Every design for Halden

Above the rooftops of Halden, the walls of Fredriksten festning have watched the border with Sweden for centuries. This is the town whose citizens burned their own houses rather than let King Charles XII of Sweden take them, and the king himself was later shot and killed at the fortress, an event that ended the Great Northern War. Back when it was still called Fredrikshald, it became one of only two towns named in Norway's national anthem.

Halden museum and the old manor Rød herregård tell the quieter side of the story: a port that shipped timber to Holland and England, and a mill town powered by the river Tista where it meets the Iddefjord. No invading army has ever taken Halden by force.

Coming back over the border from Svinesund, the fortress on its hill is how you know you are home.