Two arched bridges on the road to Fredvang in Lofoten
Quick answer. Yes. Mappu’s Fredvang Bridges audio guide (Lofoten, Norway) is free in your browser: 5 sections and about 5 minutes of listening, in 8 languages. It covers “A Bridge That Waited for Its Name”, “Cantilevers Over Open Water” and “Ending the Isolation of Fredvang”. In the Mappu app, Walk Mode narrates the places around you as you move and answers your follow-up questions.
Mappu's own map of the place, with the paths and entrances OpenStreetMap shows around it.
Welcome to Røssøystraumbrua, one half of the pair of bridges known as Fredvangbruene, the Fredvang Bridges, in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. Most of the story you are about to hear belongs to the two bridges together, so I will tell it as the story of the pair and point out where this northern bridge fits in. The setting is the fishing village of Fredvang on the island of Moskenesøya. From here you can look across the water to the neighboring island of Flakstadøya. These bridges cross the sea channels between four small islets, and together they form a curved roadway that follows the dramatic coastal terrain. They opened in 1988, and they have become one of the best-known sights in Lofoten. Over the next few minutes we will look at how the bridges got their names, how they are built, and what they changed for the people of Fredvang.
Here is a curious fact. These bridges carried traffic for decades without an official name. They opened in the late 1980s, and only much later were their names settled. The Norwegian Mapping Authority approved two place names as primary names: Røssøystraumen and Kubbholmleia. The Language Council then recommended the bridge names Kubbholmleibrua and Røssøystraumbrua. Røssøystraumbrua is the northern bridge, the one this guide is named for. The southern one is Kubbholmleibrua. You will also see the older spellings Røssøystraumen Bridge and Kubholmleia Bridge, and the pair together as Fredvangbruene. The name itself carries a clue. In Norwegian, straumen means the current, and the name points to the moving water these spans cross. A bridge named after a stretch of tidal channel is a fitting tribute to the sea that shaped this place.
Now to the engineering. Both bridges are cantilever bridges. Each is 240 meters long in total, with a main span of 115 meters, and they are often described as identical twins leaping across the straits in matching arcs. The big advantage of the design is that the bridges cross open water without columns standing in the middle of the channel disturbing the seabed. That matters in a place with tidal eddies around the islands and strong gusts of wind. Supports out in the current would have been hard to build and would have fought against the moving water. So the roadway steps from islet to islet, curving as it goes, and links four small islands into a single route. Seen from the surrounding hillsides, the two spans trace graceful lines across water that shifts between deep blue and green with the light.
To understand why these bridges matter, picture life in Fredvang before 1988. From the village on Moskenesøya, people could see the neighboring island of Flakstadøya but could not drive there. For a trip to a store, a school, or a hospital on the neighboring island, fishermen and families relied on the sea. The two bridges changed that. They connect Fredvang and Moskenesøya to Flakstadøya and to the main road network of Lofoten, which runs along the entire island chain. They sit within a wider story, because Lofoten is an archipelago laced together by bridges, tunnels and ferry routes, the result of Norway's decades-long effort to link remote island and fjord communities by road. Today a fishing village that was once reached by boat sits on a continuous road through the islands, and visitors can drive across the same spans.
As you take in the view, watch how the roadway bends from islet to islet, and notice the color of the water beneath it. Depending on the light, it moves between deep blue and green, and the mountains behind give the whole scene its backdrop. Try to tell the two bridges apart as you look. The northern one is Røssøystraumbrua, the southern one Kubbholmleibrua, and from certain angles they seem almost like one long curve. Then think about the channel running between the islets, and the fishing families who once crossed it only by boat. Every time you cross or photograph these arcs, you are following the same route they once took across the water.
AI-generated from 6 sources; reviewed for accuracy and last updated on October 30, 2026. Verify tickets and opening hours on the official site. Independent guide by Mappu. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the site or its managers.
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About 5 minutes of listening in 5 sections: “Welcome to Røssøystraumbrua”, “A Bridge That Waited for Its Name”, “Cantilevers Over Open Water”, “Ending the Isolation of Fredvang”, and “Before You Head Off”.
You can ask follow-up questions such as “How did the two Fredvang bridges come to have their official names, and what does the word straumen suggest about this place?” and keep asking in Mappu, with the guide connected to your map and trip plan.
