Where to Stay in Kristiansund, Møre og Romsdal

Kristiansund is known for its clipfish trade. The town is the chief port of Nordmøre in the north-east of Møre og Romsdal, a working harbour that dried and shipped salt cod to the markets of southern Europe for generations. Norsk klippfiskmuseum keeps that story.

Kirkelandet kirke rises over the rebuilt centre, the old yard at Mellemværftet recalls the wooden ships, and the harbour still ties the town to the open western coast.

The harbour holds the town's marks. Kirkelandet kirke rises over the rebuilt centre, the modern church of the port, while Nordlandet kirke and St. Eystein kirke stand over the older quarters around the water. The clipfish past is kept on the quays.

Norsk klippfiskmuseum and the wooden yard at Mellemværftet record the salt cod trade and the wooden ships, Nordmørsmusea gathers the wider history of Nordmøre, and the Kristiansund brannmuseum recalls the fires that swept the timber town of Møre og Romsdal.

Salt cod built the town. Kristiansund grew on the sheltered harbour of Nordmøre where the fishing fleets of the western coast landed their catch, and the place was chartered as a town in 1742, rising on the clipfish trade that dried and salted cod for the markets of southern Europe. The fish made it rich.

Norsk klippfiskmuseum keeps that record of the salt cod and the merchants who shipped it abroad, while the wooden yard at Mellemværftet recalls the ships and the boatbuilding that served the port of Møre og Romsdal. Fire ran through the timber streets more than once, the burnings that the Kristiansund brannmuseum records, and the centre was rebuilt around the modern Kirkelandet kirke after the worst of them. The old parishes held their ground across the harbour, Nordlandet kirke and St. Eystein kirke among them, and Nordmørsmusea gathers the longer history of the surrounding district of Nordmøre.

The town settled as the seat of its municipality. The harbour still works the coast that the clipfish trade first opened.

Kristiansund lies in western Norway, in the north-eastern part of Møre og Romsdal, on the open coast of Nordmøre. A sheltered harbour gathers the town, set where the channels of the western shore meet the sea, the quays of the clipfish trade lining the water near Mellemværftet and the old yard. The Atlantic breaks just beyond.

Around Kirkelandet kirke the rebuilt centre spreads back from the harbour, and the older quarters of Nordlandet kirke ring the working port across the broken coast of the surrounding district.

Kristiansund has the wet, mild weather of the western coast, the open Atlantic keeping the seasons even over the harbour of Nordmøre. Winters stay grey and damp rather than hard, the sea air holding the deep frost off the town, while the summers run cool and bright under the long northern daylight that lingers late over the quays of Møre og Romsdal. The wind comes off the sea.

Rain crosses the coast often, sweeping in from the open water and breaking against the outer shore around the port.

Boats and bridges carry the traffic. Kristiansund reaches by the coastal road that threads the islands of Nordmøre, crossing the fjords by bridge and tunnel into the harbour, with the coastal steamer and the express boats calling at the quays from along the western shore. An airport sits near the town.

Flights come in over the water to the strip beside the port, the ferries link the broken coast of Møre og Romsdal, and drivers reach the centre by the routes that tie the harbour to the mainland.