Domen near Vardø

Finnmark · Norway · Natural site

Norway's most notorious witches' mountain: here the condemned were said to have danced at midsummer while Satan himself played a red fiddle.

Domen is a low, bare coastal hill south of Vardø – and Norway's best-known witches' mountain. During the Finnmark witch trials of the 1600s it returned again and again in the interrogation records: the accused described, usually under torture, witches' dances on Domen around midsummer, feasting inside the rock, and Satan himself striking up on a red fiddle. An opening in the cliff face was pointed out as the gate of hell. The confessions were forced, but detailed enough to cost dozens of women their lives down at Steilneset. A path climbs to the summit today. There is nothing up there but moss, stone and the Barents Sea – and a silence that makes it uncomfortably easy to understand why this particular hill became the nightmare of the condemned.

FAQ

Where is Domen near Vardø located?

Domen near Vardø is in Finnmark, Norway.

More haunted places in Finnmark

• Steilneset Memorial, Vardø Finnmark · Execution site
• Odderøya – the Quarantine Station and Cholera Cemetery Agder · Cemetery
• The Evil One in Bukken Who Feared the Cross (Kinsarvik) Hordaland · Site of legend
• The Kari Rud Tune – Kjørstad-drepen (Sør-Aurdal) Oppland · Site of legend
• The Priest and the Candle That Couldn't Be Blown Out, Sauda Rogaland · Church
• The Priest's Sons and the Clawed Stranger (Land) Oppland · Site of legend
• Helje Danced to Death (Elverum) Hedmark · Site of legend
• The Sand Ropes on Kaupanger Shore, Sogndal Sogn og Fjordane · Natural site

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.