Travel Guide Skien

Capital of the Telemark region and birthplace of playwright Henrik Ibsen, Skien stretches out on both sides of the river, wide enough for large boats to sail from the sea to the city centre. The timber trade was Skien's main activity. Many fires have once ravaged the city, including the large property of Ibsen's father. The other two houses where Ibsen lived, Venstøp and Snipetorp, have now become museums.In Venstøp, you can still see the black attic that Ibsen was so afraid of as a child, and that he describes in his play The Wild Duck. Henrik Ibsen was born into a large family whose father, ruined in speculation, started drinking. Skien was also one of the most important places of Norwegian pietism. To console himself from his misfortune, his mother devoted herself to pietist mysticism. In his Memoirs of Childhood, Ibsen, who did not like his hometown, says of Skien: "I was born in a house on the square, the Stockman house, as it was then called. "This house was just in front of the facade of the church with its high square and imposing tower. To the right of the church was the town's pillory and to the left was the town hall with the depot and the "cabanon". The fourth side of the square was occupied by the primary and secondary schools. The church was isolated in the middle.