A tiny wooded islet in the Trondheimsfjord, ringed by a round 17th-century fortress and layered with a thousand years of monks, prisoners and executions.
Munkholmen — "the Monks' Islet" — is a small islet in the fjord just off Trondheim, and few places pack in so much history. In pagan times it was the city's execution ground; around 1100 monks founded Nidarholm Abbey here, one of Norway's oldest monasteries. After the Reformation its stone was reused for a round fortress begun in 1658, which became a state prison and coastal battery, and in the Second World War a German anti-aircraft position. Today the uninhabited islet, barely 13,000 m², is Trondheim's favourite summer excursion, with a small beach and a café.
The islet's story begins in blood. Long before the monks, this rock in the fjord was Trondheim's place of execution, where the heads of the condemned were set on stakes facing the water as a warning. Its most famous victim was Earl Haakon, the pagan ruler of Norway, killed in 995 by his own slave Kark as the two hid in a pigsty; both their severed heads ended up displayed here. A century later the mood changed completely: around 1100 Benedictine monks founded Nidarholm Abbey on the same spot, one of the oldest monasteries in the country. It is the monks who gave the islet its gentle name — Munkholmen — though their abbey fell into ruin after the Reformation of the 1500s swept the monasteries away.
Then the soldiers came. In 1658 Sweden briefly seized Trondheim, and when Norway won it back the authorities decided the fjord needed defending. They built a squat, round fortress of thick stone right over the old abbey, quarrying its ruins for material. The fort doubled as a state prison, and its most celebrated captive was Peder Griffenfeld, a brilliant Danish-Norwegian statesman who rose to the very top of government and then fell spectacularly from favour — he was held on the islet for eighteen years, from 1680 to 1698. Later the fortress served as a customs and quarantine post, and during the Second World War the occupying Germans mounted anti-aircraft guns on it.
All of that fits on a green dot barely 13,000 square metres across. In summer a little passenger boat putters out from Ravnkloa in the city centre, a hop of a few minutes, and Trondheimers pour across to swim off the small beach below the walls, picnic on the grass, and drink coffee at the café in the courtyard while guides walk visitors through the fort's dark and layered past.
The making of Munkholmen
Munkholmen Fortress
The round, thick-walled stone fort begun in 1658 after a Swedish siege of Trondheim, later a state prison and coastal battery — it still crowns the whole islet.
Nidarholm Abbey
One of Norway's oldest Benedictine monasteries, founded on the islet around 1100 — it gave Munkholmen its name ("the Monks' Islet") and its ruins were quarried for the later fort.
Peder Griffenfeld
The brilliant Danish-Norwegian statesman who fell from power and was held prisoner in the island fortress from 1680 to 1698 — Munkholmen's most famous captive.
The gallows islet
Long before the monks, the islet was Trondheim's execution ground; in 995 the severed heads of the defeated Earl Haakon and his slave Kark were displayed here on stakes facing the fjord.
The beach and café
A small sheltered swimming beach and summer café below the fortress walls make the islet Trondheim's favourite warm-weather escape.
The boat from Ravnkloa
In summer a small passenger boat shuttles across from Ravnkloa in the city centre, a short hop that has made the islet a classic Trondheim day trip.
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