Sights in Norway
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Voss Folk Museum
The main portion of the Voss Folk Museum is the Mølstertunet Museum, on a hilltop at the farm Mølster high above Voss. The collection of 16 historic farm buildings once typical of the region dates from 1600 to 1870. There are guided tours on the hour, every hour.
The other two portions of the museum, the Nesheimstunet Museum (12 farm buildings, the oldest dating back to 1688)in Tvinne and the old wooden Oppheim vicarage, lie 16km and 26km from Voss respectively, along E16 to Gudvangen. Although the grounds are open, to see inside the buildings you'll need to ring ahead.
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Ergan Coastal Fort
The Rv63 coastal route between Molde and Kristiansund is a pleasant alternative to the faster, ferry-less E89. En route lies the little fishing village of Bud, huddled around its compact harbour. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the greatest trading centre between Bergen and Trondheim. Serving as a WWII museum and memorial, Ergan Coastal Fort was hastily erected by Nazi forces in May 1940. Various armaments and a network of bunkers and soldiers’ quarters are dispersed around the hill with the sick bay and store sunk deep inside the mountain.
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Polarship Fram
Nature is often the best architect. Which is why, when the well-known shipbuilder Colin Archer was asked to design a ship whose hull could withstand the crush of the polar ice, he looked no further than an egg for inspiration. Launched in 1982, the Polarship Fram, captained by both Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, spent much of its life trapped in the polar ice. From 1893 to 1896 Nansen’s North Pole expedition took the 39m schooner to Russia’s New Siberian Islands, passing within a few degrees of the North Pole on their return trip to Norway.
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Trollstigen
The Trollstigen, south of Åndalsnes, is a thriller of a road, completed in 1936 after eight years of labour, with 11 hairpin bends and a 1:12 gradient. To add an extra daredevil element, it's one lane practically all the way. On request, bus passengers get a photo stop at the thundering 180m-high Stigfossen waterfall, and a quick halt at the top for a dizzy view down the valley.
If you have wheels and a camera, make sure you pause for photos of the dramatic peaks of Karitind, Dronningen, Kongen and Bispen - as well as Norway's only 'Troll Crossing' road sign.
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Oslo Cathedral
Dating from 1697, the Oslo Cathedral is worth seeing for its elaborate stained glass by Emanuel Vigeland (brother of Gustav) and painted ceiling (completed between 1936 and 1950). The exceptional altarpiece, a 1748 model of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion by Michael Rasch, was an original feature of the church (from 1700), but it was moved all over the country before being returned from Prestnes church in Majorstue in 1950. The organ front and pulpit were both part of the original construction. Occasional concerts are held in the church (Nkr100).
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Ofoten Museum
The Ofoten Museum tells of Narvik’s farming, fishing, railway-building and ore trans-shipment heritage. There’s a rolling film about the Ofotbanen Railway and children will enjoy pressing the button that activates the model train. Linger too over the display case of Sami costumes and artefacts and the collection of historic photos, contrasted with modern shots taken from the same angles. To reach the museum, take the minor road beside the restored building that served as Narvik’s post office from 1888 to 1898.
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Vestfold County Museum
At the foot of Slottsfjellet (Castle Rock) at the northern end of town is Vestfold County Museum, a five-minute walk northwest of the train station. Highlights include displays on the excavation of the impressive Oseberg Viking ship (now shown in Oslo’s Viking Ship Museum), a collection of historic period-furnished farm buildings, and a section on Tønsberg’s whaling history, including skeletons of both a sperm whale and a blue whale. The latter, measuring 23m long, is the largest whale skeleton on display in the world.
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Aust-Agder Museum
The Aust-Agder Museum was first conceived in 1832, when the town authorities asked their globetrotting sailors to be on the lookout for items that may be of interest back home. The results are housed in the county museum, along with relics of Arendal’s shipbuilding, timber and import-export trades. The most interesting exhibits are those covering the ill-fated final journey of the slave ship Fredensborg, which went down off Tromøy in 1768; sadly those African slaves who survived were rewarded by being sold in the Caribbean.
