Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're arriving on the Hurtigruten coastal ferry, you'll have only 1½ hours to pace
around, pick up an Arctic souvenir and scoff some fresh shrimp at the harbour. For most
visitors that will be ample.
Sights
Gjenreisningsmuseet
FOLK MUSEUM
Offline map
Google map
(Kirkegata 21;
www.gjenreisningsmuseet.no
;
adult/child
Nkr50/free; 9am-4pm mid-Jun-mid-Aug, 11am-2pm rest of year)
Hammerfest's
Reconstruction Museum is a great little museum with particularly thoughtful and sensitive
panels and captions (each section has a synopsis in English). It recounts the forced evac-
uation and decimation of the town during the Nazi retreat in 1944; the hardships that its
citizens endured through the following winter; and Hammerfest's postwar reconstruction
and regeneration.
Kulturhuset
CULTURAL CENTRE
Offline map
Google map
(Strandgata 30)
Hammerfest's recently completed Kulturhuset
is worth a brief visit, simply to savour its striking architecture. Within, there's a theatre, a
couple of cinemas and a small cafe that does a decent cup of coffee.
Salen Hill
VIEWPOINT
Offline map
Google map
For panoramic views over the town, coast and mountains
(there's a free pair of binoculars for you to sweep the bay), climb Salen Hill (86m), topped
by the Turistua restaurant, a couple of Sami turf huts and a lookout point. The 15-minute
uphill walking trail begins at the small park behind the Rådhus.
Galleri Syvstjerna
ART GALLERY
(
www.syvstjerna.no
;
Fjordaveien 27; 10am-5pm Mon-Thu, 10am-3pm Fri)
Local
artist Eva Arnesen designed the Nobel Peace Prize diploma that was awarded to Jody Wil-
liams and the campaign to ban landmines. Her gallery is about 4km south of town, oppos-
ite the Statoil petrol station. Arnesen's paintings evoke the colours of the region from the
northern lights to the bright palette of summer. The handsome pair of carved and silvered
polar bears on Rådhus Plass was fashioned by her husband, woodcarver Knut Arnesen.
