Skien in Ibsen's time

For the city in which the great poet grew up no longer exists. It was consumed by flames in a catastrophic city fire on the night of August 8, 1886. Henrik Ibsen was then 58 years old and had long since left Skien. After the fire, a large-scale, modern reconstruction of the city was initiated. Henrik Ibsen never saw the new Skien.

Old Skien

The fire of 1886 marks the division between the old and the new Skien. The old Skien consisted mainly of wooden houses that surrounded the Trade Square where, among other things, the church, the town hall and the Latin school were located. Most of the houses were small and were located close together in the streets. The houses often had backyards where there were outbuildings, stables and space for some livestock.

In the finer streets, the houses were larger and more stately. There lived the city's merchant bourgeoisie, skippers and shipowners, the so-called patricians. The Ibsen family belonged to and had deep and long roots in the patrician class in Skien.

The industrial area of ​​Bridges and the importance of the waterway

South of the city center was the "Broene" with factories, sawmills and various craft businesses. This area ran from Telemarksgata, over Bollefoss and out to the two islands of Smieøya and Klosterøya which were connected by bridges over the waterfalls – Damfoss and Klosterfossen. This isthmus separates the upper Hjellevannet and the lower Bryggevannet where the difference in level is five meters. These five meters have given Skien the power and industrial muscle to develop as a central Norwegian lumber, industrial and export city for many centuries.

Hjellevannet is the lowest part of the Telemark watercourse that extends all the way into the interior of Telemark, and Bryggevannet had a connection to the sea via the Skienselva. The waterway inland and out to the sea was crucial for Skien's trade and exports all the way back to the 900s. 

When the Broene area burned down in 1936, it marked the end of a 400-year history, in which the sawmills on Eidet had been the economic backbone of Skien.

Klosterøya

On Klosterøya was the old Gimsøy Monastery , which was a Benedictine monastery established around 1150. Later, the monastery was closed down and became the administrative center for the failed attempts to establish large-scale mining operations in the area.

The old monastery buildings burned down in 1546, and the island has later had both manorial buildings and industry. Today, there are no remains of either the monastery or manorial period on the island.

Major floods and urban fires

In Ibsen's time, the Telemark waterway was not regulated, and the water level in Lake Hjellevannet varied greatly with the seasons. This led to large and destructive floods that submerged large parts of the city.

It wasn't just the floods that came at regular intervals. So did the city fires. Between 1652 and 1777, Skien burned down six times, until the fire in 1886 destroyed the old Skien for good. Thus, the city that was Henrik Ibsen's childhood environment was gone forever.

Skien was quickly rebuilt.

After the devastating city fire of 1886, the new Skien was rebuilt and reorganized into a more modern city. Most houses in old Skien were well insured, which meant that reconstruction began immediately and progressed rapidly throughout the 1890s. To break the chain of countless fires that had hit Skien throughout the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries, compulsory building regulations were introduced.

Skien Church was not rebuilt on Handelstorget, where the city's church had been located since the 13th century. The new church was built higher up in the city, not far from Lie Cemetery, where Ibsen's parents are buried. Skien Church was completed in 1894.

High and centrally located in the city and with its two towers of 68 meters, the church is a landmark in the area. The line of sight from the church down Kirkegaten through Ibsenparken and Henrik Ibsensgate and down to the harbor is a monumental main axis in modern Skien.

Almost everything was gone

The fire of 1886 destroyed almost all the buildings in the city center. Only the Prestegården at the top of Telemarksgata on the hill west of the city center and Snipetorpgata on the east side remain today.

Snipetorp is the only authentic urban environment from the 17th-19th centuries that exists in Skien today. Anyone who wants to walk the streets where Henrik Ibsen also walked must therefore make a trip there.

The Ibsen family moved to Snipetorpgata 27 in 1843, not long after Henrik had left the city to become an apprentice pharmacist in Grimstad. However, Henrik visited on several occasions while he lived in Grimstad, and he stopped by on his way to Kristiania in 1850.