The witches at the ‘Gates of Hell’: Norway’s darkest hour

VARDOE, Norway: Four centuries ago in the remote Norwegian Arctic, a region known as the “Gates of Hell” for its harsh climes, dozens of women were prosecuted for witchcraft and killed.

Centuries afterwards, a sense of collective guilt lingers, and the women wrongfully convicted of non-existent crimes are remembered at a memorial in the small town of Vardoe, perched on the edge of the Varanger peninsula in Norway’s extreme northeast.