Museum sights in Southern Norway
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Henrik Ibsenmuseet
Author, playwright and so-called ‘Father of Modern Drama’, Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien on 20 March 1828. In 1835 the family fell on hard times and moved out to the farm Venstøp, 5km north of Skien, where they stayed for seven years. The 1815 farmhouse has now been converted into the excellent Henrik Ibsenmuseet. There are some terrific audio-visual displays in the former barn, while guides (some of whom are Ibsen actors) show you around the family home. Ask also about Ibsen theatre performances here or at the tourist office, or check out the programme at the Theater Ibsen, which is in the town centre, a block back from the harbour.
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Ibsenhuset Museum
Norway’s favourite playwright, Henrik Ibsen, arrived here in January 1844. The house where he worked as a pharmacist’s apprentice, and where he lived and first cultivated his interest in writing, has been converted into the Ibsenhuset Museum. It contains a re-created pharmacy and many of the writer’s belongings and is one of southern Norway’s more interesting museums, with everything you needed to know from Ibsen’s life and work. There’s also a library with the writer’s complete works. His 1861 poem Terje Vigen and his 1877 drama Pillars of Society take place in the Skerries offshore from Grimstad.
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Kristiansand Cannon Museum
The Kristiansand Cannon Museum, 8km south of town, preserves the Germans’ heavy Vara Battery, which, along with an emplacement at Hanstholm in Denmark, ensured German control of the strategic Skagerrak Straits during WWII. At each end, four 337-tonne, 38cm cannons, reportedly the second-heaviest guns in the world and with a range of 55km controlled traffic along either end of the strait, while the unprotected middle zone was heavily mined. In the autumn of 1941, over 1400 workers and 600 soldiers occupied this site. Visitors to the museum can see the big guns as well as bunkers, barracks and munitions storage (including some daunting 800kg shells).
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Norwegian Industrial Workers' Museum
This museum, 7km west of Rjukan, is in the Vemork power station, which was the world’s largest when completed in 1911. These days it honours the Socialist Workers’ Party, which reached its height of Norwegian activities in the 1950s. You won’t want to miss the 30-minute film If Hitler Had the Bomb, describing the epic events of war-time Telemark, nor the miniature power station in the main hall. There’s also an interesting exhibition about the worldwide race in the 1930s and ’40s to make an atom bomb. It consists of short films, touch screen exhibits, photos and dioramas.
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A
Isegran
Fredrikstad Museum has another section on Isegran, an islet across the Glomma. Norse sagas mention the 13th-century fortress of Isegran, which later became a further line of defence against Sweden in the mid-17th century. The ruins of a stone (originally wood) tower remain visible at the eastern end of the island. It’s also the site of a small museum on local boatbuilding (from the time when boats were lovingly handcrafted from wood). Boats run between Isegran and Gamlebyen or the modern centre (Nkr6). By road or on foot, access is from Rv108, about 600m south of Fredrikstad city centre.
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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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Dalane Folkmuseum
The Dalane Folkmuseum is divided into two parts. The more interesting main section features eight historic timber homes at Slettebø, 3.5km north of town just off the Rv42. The other section is the Egersund Fayance Museum, a walkable 1.5km northeast of town. It displays the history and wares of Egersund Fayance, the ceramic and porcelain firm that sustained the entire district from 1847 to 1979.
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Grimstad Maritime Museum
This important museum, in the office of the 1842 Hasseldalen shipyard, provides a glimpse into Grimstad’s history during ‘the days of the white sails’. While you’re there it’s worth climbing the short track from the end of Batteriveien up the Binabben hill for a view over Grimstad. Make sure you visit the Ibsenhuset Museum first or the combined ticket won’t work.
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B
Norwegian Mining Museum
This worthwhile mining museum, in an 1844 smelter, tells the story of mining in Kongsberg with relics, models and mineral displays; the old smelting furnaces still survive in the basement. In the same building, other sections include the Royal Mint, which was moved from Akershus Fortress in Oslo to the source of the silver in 1686, as well as a skiing museum and other local exhibitions.
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Whaling Museum
The impressive Whaling Museum in Sandefjord charts the history of Norwegian whaling, with photos, equipment and information on marine life. The museum’s exhibits are complemented by the 1950s whaleboat Southern Actor, which is moored at the harbour; entry is by the same ticket. There’s also the striking sculpture monument to whalers by the water.
