Katarina Barruk joiks for survival

400 years ago, people who did extraordinary things were accused of being witches and burned at the stake. 135 such people, sentenced to death by fire in the Norwegian county of Finnmark between 1600 and 1692, are commemorated by a memorial on the edge of Vardø. A metal chair is perpetually engulfed in flames, and a long, submarine-like corridor gives each of their names, their alleged crime, and how they died, 135 dim light bulbs flickering sympathetically. Vardø is in the extreme top-right corner of Norway, spitting distance from the Russian border, far above the Arctic Circle, and further east than St Petersburg. You have to take a tunnel 88 metres under the sea to get there. Hilltop satellites and radio towers keep an eye on Putin, our driver tells me.The locals call it the ghost town, he says. That’s mostly because of the crumbling cabins and boats becoming splinters, the cars being sucked into the grassland and the army of seagulls perched sinisterly on every available rooftop – but it’s also not a stretch to sense 135 spirits hanging in the air like low, heavy clouds. Sign up to Best Fit's Substack for regular dispatches from the world of pop culture Gundelle Omundsdatter. Ac...