Southern Norway
This fairy-tale church is the largest and one of the most beautiful of Norway's 28 remaining stave churches. As always, it's constructed around Norwegian…
Must-see attractions in Southern Norway
Southern Norway
The timbered houses, moats, gates and drawbridge of the Fredrikstad Gamlebyen are simply enchanting. The perimeter walls, once defended by 200 cannons,…
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Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum
Southern Norway
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…
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Southern Norway
Gaustabanen runs 860m deep into the core of Gausta before a different train climbs an incredible 1040m, alongside 3500 steps at a 40-degree angle, to…
Fredriksten Fortress & Museums
Southern Norway
Crowning the hilltop behind Halden is the 1661 Fredriksten Fortress, which has resisted six Swedish sieges and never been captured. The fortress covers a…
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Southern Norway
The profusion of silver mines in Kongsberg's hinterland is known collectively as Sølvgruvene. The easiest way to visit is with the tours that leave from…
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Southern Norway
This cultural centre is 11km northeast of Fredrikstad. The most intriguing feature is the Ode til Lyset (Ode to the Light), a 'sound sculpture' by Arnold…
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Southern Norway
Don't miss the imposing Oscarsborg Fortress, which lies on an offshore island and dates back to the 1600s. It was the Oscarsborg batteries that sank the…
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Southern Norway
Lying beside a deep blue lake surrounded by snow- and forest-dappled peaks, the handful of colourful wooden houses that make up the tiny mountain village…
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Southern Norway
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…
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Southern Norway
Set in a smelter dating from 1844 (the old furnaces survive in the basement), this museum tells Kongsberg's story with relics, models and mineral displays…
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Southern Norway
Norse sagas mention the 13th-century fortress of Isegran, an islet in the Glomma that became a further line of defence against Sweden in the mid-17th…
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Southern Norway
Around 9km northwest of Valle, this farm has a unique three-storey storehouse dating to 1590, and an extraordinary collection of 15th-century painted…
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Southern Norway
This excellent Østfold county museum lies in the town of Sarpsborg (14km northeast of Fredrikstad). The open-air display contains 30 period buildings from…
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Southern Norway
This folk museum, a 10-minute walk southeast of the train station, houses a collection of 32 period farmhouses around which sheep, goats and pigs frolic…
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Southern Norway
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…
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Southern Norway
This charming Romanesque church was built in the 12th century in honour of St Olav; it looks as if someone built a stave church and then changed their…
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Southern Norway
Believed to be the highest waterfall in the world in the 18th century (Angel Falls in Venezuela now has that claim), the 104m-high Rjukanfossen is still a…
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Southern Norway
The Krossobanen cable car was constructed in 1928 by Norsk Hydro to provide its employees with access to the sun. It now whisks tourists up to Gvepseborg …
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Southern Norway
The Fredrikstad Museum is housed in a building dating back to 1776. The downstairs area displays temporary exhibitions, while upstairs you'll find scale…
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Southern Norway
Norway's largest baroque church, in the Old Town west of the river, officially opened in 1761. The rococo-style interior features ornate chandeliers and…
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Southern Norway
Dating from at least 1690, Rød Herregård manor has fine interiors, which include notable collections of both weapons and art, as well as the mounted heads…
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Southern Norway
Budding geologists will find plenty to get excited about in Evje. This small museum, 2km west of town and across the river in Fennefoss, displays more…
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Southern Norway
High above town on the Rv45 to Høydalsmo, the quaint, 13th-century Eidsborg Stave Church, dedicated to St Nicolas, has but a single nave and is in…
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Southern Norway
Fredrikstad's 1880 cathedral reflects the town's 19th-century importance with its stained-glass work by Emanuel Vigeland. Norwegian practicality combines…
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Southern Norway
In Porsgrunn, just south of Skien, is one of Norway's best-known and longest-running porcelain factories. You can book a tour to see artisans painting the…
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Southern Norway
For displays of local and worldwide minerals, this well-run park is every rock collector's dream come true, with a wonderful world of colour and quartz,…
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Southern Norway
Coming from the south, Rysstad's main Setesdalsmuseet is a fine, refurbished exhibition space displaying period interiors and cultural artefacts,…
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Southern Norway
This peaceful, open-air folk museum, at the eastern end of town, traces rural Norwegian architecture from the 11th century to the early 1900s.
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Southern Norway
This stone storehouse, built between 1674 and 1691, is one of the oldest buildings in Gamlebyen and now a ceramics showroom.
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Southern Norway
This mid-11th-century stone church is one of the oldest in Norway. It hosts a week-long music and arts festival in July.
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Southern Norway
The ruins of a stone (originally wood) tower remain visible at the eastern end of Isegran.
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Southern Norway
Among the finest old buildings in town, the old convict prison was built in 1731.
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