Fjell festning, or, more officially, MKB 11/504 Fjell, is an old, German coastal fort from WWII. Building started in 1942. Built to guard the harbour of Bergen from enemy ships, the fort was never finished, though the main gun was ready for action from the summer of 1943.
The fortress was build to guard the main weapon: three 28 cm guns in a single turret from the battleship Gneisenau, which had been damaged beyond repair in harbour at Kiel, in February 1942.
Today, a café has been built where the turret once stood. The turrent was connected to a huge tunnel system, in which several hundred men could live underground, isolated and protected for long periods of time. It is possible to attend guided tours in the main tunnel system, please visit Museum Vest's homepage for up to date information on opening hours etc.
Please note that the area in general is open all year, all day, and that entry is free!
The fortress is huge, and spans over a large area. Most people know the fortress only as the main guns in the turret and the large tunnel system, but, though important, all the smaller bunkers, positions and roads around the area tells their tale of a large war machine placed on an at the time rather remote, in terms of communication, island west of Bergen. Hundreds of large and small bunkers, fortified positions, barracks and tunnels are scattered all over the area. Take some time to wander over the area, and you will find a lot of emplacements known by few people today.
Many of the positions you will find, are small, one-man positions made for machine guns, small flame throwers or observation. These were known as Ringstand 58.
Image: Ringstand 58
Image: German and a Japanese (!) officer at the fort, the day of the first test fire of the main guns.
To build the fort, hundreds of prisoners of war were used as slaves, and some died during construction of the fort. The prisoners were housed in two camps, the first one built here, and the second, larger camp here. There are still some remains visible the last camp.
About the cache:
This cache has been placed away from the most trafficated areas of the fort. This is to prevent mugglers from finding it too easily.
Getting to this cache requires about 20-30 minutes of walking. It is not possible to drive all the way up to the fort! Park your car (if you have one) HERE (there is a large parking lot, not shown on the sat. images on google, though) - and walk the road up to Fjell festning. There is asphalt all the way. Do not drive up, even though the gate is open; the road is private, and the gate may close at any time of the day, without notice. In addition, if driving up the road, you'll irritate all other people walking on it.
The road was built by the POWs in a matter of three to four months, so you'll be walking on war history going up to the fort as well.
Be careful when walking at the fort: many of the emplacements are overgrown, and can be hard to see.
Please view the hint and/or the spoiler picture to avoid searching for the cache in the wrong place. This is to avoid people destroying historical sites in the search.
For more detailed information on the history behind this site, visit: Wikipedia, Norwegian (an in-depth article with many pictures from the site) or Wikipedia, English (a rather short article)