Every design for Horten

Horten sits on a peninsula along the outer Oslofjord, between Holmestrand to the north and Tønsberg to the south, and the ferry to Moss has crossed from here for more than four centuries. Long before there was a town, the burial mounds at Borre marked this stretch of coast as a seat of Viking power; Borre National Park holds the largest known burial site in Scandinavia.

Marinemuseet tells the story of what turned a farm called Horten into a town. Crown Prince Regent Karl Johan decided that Norway's main naval base should be built here, and the station was named Karljohansvern after him, though he never visited it himself. The naval shipyard that followed, later Horten Verft, was the backbone of the town for years, and the Naval Academy was founded here too. When the main base moved to Haakonsvern near Bergen, Horten had to find a new footing. KNM Narvik and Tordenskioldeika belong to the same chapter, while Preus Fotomuseum gives the town a cultural landmark of a very different kind. The local paper, Gjengangeren, has followed it all.

Trace the coastline from Åsgårdstrand to Karljohansvern and you have the summers of anyone who grew up here: the coastal path, the fjord, and the ferry setting off across the water.