Lofotr

Lofotr belongs to the Lofoten islands, whose steep mountains rise above the waters of northern Norway. Each winter and spring, migrating cod gather in the sea around the islands. Fishers came from a wide stretch of coast to join the seasonal catch, drying their fish in the cold air for preservation and sale. The medieval settlement of Vågar became a centre of this stockfish trade.

In 1432 the Venetian merchant Pietro Querini and survivors of his shipwreck reached the islands of Røst. Local fishers sheltered them through the winter, and Querini recorded a community sustained by fishing, livestock and the exchange of dried cod. Lofoten stockfish travelled through Bergen to markets abroad, joining these northern islands to commercial routes across Europe.