Every design for Farsund

Farsund is the sheltered harbour on the southern coast that once had more shipping per head of population than any other town in the world. Between the wars its fleet sailed every ocean, and the town's guest harbour has since been named the best in Norway several years in a row.

Walk through the centre and the feeling is of a place that has rebuilt itself with care. A fire in 1901 destroyed much of it, and the new streets were laid out on a grid, lined with Swiss-style wooden houses and Art Nouveau brick buildings. The merchant Jochum Brinch Lund, who won the town its trading rights in 1795, built Husan, called the finest wooden building in Sørlandet; rebuilt after a fire, it now serves as the town hall. Before any of that, ships ran in here for shelter from the exposed waters off Lista and Lindesnes, and lobster went from here to Holland.

Outside the town lie Lundevågen, the viewpoint at Skjolnesveten and the sand at Barbrostranden. If you have spent summers here, you will know the light on the water from those places, and you will know why this harbour felt like the safest place on the coast.