Tranøy i Hamarøy (Tranøy in Hamarøy)
Description
8297 Tranøy
The small community of Tranøy is situated in the northern region of the municipality of Hamarøy, between knolls and bays, overlooking the Vestfjord. There are clusters of buildings from the first part of the 20th century, the majority of which are characterised by the boom period. The buildings bear witness to a thriving economy and represent different style periods of architecture, such as the Swiss style, Jugendstil, simple neo-classicism and Functionalism, on certain occasions these styles merge.
Knut Hamsun, a renowned Norwegian writer, worked as a shop-clerk at the Tranøy trading settlement, which was the most important site in this area. This community greatly prospered during the last half of the 19th century, at this time many thriving herring fisheries were located along the coast. Around 1900 the Tranøy Pilot Station was established. This occurred just before the first shipment of ore from North Sweden was transported via ship from Narvik. Due to the large amount of shipping traffic in Narvik, many boating pilots were required. At one time the Tranøy Pilot Station had at least 30 pilots. These pilots earned a decent sized income. This economic activity provided the financial basis for the construction of stately residences. Today there are no longer any pilots based at Tranøy.
Whenever a pilot wanted to build a residence, the site was distributed by the trading settlement. For each title number, a cultivated plot was included (a cow pasture), in addition to the building site. In this way, each property was comprised of a residence and a small cow-house/barn, which was situated on uncultivable ground. The green plots carpet the areas between the knolls and buildings. Even though there are no longer any cows it is this type of layout that still characterises this area.
The layout photograph shows what remains of the old trading settlement (to the right in the photo). To the left, one vaguely sees the buildings that belonged to three pilot residences. The hill (to the left in the photo) is called Loshågen and has a panoramic view of the Vestfjord and the Lofoten Mountains (also referred to as 'the Lofoten Wall') in the distance to the north. The pilot station was situated at Loshågen, and there are still remnants from this activity.
Knut Hamsun, a renowned Norwegian writer, worked as a shop-clerk at the Tranøy trading settlement, which was the most important site in this area. This community greatly prospered during the last half of the 19th century, at this time many thriving herring fisheries were located along the coast. Around 1900 the Tranøy Pilot Station was established. This occurred just before the first shipment of ore from North Sweden was transported via ship from Narvik. Due to the large amount of shipping traffic in Narvik, many boating pilots were required. At one time the Tranøy Pilot Station had at least 30 pilots. These pilots earned a decent sized income. This economic activity provided the financial basis for the construction of stately residences. Today there are no longer any pilots based at Tranøy.
Whenever a pilot wanted to build a residence, the site was distributed by the trading settlement. For each title number, a cultivated plot was included (a cow pasture), in addition to the building site. In this way, each property was comprised of a residence and a small cow-house/barn, which was situated on uncultivable ground. The green plots carpet the areas between the knolls and buildings. Even though there are no longer any cows it is this type of layout that still characterises this area.
The layout photograph shows what remains of the old trading settlement (to the right in the photo). To the left, one vaguely sees the buildings that belonged to three pilot residences. The hill (to the left in the photo) is called Loshågen and has a panoramic view of the Vestfjord and the Lofoten Mountains (also referred to as 'the Lofoten Wall') in the distance to the north. The pilot station was situated at Loshågen, and there are still remnants from this activity.
Year of construction
1850-1990
Building Type
Residential buildings
Keywords
residence
trading settlement
Map
