Kristiansand: beaches and fortresses on the Skagerrak

Summer capital of Norway's southern coast, Kristiansand overlooks the Skagerrak strait with unusually sandy beaches for Norway.

The center, among beaches and fortresses on the Skagerrak, can be comfortably visited on foot.

The Fortress of Christiansholm, built in the seventeenth century to defend the port, remains the most imposing historic monument of the city.

Just steps away, the quarter of Posebyen, with its white wooden houses from the eighteenth century, remains one of Norway's best-preserved historic quarters.

Continuing along the coast you reach Bystranda, an urban beach of white sand rare along rocky Norwegian coasts.

Toward evening, a ferry to the surrounding archipelago offers trips among uninhabited islets and historic lighthouses.

Posebyen, with its over three hundred white wooden houses arranged according to the original 17th-century urban plan, remains one of the largest historic wooden house districts still standing in Scandinavia, having survived numerous urban fires.

Kristiansand was founded in 1641 by King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway according to a regular grid urban plan, unusual for the era in Scandinavia, and was named directly after the sovereign who wanted it as a strategic fortress to defend the southern coast.