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A remarkable tale of survival lies behind these inconspicuous islands of Santi and Rustene, which occupy the seas north of Norway and south of the ‘land of pygmies' on Mercator's 1569 world map. It's a story so powerful that it is still celebrated in Norway and Italy today.

Some Soviet historians took the literal translation of these wayward islands - 'Holy Russians' - as evidence that the Pomors from northern Russia had discovered Svalbard (Het nieuwe land) decades before Willem Barentsz in 1596. However, the real story goes back to 1431, and a lost Venetian.

Pietro Querini set sail from Crete in 1431 with a cargo of wine, olive oil and other valuable goods, intending to reach buyers in Flanders. The journey went spectacularly off course though. Violent storms in the Atlantic ultimately forced the crew to abandon ship in two lifeboats.

One carrying 21 men was unfortunately lost. The other continued to drift north with the currents. After failing to land in Ireland, the boat carried on beyond the Faroe Islands and eventually past the Arctic Circle. On 6 January 1432, Querini and 20 survivors landed on Sandøya in Lofoten, Norway.

After several days clinging to life on this uninhabited island, local fishermen came to their rescue and brought them to their homes on the nearby island of Røst. The locals provided food and shelter during the hostile winter months. After 100 days on Røst, the Venetians began their journey home.

Travelling via Trondheim, London and Basel, Querini finally arrived back in Venice on 25 January 1433. The tale is recounted in several contemporary manuscripts, one written by Querini himself, held in the Vatican Library

The fantastic story of Querini and his travels was thus known to European cartographers, including Fra Mauro, who cited him explicitly in the cartouche of one of the most detailed world maps of the Middle Ages, published a few decades after Querini’s return.

How then did Santi (Sandøya) and Rustene (Røst) end up so far north of Norway? The answer may lie in the helmsman's account, which says the days on Røst lasted only three hours in winter. Mercator probably used these observations to calculate that Rustene and Santi must lie at 73N.

The shipwrecked sailors remained alive in the collective memory of Røst, and so when the 500-year anniversary of the shipwreck was approaching in 1932, locals and Italians organised to erect a monument on Sandøya to commemorate the lost Venetians.