On the small island of Sandøy, accessible by boat from Røstlandet, a monument marks the spot where the Venetian merchant Pietro Querini and his surviving crew came ashore in January 1432 after drifting helplessly for weeks in the North Sea. They had set out from Crete bound for Flanders; a storm destroyed their ship in the Atlantic. Of the forty or so men who initially took to lifeboats, only eleven survived to reach Sandøy.
Querini spent months on Røst recovering, and his detailed written account of the experience — published when he returned to Venice — is one of the most extraordinary documents of medieval travel. He described the landscape, the people, the food (including an enthusiastic endorsement of stockfish), and the remarkable warmth of the islanders who saved him. A copy of the account survives in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. The monument on Sandøy was erected to commemorate the 570th anniversary of the shipwreck, and there are ongoing cultural ties between Røst and the Veneto region.