This furious looking lion stands guard over the two wooden doors of Brandvgt. When the red brick building, which was designed by Johan Keyser Frølich, opened along Rådhusgaten in 1894 it was Kristiansand’s main firehouse. Today it houses the City Hall Quarter (municipal administration offices) and an information center. I tried to learn more about this carving but was unsuccessful. Although the city’s coat of arms features the Norwegian lion, this relief has little resemblance to the heraldic of a left-facing, crowned lion holding an axe. This feline seems to have been skinned as if by a hunter.