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Handelshuset
Handelshuset, formerly a lively place serving traditional food, seems to have been overcome by the general cultural languor. Its magnificent vintage jukebox, with old 45rpm hits by Presley, the Stones, the Beach Boys and other distant icons, may have played its last platter unless someone gets around to repairing it. But you can still browse among Handelshuset’s old posters and signs, learn something of Kristiansund’s commercial history and drink the freshest coffee, roasted on Norway’s oldest operational coffee roaster.
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Mack Brewery
OK, this brewery isn’t really the world’s northernmost – a microbrewery in Honningsvåg takes that title – but it’s still a venerable institution that merits a pilgrimage. Established in 1877, it nowadays produces 18 kinds of beer, including the very quaffable Macks Pilsner, Isbjørn, Haakon and several dark beers. At 1pm year-round – plus 3pm, June to August – tours (Nkr130, including a beer mug, pin and pint) leave from the brewery’s own Ølhallen Pub, Monday to Thursday.
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Archbishop's Palace
Admission to the cathedral also includes the complex of the adjacent 12th-century Archbishop's Palace, commissioned around 1160 and Scandinavia's oldest secular building. In the west wing, Norway's crown jewels shimmer and flash. Its museum is in the same compound. After visiting the well-displayed statues, gargoyles and carvings from the cathedral, drop to the lower level, where only a selection of the myriad artefacts revealed during the museum's construction in the late 1990s are on show.
Take in too its enjoyable 15-minute audiovisual programme.
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Norwegian Resistance Museum
Within the Akershus fortress complex, adjacent to a memorial for resistance fighters executed on the spot during WWII, is the Norwegian Resistance Museum. The small, but worthwhile museum covers the dark years of German occupation, as well as the jubilant day of 9 May 1945 when peace was declared. Artefacts include a set of dentures that belonged to a Norwegian Prisoner of War in Poland, and were wired to receive radio broadcasts, underground newspapers, numerous maps and photographs. The museum is a must see for WWII history enthusiasts.
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Egersund Kirke
There has been a church in Egersund since at least 1292. The cute, current manifestation, Egersund Kirke dates back to the 1620s; the carved altarpiece, a depiction of the baptism and crucifixion of Christ by Stavanger carpenter Thomas Christophersen and painted by artist Peter Reimers, dates back to 1607 and the baptismal font is from 1583. The cross-shaped design, intimate balconies and wonderfully decorated pew doors are all worth lingering over. An English-language sheet handed out at the door details the church’s history.
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Museum of Natural History & Archaeology
The Museum of Natural History & Archaeology belongs to the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU). There’s a hotchpotch of exhibits on the natural and human history of the Trondheim area: streetscapes and homes, ecclesiastical history, archaeological excavations and southern Sami culture. More ordered is the small, alluring section in a side building devoted to church history and the fascinating everyday artefacts in the medieval section, covering Trondheim’s history up to the great fire of 1681.
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Fredriksten Fortress
Crowning the hilltop behind Halden is the 1661 Fredriksten Fortress, which has resisted six Swedish sieges and never been captured. The museums in the castle grounds cover various facets of the fortress' history. Downhill from the main entrance, the War Museum contains military artefacts and a variety of information on Halden's experiences of war from 1660 onwards, including details on the Norwegian independence movement in 1905. A tunnel leads up into Prince Christian's Bastion - the main vantage point for the fortress defenders.
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Kongensgate
Bodø's striking cathedral, completed in 1956, has a soaring, freestanding tower and spire. Shaped like an inverted ship's hull, the walls of its nave are clad with tufty, multicoloured rugs and there's a fine stained glass window.
The charming little onion-domed Bodin Kirke stone church at Gamle Riksvei 68 dates from around 1240. The Lutheran Reformation brought about substantial changes to the exterior, including the addition of a tower. A host of lively baroque elements - especially the elaborately carved altar - grace the interior.
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Stavanger Maritime Museum
This worthwhile museum covers 200 years of Stavanger’s maritime history spread over two warehouses dating from around 1800. There’s also a large collection of model boats, sailing vessels, a noisy wind-up foghorn, a reconstruction of a late-19th-century sailmaker’s workshop, a shipowner’s office and an excellent general store, as well as the merchant’s living quarters. The museum also owns two historic sailing vessels, the 1848 Anna of Sand and the 1896 Wyvern, both on display.
