by Truid Ulfstand, a Danish noble, and sent to Antvorskov in Denmark, where he was mildly treated until his death in 1542. There were at Hamar a cathedral chapter with ten canons, a school, a Dominican Priory of St. Olaf, and a monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Anthony of Vienne.
Hamar, like most of Norway, was severely diminished by the Black Plague in 1349, and by all accounts continued this decline until the Reformation, after which it disappeared.
The Reformation in Norway took less than 10 years to complete, from 1526 to 1536. The fortress was made into the residence of the sheriff and renamed Hamarhus fortress. The cathedral was still used but fell into disrepair culminating with the Swedish army�s siege and attempted demolition in 1567, during the Northern Seven Years' War, when the manor was also devastated.
Reformation and decline
By 1587, merchants in Oslo had succeeded in moving all of Hamar�s market activities to Oslo. Though some regional and seasonal trade persisted into the 17th century, Hamar as a town ceased to exist by then. In its place, the area was used for agriculture under the farm of Storhamar, though the ruins of the cathedral, fortress, and lesser buildings became landmarks for centuries since then.
The King made Hamarhus a feudal seat until 1649, when Frederick III transferred the property known as Hammer to Hannibal Sehested, making it private property. In 1716, the estate was sold to Jens Gr�nbech (1666�1734). With this, a series of construction projects started, and the farm became known as Storhamar, passing through several owners until Norwegian nobility was abolished in 1831, when Erik Anker took over the farm.
The founding of modern Hamar
As early as 1755, the Danish government in Copenhagen expressed an interest in establishing a trading center on Mj�sa. Elverum was considered a frontier town with frequent unrest, and there was even talk of encouraging the
