City fire and Skriveralmenningen

Anna Holbye is known in Egersund as the owner of the house where the great town fire of 1843 started. Two-thirds of the town burned down due to dense wooden buildings and wind. The entire area between Torget and Bradbenken burned down, leaving hundreds of people homeless. The town fire of 1843 is the largest of six known town fires in Egersund.

What is less well known is that in 1848, just four years and five months later, another fire broke out in her house in Egersund. After this, there was apparently great resentment against her in Egersund, which may have been why she moved to Kristiania (Oslo) shortly afterwards, where she started a girls' school on 23 May 1849.

Repertory of practical legal authority 1848-09-27

After the fire, a zoning plan was drawn up with straight, wide streets instead of the narrow, winding streets the city had previously had. To prevent future fires from spreading, a fire lane, Skriveralmenningen, was also constructed to prevent future fires from spreading between neighbourhoods. It was named after magistrate Christian Feyer, who was in charge of the zoning work and lived at Strandgaten 58, Skrivergården.

The lime trees in Skriveralmenningen were planted in 1893 by Egersund Skog og Treplantningsselskap, replacing some 30-year-old poplars.

We have received several complaints about herring barrels being stored close to the trees on Skriveralmendingen below Strandgaten. There is a danger that the brine can kill these trees, they say.

Egersundsposten 7 March 1916. The lime trees
died a few months later, and was not
reimbursed.

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