The 10 Best Specialty Museums in Telemark, Eastern Norway

Porsgrunn Museum The Parsonage, built 1784, is the best-preserved parsonage in Telemark, and other 18th century houses typical for this region surround it. The beautiful garden from the last part of the 18th century is reconstructed with historic documented plants.

The collection of Lundetangen Brewery is unique with old labels, bottles and various things which shows the history of the Lundetangen Brewery established in 1854. Guided tours arranged in advance tel.+47 40 49 34 00

Norway’s most significant Empire-style building Step inside the splendid home of the Aall family, where many decisions, big and small, have been made over the past 200 years. Niels Aall, who had the Empire-style manor house built in 1807, was minister of trade when the Norwegian constitution was adopted in 1814.

The Amdals Verk Copper Mines is a mining museum in Tokke that tells the history of the miners, their work, their lives and the mining process. Guided tours in the shafts. Amdals Verk Mines is also a local geology center. The mining area is surrounded by beautiful nature, trails and is rich in minerals. The museum is open in the summer season. Guided group tours on request the whole year.

To experience the rich cultural heritage and traditions of West Telemark, West Telemark MuseumEidsborg is an excellent place to start. The museum consists of a collection of more than 30 buildings, an open air museum with Norway’s oldest pagan wooden building from 1167, the famous Eidsborg stave church dated back to the 13th century and a new, modern museum building with several exhibitions. There are many blockhouse constructions among the buildings at the museum, a building technique still in use. The museum is situated by R45 next to Eidsborg stave church in the beautiful and dramatic landscape of Tokke. In the modern museum building, opened in 2012, there are magnificent exhibitions telling the history of the folk art and culture of Western Telemark. There are collections of beautiful pieces of traditional art on display like rosepainting, woodwork, knives, silver and textiles.

The Evju Bygdetun in Sauherad is an interesting and lively local museum in mid- Telemark situated between the villages Gvarv (4 km)and Bo (6 km). The old farm buildings date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Their furniture and utilities, tools and the like bear witness to a farm whose owners have been keen to keep up local customs and traditions. Of special interest is perhaps the collection of handmade silver-mounted knives and the exquisite locally woven tapestries. The Vengeburet storehouse, The Miller Son's Cottage ( i.e. the master fiddler Torgeir Augundson (1801 - 1872)), The Sash Weaver's Cottage and the Holtanstugo farmhouse have all been moved to the Evju Bygdetun in recent years. Needless to say, each of them has its own story to tell. In this pleasant farmyard with goats bleating and hens cackling we welcome young and old alike.

Brevik municipal museum The little town of Brevik has one of Norways best preserved wooden architecture from the 17. century and is a most romantic place to visit. The municipal museum in situated in the Town Hall from anno 1760. It includes a vey well stocked grocery store, an old post office, chemist's shop, photostudy and a collection of artifacts from the II world war. Guided foot tours through the town and to nearby isles by boat can be arranged.

The starting point for any visit to Morgedal, this is a striking building which houses a multimedia journey through skiing's history with special attention paid to the skiing revolution which developed out from Morgedal in the 1850's. You can explore the museum on your own but a guide is highly recommended. Displays inside the museum include a big screen pre-show depicting the development of skiing over the last 4000 years, Morgedal in the 1850s, a ski making workshop, First to the south pole, Norway's first ski wax factory, Olympic flame history and displays and a wide format, 3 screen telemark ski film that will give you the urge to strap on some skis!

Vinjestoga is the childhood home of the poet, journalist and linguist Aasmund Olavsson Vinje. Here you can listen to stories about life in the home, about how Vinje became one of Norway’s foremost poets, and about the journalist Vinje. The house lies along European route E 134 along Vinjesletta in Vinje municipality. It is a typical peasant’s cabin from the 1800’s. Here, Aasmund grew up.