The Art Nouveau Whale Door [Door of the Month - August 2025]

A grand, light brown wooden double door with a large round window featuring a circular geometric pattern is set into a white building. The doorway is framed by classical white columns and molding. Two large windows with brown frames are on either side of the door. The number "27" is in a decorative plaque above the door. Small evergreen bushes are on either side of the short staircase leading up to the door.

I just returned from a 2 week vacation in Scandinavia and that’s where I found the August 2025 door of the month. I was expecting to find my pick in a big city like Oslo, Gothenburg, or Copenhagen. Instead, I discovered this whale of a door in a place I almost didn’t visit at all!

We stayed in Tønsberg, Norway for a few days so that we could go see Europe (yes, the 1980s hard rock band famous for singing “The Final Countdown”). We originally planned to take the train to Tønsberg but track works meant that it would take a lot longer than we had anticipated and would require us to schlep our bags onto a bus. We ended up renting a car and I’m so glad we did. I wouldn’t have found the door of the month if we didn’t have a car!

We were looking for day trip ideas from Tønsberg. We wanted to visit Verdens ende (World’s End) for sure, but we also thought we’d have time to visit one other place that day. We narrowed it down to Horta and Sandefjord. When I read that Sandefjord was rich in Art Nouveau architecture, I was sold!

I discovered the August 2025 door of the month in Sandefjord, Norway. This door caught my eye as we were driving by looking for parking. While I couldn’t convince my husband to jam on the brakes and stop the car immediately, I did walk back several blocks after we parked to suss out this door.

The door and facade itself are elegant and memorable. What really made this door for me though was the handle. Look closely. It’s shaped like a whale! Why? Sandefjord, was historically known as the “whaling capital of the world,” particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

We learned in Tønsberg that a local man invented what was effectively a harpoon grenade 😳 which revolutionized the industry. Museums in Tønsberg and Sandefjord take a candid look at the history of whaling and how the industry nearly brought entire species to extinction.