Every design for Skien

Did you know that Skien was trading long before it had a king's charter? A carving of the so-called Skien animal proves the town predates the turn of the first millennium, when farmers from inland Telemark met seafarers here to trade whetstones from Eidsborg and much else besides.

For anyone who knows it, Skien means water and hills. The centre sits where the Farelva, flowing from Norsjø, widens into Hjellevatnet and splits into a waterfall on either side of Klosterøya, before the Skienselva carries on towards the sea and Porsgrunn. Boats still pass through Løveid sluser at Skotfoss, and wooded ridges rise to the north and west. People remember it as the town where Henrik Ibsen was born, and where Odd, the oldest football club still playing in Norway, was born. Henrik Ibsen museum and Telemark museum keep that past close, and Brekkeparken offers a green pause in the middle of it all.

If you learned your way around these steep streets, you will spot your own corner of Skien on the map straight away.