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Vest-Agder Folk Museum
Located 4km east of town on the E18, the open-air Vest-Agder Folk Museum houses a collection of 40 farmsteads and hamlets from the Setesdalen region and Kristiansand itself. It also includes displays of traditional costumes, art and children’s toys. Folk dancing performances are sometimes held in summer at 5pm on Wednesdays. There’s also a scale model of Kristiansand Old Town.
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C
Fredrikstad Museum
The Fredrikstad Museum is housed in the same building as the tourist office in Gamlebyen and is well worth a browse. The downstairs area houses temporary exhibitions, while upstairs you’ll find scale models of the Old Town and an interesting collection of relics from three centuries of Fredrikstad’s civilian, military and industrial activities. Also on the top floor is a military museum.
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Merdøgård Museum
The 260-hectare island of Merdø, just off Arendal, has been inhabited since the 16th century. One peculiarity is that the island bears the remnants of vegetable species introduced in the ballast of early sailing vessels. The Merdøgård Museum, housed in a historic 1736 sea captain’s residence, is decked out in period furnishings.
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Egersund Fayance Museum
The Egersund Fayance Museum is located a walkable 1.5km northeast of town. It displays the history and wares of Egersund Fayance, the ceramic and porcelain firm which sustained the entire district from 1847 to 1979. The more interesting main section of the exhibition features eight historic timber homes at Dalane Folkmuseum, Slettebø, 3.5km north of town just off the Rv42.
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Flekkefjord Museum
Before setting out to explore the town, collect the pamphlet A Tour of Flekkefjord from the tourist office. The richest source of old architecture is the Hollenderbyen (Dutch Town) district, with its narrow streets and old timber buildings. Flekkefjord Museum is housed in a home from 1724, but with 19th-century interiors.
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Evje Og Hornnes Museum
Budding geologists will find plenty to get excited about in Evje. First stop should be the small Evje Og Hornnes Museum, 2km west of town and across the river in Fennefoss. Displays include more than a hundred different types of mineral found in the nearby hills, as well as exhibits on local nickel mining and rural life in Setesdalen.
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Risør Museum
For the lowdown on local geology, fishing and the 275-year history of Risør, check out the Risør Museum. Ask for a loan of the explanatory booklet in English. Adjacent to the museum is the Risør Kunstpark Gallery, which displays works by artists inspired by Risør’s charm.
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D
Lågdal Folk Museum
This folk museum, a 10-minute walk southeast of the train station, houses a collection of 32 period farmhouses and miners’ cottages, an indoor sampling of re-created 19th-century workshops and a local WWII resistance museum. In summer there are guided tours at 11am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm.
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Vigeland Hus
The family home of Norway’s finest sculptor has been converted into a small museum and exhibition space, Vigeland Hus. The house has been decorated in a style approximating that of the sculptor’s early days and his workshop has been transformed into a gallery.
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Verkensgarorden
Verkensgarorden has tools and implements from a local 17th-century sawmill and ironworks. There’s also a permanent geological exhibition documenting the evolution of blue larvikite, a beautiful, locally quarried 500-million-year-old type of granite.
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Bymuseum
The moderately interesting town Bymuseum, which displays a host of historical maritime and fishing artefacts and works by local artists, is elevated above the mundane by impressive exhibits of works by Mandal’s favourite son, Gustav Vigeland.
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E
Hvalfanger (Whaling) Museum
This small whaling museum is run by proud old men only too keen to show you around the old photos, the formidable whaling guns once used in the Antarctic, and the even more formidable penis of a blue whale. No English is spoken and all labels are in Norwegian.
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Setesdal Mineral Park
For displays of local and worldwide minerals, the well-run Setesdal Mineral Park is every rock collector’s dream come true, with a wonderful world of colour and quartz, with many items for sale. It’s about 10km south of Evje.
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Berg-Kragerø Museum
The Berg-Kragerø Museum on the shore of Hellefjord, 3km from the centre, is a 120-hectare estate with a country residence dating from 1803. There are gardens, walking tracks and a gallery for visiting art and history exhibits.
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