandic historical record, Sigurd Ullstreng, the King's vassal and regional governor, founded a cloister here around 1105, 'Nidarholmen', the island by Nidar (then the name of the city), was entered in the Pope's tax registers, and just before 1200 Tjodrek the monk wrote a saga of the Norwegian kings in Latin here. However, the monastery laid in ruins before the Reformation.

From incarceration to recreation
Later events pushed the island closer to the maelstrom of historical events. Before the war in 1658 a fort had been planned here, but the king quickly declared war before it could be built. Too hasty a move indeed - as the end result was that the whole region of Trøndelag and Møre came under the rule of the Swedish monarchy. After the Peace Treaty was signed in the Danish city of Roskilde two years later, 3000 local citizens marched to the wars on the "eastern front". Sadly only a very of these were ever to see their farms again. Cannon and guards were put on the island of Munkholmen by the intruders. Norway's fortunes then hinged on the will of the few noblemen to defend their country and reinstate the citizens of Trøndelag as Norwegians. Commander-in-Chief Jørgen Bjelke and his brother Ove Bjelke, the owner and builder of the Austråt Mansion at Ørlandet, sent troops to battle the Swedes. The men on Munkholmen were the first to surrender, and before Christmas that year the region had rid itself of the intruders. Boats carrying lime and stone shuttled back and forth as construction on the Munkholmen fortifications continued up to 1661. And building a fortress is obviously thirsty work - in one season alone, more than 400 barrels of beer were consumed!

The Prisoner of Munkholmen
When the fort was finished, the deep vaults and cold cell floors were deemed suitable to hold the rejects of society, such as fallen nobles, dishonest public servants, clergymen who had drunk of the cup of temptation, or genuine swindlers. In 1671 Chancellor of the Realm Peder Schumacher Griffenfeld was toppled from the peaks of power to the depths of the cold prison floor. In his halcyon days he had been the darling of King Fredrik III and author of the "Kongelov", the Royal Legislation for the Twinned Realms (Denmark and Norway). But he fell from grace and it was not until 18 years later that he was released 64 years of age and mortally sick. His miserable fate inspired French author Victor Hugo to write "The Prisoner of Munkholmen", if perhaps not also "Les Miserables".

A century later, another Frenchman, Jacques de la Tocnaye, wrote in a book of his travels that he was shaken by the experience of the island prison. However, prisoners were still kept here for another 50 years. The fort itself was closed in 1893. When the Germans occupied Norway in 1940, they decided that the island and the old fort were a suitable site for anti-aircraft guns to protect the submarine base "Dora" further in the harbour. Today the fort is well looked after, and at night floodlighting highlights the famous walls to remind us of the many years and eras of history that it has witnessed and in which it has played an important part. 

Only the window with a memorial plaque is left from the cell in the tower where Griffenfeldt pined away. The story is that he circled the floor for eighteen years, leaving deep tracks from the circle he walked and a striking story for the history books for generations! Sadly the floor was destroyed when the fortification was renovated in the 1850s.

Text: Dag-Ivar Rognerød
Illustrations:
Munkholmen. Photo by by Ivar Haugan ©
Griffenfeldt's cell window. Photo by Jiri Havran ©