DOI Heft:
No. 236 (November 1912)
DOI Artikel:Bröchner, Georg: The development of the open-air museum in Norway
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21158#0136
Open-Air Museums in Norway
beer-mug diligently went round, men drinking to
each other across the fire, whilst merriness reigned
on all sides, it must assuredly have been cosy in
the old sooted aarestue.
Were it necessary I would gladly, as far as I am
able, affirm this assertion, for a peculiar charm, a
feeling of trusty homeliness pervades these old-time
wooden houses, such as one still may come upon
in out-of-the-way places in Norway and Sweden,
though modified through the ages. They may not
appeal to you at first sight, rather the reverse,
perhaps, but they soon seem to grow upon you,
with their timeworn timber and scanty fitments.
No wonder that these old houses have of late years
been copied, or rather adapted, by not a few archi-
tects and others, and that timber is again held in
high repute as building material.
But I am digressing. Although it is out of the
question to follow the ancient Norse house through
the various stages of its evolution, I must cursorily
mention some of the other old houses in M.
Sandvig’s wonderful Maihaugen.
In Norway one formerly saw, and may still occa-
sionally see, large clusters of separate houses all
forming one homestead. Detached from the often
numerous outhouses—there were at places as many
as two score or more of them—stood the dwelling-
houses, not less than three and very frequently
more, one for the summer, one for the winter,
and one for festive occasions, the number of build-
ings generally increasing from generation to genera-
tion. The Lokre stue* a good specimen of a
Gudbrandsdale type, hails from Lorn parish, high
up the valley. It is what is called a ramloft-stue, that
is, aTtouse with a room (ram-loft) on the first floor,
to which there is access up the outside staircase
through a door in the loft gallery, or svale. The
plan of this house is rather interesting. It is almost
square, which does not clearly appear from the
accompanying illustration (p. nr). There is on
the ground floor a large room, one might almost
call it a hall, at the end of this a second, narrow
room, about half the size of the former, above
it is the ram-loft, and along this end of the house
and the one longitudinal wall, but forming part and
parcel of the house, runs a svale, which in this case is
* Stue, which in Danish means a room, is the Nor-
wegian and Swedish (stuga) for a rural house. Ram —
German Raum, room or space. The names Lokre,
Vigstad, Hjeltar, and Mytling which occur later in this
article in conjunction with stue, are apparently either
names of places or names of persons.
114
THE MAIHAUGEN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM: A “ STAHUR ” OR STOREHOUSE
beer-mug diligently went round, men drinking to
each other across the fire, whilst merriness reigned
on all sides, it must assuredly have been cosy in
the old sooted aarestue.
Were it necessary I would gladly, as far as I am
able, affirm this assertion, for a peculiar charm, a
feeling of trusty homeliness pervades these old-time
wooden houses, such as one still may come upon
in out-of-the-way places in Norway and Sweden,
though modified through the ages. They may not
appeal to you at first sight, rather the reverse,
perhaps, but they soon seem to grow upon you,
with their timeworn timber and scanty fitments.
No wonder that these old houses have of late years
been copied, or rather adapted, by not a few archi-
tects and others, and that timber is again held in
high repute as building material.
But I am digressing. Although it is out of the
question to follow the ancient Norse house through
the various stages of its evolution, I must cursorily
mention some of the other old houses in M.
Sandvig’s wonderful Maihaugen.
In Norway one formerly saw, and may still occa-
sionally see, large clusters of separate houses all
forming one homestead. Detached from the often
numerous outhouses—there were at places as many
as two score or more of them—stood the dwelling-
houses, not less than three and very frequently
more, one for the summer, one for the winter,
and one for festive occasions, the number of build-
ings generally increasing from generation to genera-
tion. The Lokre stue* a good specimen of a
Gudbrandsdale type, hails from Lorn parish, high
up the valley. It is what is called a ramloft-stue, that
is, aTtouse with a room (ram-loft) on the first floor,
to which there is access up the outside staircase
through a door in the loft gallery, or svale. The
plan of this house is rather interesting. It is almost
square, which does not clearly appear from the
accompanying illustration (p. nr). There is on
the ground floor a large room, one might almost
call it a hall, at the end of this a second, narrow
room, about half the size of the former, above
it is the ram-loft, and along this end of the house
and the one longitudinal wall, but forming part and
parcel of the house, runs a svale, which in this case is
* Stue, which in Danish means a room, is the Nor-
wegian and Swedish (stuga) for a rural house. Ram —
German Raum, room or space. The names Lokre,
Vigstad, Hjeltar, and Mytling which occur later in this
article in conjunction with stue, are apparently either
names of places or names of persons.
114
THE MAIHAUGEN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM: A “ STAHUR ” OR STOREHOUSE