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Borgarsyssel Museum
This excellent Østfold county museum lies in the town of Sarpsborg (14km northeast of Fredrikstad). The open-air display contains 30 period buildings from various parts of the country and includes a vast collection of cultural art and artefacts. There’s also a herb garden, a petting zoo and the ruins of King Øystein’s St Nikolas church, constructed in 1115 and destroyed by the Swedes in 1567. From Fredrikstad, trains and buses run frequently to Sarpsborg.
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Ibsen Museum
Housed in the last residence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, the Ibsen Museum is a must-see for Ibsen fans along with his birthplace of Skien and Grimstad, where the eminent playwright spent his formative years. The study remains exactly as he left it and other rooms have been restored in the style and colours popular in Ibsen’s day. Visitors can even glance into the bedroom where he uttered his famously enigmatic last words ‘Tvert imot!’ (‘To the contrary!’), before dying on 23 May 1906.
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Norwegian Museum of Road History
Some 15km north of Lillehammer, just off the E6, is Hunderfossen, home to the Norwegian Museum of Road History, which tells the story of Norway’s battle to forge roads through its challenging geography. Up the hill and part of the same complex, the Fjellsprengnings-museet (Rock-blasting Museum) is a 240m-long tunnel that gives you a real insight into the difficulties of building a tunnel through the Norwegian mountains. The walk, guided with lighting, models and video commentary, takes around 30 minutes.
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Emanuel Vigeland Museum
Part gallery, part mausoleum, the spooky Emanuel Vigeland Museum is dedicated to the life work of Gustav Vigeland’s brother Emanuel (1875–1948). A pioneer in fresco painting, Emanuel is considered by many to have been the superior artist of the two brothers. The showpiece of the museum is the 800-sq-metre fresco Vita depicting human life from conception to death. To get there, take the T-bane (line 1) to Slemdal. For a taste of the artist’s work nearer the city centre, check out the stained glass in the Oslo Cathedral.
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Kongsten Festning
On what was once called 'Gallows hill' stands the flower-festooned Kongsten Festning . Dating from 1685, it once served as a lookout and warning post for the troops at nearby Gamlebyen. Although it can get overrun on summer weekends, this otherwise lonely and appealingly unkempt spot is a fun place to scramble around the turrets, embankments, walls and stockade, or just sit in the sun and soak up the silence.
It's a 10-minute walk southeast of the Gamlebyen drawbridge (turn off Torsnesvien at Fredrikstad Motell & Camping).
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Stone Church
About 5km south of central Haugesund, King Håkon Håkonsson’s huge stone church was dedicated to St Olav in 1250. The adjacent 6.5m spire, known as the Virgin Mary’s Needle, leans perilously towards the church wall and legend suggests that when it actually touches the wall, the Day of Judgment is at hand; it was close but still free-standing when we were there. Local legend has it that priests of little faith have, through the centuries, climbed the needle to chip bits away.
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Sami Parliament
The Sami Parliament was established in 1989. In 2000 it moved into a glorious new building, encased in mellow Siberian wood, with a birch, pine and oak interior. The main assembly hall is shaped like a Sami tent, and the Sami library, lit with tiny lights like stars, houses over 35,000 volumes, plus other media. From late June to mid-August, there are 30-minute tours leaving hourly between 8.30am and 2.30pm (except 11.30am), Monday to Friday. The rest of the year, tours are at 1.30pm on weekdays.
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Stream Nest Complex
At the Stream Nest complex, 10km east of Ulvik, highlights include the ecological herb garden, several artworks, including Allan Christensen’s Rambukk (pile driver), and the odd eponymous log sculpture, Stream Nest, originally conceived by Japanese artist Takamasa Kuniyasu for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. The sculpture, which consists of 3000 logs and 23,000 bricks, resounds with the tuba music of Geir Løvold, just as it did during the Games. It’s a lovely spot.
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