Kristiansand S
A historical WWII museum in Kristiansand that features a German coastal defence battery from 1940-45, with the world's second largest land-based cannon (337 tonnes).
Kristiansand kanonmuseum (cannon museum) Møvik Fortress outside Kristiansand was built by the Germans during World War II. The museum houses the only remaining 380mm Krupp gun in the world and plenty of other material from WWII.
Bunker 55 is one of the two original German ammunitions stores for 38 mm grenades and ignition charges. This is a very special bunker, and well worth a visit.
You can also take a ride with the ammunition railway train. This is an 1800 meter long railway track that used to carry ammunition for the guns at Møvik Fortress.
The museum is in the vicinity of hiking areas and bathing places and a great viewing point, a place to visit even if the indoor museum is not open.
History:
Møvik Fort was erected between 1941 and 1944 by the German Navy as one of the four coastal defence batteries that made up the Kristiansand artillery group. In the autumn of 1941, 744 Norwegians worked at the installations, as well as 231 Danes, 31 Germans and 356 men from the fortress pioneers. Prisoners of war from a prison camp on the field to the east of the fort were also used as labour. German experts were brought in to assemble the guns.
The battery was originally called the Kroodden Battery, but was renamed Batterie Vara to commemorate a German general who was killed during construction of fortifications on the occupied islands in the English Channel.
Møvik Fort on the Norwegian coast had a sister battery in Hanstholm in Denmark. They were built to block off the Skagerrak strait and the sea route to eastern Norway, Kattegat and the Baltic for the allied naval forces. This construction of heavy artillery was initiated on Hitler’s direct orders.
The cannon is one of the largest in the world, with a 380 mm calibre. The gun barrel alone weighs 110 tonnes, and is almost 20 metres long. It has a reach of 55 kilometres. In 2019 the cannon was painted in the same colors that it was in 1943, since the 1980's it was gray.
Today, Møvik Fort is a peaceful spot on the hills near Vestergabet to the south of Kristiansand.
How to get there.
By bus from Kristiansand: Take route M1 Flekkerøy. Several departures every hour.
By car from Kristiansand: Take the E 39 Road to Stavanger, then follow the R456 Road towards Vågsbygd and finally the R457 Road to Møvik.
The Kristiansand Cannon Museum is part Vest-Agder-Museet museum union.
Source: Visit Kristiansand