The Norwegian Folk Museum has Norways largest collection of old traditional buildings which have been carefully moved from their original site into a large park for us to enjoy. The buildings are set up in their local districts so you can see the styles change from region to region. The displays show the life in Norway from the 1500s onward, and really shows some nice example of the special Norwegian architechture.
Telemark Street
Here you see a typical example of Oslo of how a Telemark farm area looked in the 1700s. The buildings are very charming and make for fantastic photographs especially when the weather is good. We have been here in all seasons with our children in all ages. They have some regular activities like Lefse baking on the stone hearth, and the horse and wagon ride, and they also have seasonal changing activities and informative demonstrations. We will definately be going here at the Oslo Blog Gathering, but please don’t worry the snow will be gone then (we hope!)
Baking Lefse on the stone hearth
And then the pretty horse!
Old fashioned coach
Check out the foot of this old Loft, a storage place for food above the ground. This is from the late 1600s as you can see on the sign as well. I love the pattern of this old wood. Oak I would guess.
Check out this amazing old wood
And here you see some of the special architectual style of Hallingdal. This is quite an elegant loft of quality craftmanship from the 1700s. Amazing don’t you think!
Hallingdal Loft from 1700s
The Norwegian folk museum is a fun outing for the whole family. Ido hope that many of you will be joining us this summer. Stop by RennyBA’s Terella if you would like to see his post on our trip to this lovely place.
DianeCA's Metamorphoses 
Comments on: "Traveling back in time at the Norwegian Folk Museum" (13)
It’s kind of like our old ghost towns here. Such history. If the wall could talk. I love that roaring fire too.
Have a terrific day. Big hug to you and Renny. 🙂
Oh I love the Hallingdal Loft with all the carved wood. Beautiful! Glad to see you back!
I saw Renny’s post on this village and it looks enchanting. I like these historical places which show how life was years ago. I went to one like this in Louisiana showing the way the Cajuns lived when they arrived there. Of course in the South we do have plantations with historical buildings. There were small villages in themselves at the time. Thanks for coming to my blog and leaving a message.
Looks like a fairy tales’ landscape to me!
Very unique and interesting place to visit Diane.
oh, that looks like a wonderful place i’d so enjoy going to personally. fascinating and i’d have so many questions. i am curious especially about why the structures are on stilts. i know why they do that in tropical climates but i’m very curious about why in a nordic climate.
Travelling back or forth in time: It’s always great to do it with you my dear!
[…] The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History comprises a huge park containing examples of all the major folk architectural styles from throughout Norway. It’s the oldest open air museum in the world (established as early as 1894) with 158 buildings representing different regions and time periods in the Norwegian history dating back to the 16th century. They are carefully taken apart, transported from their location and put back together again on the site: The Farmstead of Numedal; extends from the Hardanger plateau down to the town of Kongsberg. So the placement of these buildings in relation to each other followed regional patterns. The loft and bur in Telemark were commonly placed side by side: The loft has a gallery on three sides on the upper floor and is decorated with carved floral motifs. Not only are you able to see the houses outside, but inside it’s furnished too: Farmhouse from Hallingdal – 1750. Throughout the year there are activities and exhibits of all kinds, as well as various reconstructed activities of everyday life: How about horse &carriage rides through the open-air museum? You can participate in spring cleaning or buy authentic lefse, a kind of soft flat bread baked on the open fireplace like it was 200 years ago: Inside an old farm house, two girls were demonstrating making the dough and baking and all gets a taste: They willingly shared the baking tradition and recipe – Hardanger Lefse: 2 egg, 250 gram sugar, 125 gram melted butter, ½ litre milk, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 kilo flour. Mix egg, sugar & butter and stir in milk. Mix baking powder with some flour and blend. Mix enough flour so it’s easy to roll. Bake on a griddle or a dry pan: The Old Town part of the open air exhibition contains buildings from the 1600s and upwards. There is a Historic Playground and an old fashioned Grocery Store from the beginning of the 1900s as well: Colonial – Milk – Delicacy This historical museum is enjoyable for the entire family. They plan activities for the children as well, and this was always a popular place when my children were small. They loved to go in and out of these fascinating buildings, they loved to pet the horse drawing the wagon and maybe give him some hay, and they loved the children’s activities. This weekend the theme was fastelaven, or the Sunday before the Easter fast, which the Catholics call Lent. As in Mardi Gras and Carnival, the rich foods like eggs, crème and butter were supposed to be used up so we have a tradition with crème filled sweet rolls. At the museum they had mask making for a kind of Carnival experience which as you can see here the children really enjoyed! There is a lot more to explore and learn about Norway, our culture and history: The permanent exhibits include Folk Art, first half of the Parliament, Norwegian Folk Costumes, toys and more. The Norwegian Evening is an event held here in July and August where music, traditional dance, singing and other activities take place. I hope you will join us sometime – maybe at the Oslo Blog Gathering in August?? Update: I shared this adventure with my wife – hop over and read her report too: DianeCA […]
Oh my! What a lovely place with a great history. And I love the Hallingdal Loft!
I’m truly looking forward to visiting you and Renny in Norway and I’m praying my ankle will heal faster. I’m still in pain and the swelling hasn’t gone down 11 days after surgery. 😦
That’s so awesome! I always wanted to try or experience what it was like in the olden times. I like to try cooking something on that stone hearth.
Amazing yes! I love those old lofts! Saw something similar in the Finnish countryside as a kid. Truly wonderful!
It’s strange, but I never ever can be fed up visting this open air museum (oh yah, it’s lot’s to see inndoor as well), even though I grew up only one minutes walk away.
Allways it’s some new details to discover and very impressive handicrafts to see in the old wooden houses, in fact dated back to around 1200 (The Stave Church a.o.) and the different building styles from around Norway.
Then thinking about The Viking Ship Museum as the Neighbour to this Open Air Museum, only 2 minutes walking away. This area shows more Nordic History than no other places on Planet Earth. From around 850 until the 1950’ies.
What a great Timeline.
I really hope many of our international blogger friends sees and take the opportunity to join us during the OsloBG.
btw. I even know some secrets in the Royal Forest – from the Time when the Munks used, at that time an Island, now a peninsula, for their animals and crops.
I love the idea of a museum in a little village ! you can have a concret idea about the life people had at this time. Sometimes I dream I travel in the past when the modern life becomes too difficult. I see me very well here tasting the lefse!!!!