Romsdal museum outdoor audio guide

The Romsdal museum’s rural and town museum is located in the centre of Molde. The museum is the regional museum for Romsdal and was open to the public as far back as 1928. The museum is home to an impressive collection. You can find nearly fifty old buildings here. The old houses from the villages are collected in a yard, and in addition you can find a town street and the modern museum building ‘Krona’ here. The collection of buildings is made up of different house types from the beginning of the 16th century right up until the 1900s from across the whole of Romsdal. You can find farmhouses, barns, cattle sheds, summer farms, and even the traditional old houses ‘årstuer’ here. The interiors of the buildings are authentic and consistent with their age. Traditionally, the houses in Molde were small. Unfortunately, Molde was ravaged by fire at the beginning of the 1900s and was bombed in 1940. Many of the original houses were destroyed. But some of the remaining old buildings were moved to the museum, in addition other houses from the region were moved here to make the town street ‘Old Molde’ at the museum. The Krona museum building is an architectural pearl. The building is asymmetrical, with woodwork inside and outside. The building is designed to look like the sharp mountain peaks in Romsdal. In the Krona building you can find permanent and temporary exhibitions, a shop, the Mali café, as well as a library, photography archive and an auditorium.

The town street is a representation of how the town of Molde looked before it was destroyed by fire and was bombed. This exhibition opened in 1992. ‘Molde Fjære’ was a central harbour for the exportation of wood from the end of the 1500s onwards. In the 1700s there was also abundant herring fishing in the fjord here. The herring was exported and there was an economic upturn. The town expanded quickly on the grounds of Moldegård and Reknes. The healthy income meant that Molde grew and obtained town status in 1742. Molde became the county capital of Romsdal county, which was the equivalent of today’s county of More and Romsdal. Officials, merchants, seamen, fishermen and craftsmen all lived here. Molde became a tourist destination at the end of the 1800s, attracting visitors with its beautiful, lush landscape. The town was full of small houses with idyllic gardens. There was a park area and avenues here. Out in the fjord there were wooded islets, and to the east the majestic and picturesque Romsdal mountains. The tourists streamed in, and two hotels were built, Alexandra and the Grand. The houses on the town street represent different eras. The buildings are small, two storey residential houses, separated from the street with white picket fences. The houses have a small garden in front of them. The last house to be moved here and to complete the town street is fully furnished with a 1960s interior, although the house itself was probably built around 1910.

The village collection consists of around 35 buildings. These buildings and their interiors give you an insight into the building practices and way of life in Romsdal from the 1600s to the 1900s. The houses come from different places in Romsdal, and the farm buildings are placed in yards. You can find small and large farmhouses, barns, haylofts, and a chapel. The buildings represent different eras. The geographical location determined what the people had to live on and how the houses were built. Out towards the coast there was limited access to timber, which is reflected in the size and number of houses. In the fjord villages there was a plentiful supply of timber, and there they built larger and more houses on the farms. Often people built houses from their own timber. Farmers on the coast, also ran fishing businesses in addition to running the farm. Whilst out in the fishing villages people didn’t own any land at all. If you would like to experience more than just the atmosphere in the old houses, then to learn more get a guide and go inside the buildings. Inside you will see artifacts and hear stories about how the people lived. Where did they sleep? How many of them lived on the farm? What did they eat? What chores did they have throughout the day and during the different times of the year? How did they celebrate weddings? Here you can find the answers to these and many other questions.

Erik Farm comes from Daugstads farm which is located near Tresfjord in Vestnes municipality. The people on Erik Farm made a living from a combination of agriculture, fishing, and handicrafts. The farm was split into two in 1854 between the brothers Erik and Jo Nilsen. Erik got the property with the main building on. Hence the name, Erik Farm. The main farm building was built in 1830. The house stood out because in 1881 it was the first house in the area to be panelled on the outside which was very modern for its time. You can see painted just over the front door, the year 1881. When you stand outside this building, you can see that the entrance is placed in the middle of the long wall which is characteristic for this type of house. From the hallway, there is a door into the kitchen which is in the middle of the house. There are two more doors on either side of the kitchen door. These two doors lead into their own living room. Both living rooms have storage along the long walls. From the hallway, there is also a steep staircase up to the rooms in the loft. Much of the furniture that you can see here, is the original furniture that belonged to the house. One of the living rooms was used as a wheelwright’s workshop. The lady of the house who lived here in 1895 was interested in weaving, which is illustrated in the inventory. The stable from the second part of the 1800s has a construction which is unusual for this district. Only a part of the main floor on the ground floor was lofted whilst upstairs there was only one large room.

Hammervoll farm was originally located on the north side of Eidsvåg Bay east of Molde. Hammervoll farm house was moved to the museum in 1928. The hayloft and the storerooms came afterwards in the 1980s. When you enter the årestua at Hammervoll farm. You can imagine that the porridge is ready and that the people are about to sit down and eat. We now find ourselves back in the 1600s. Then, people ate directly from the pan using their own spoon made of horn. When the meal was over, they dried the horn spoons and stacked them in a crack in the timber wall, where they stayed until the next time that they ate porridge. You can see the fireplace, or ‘åren’ in the middle of the floor. The smoke went up through the ‘ljore’ an opening in the roof. In addition to porridge the people who lived on the farm ate salted fish and cured herring, which they would eat on flatbread. There was no outside toilet on the farm, so, when the people on the farm needed to go to the toilet, they had to do their business either outside in the stable or in the barn. On the other side of the building, you can see the smoke oven room, with an open oven in the corner with a pipe. Originally there would have been no pipe just a hole in the roof. This was common around 200 years ago. The hay store is around 30 meters long and was built around 1825-1830. In one end of the ground floor there is a stall and a hen house. In the other end a barn for cows and sheep. On the first floor there is a threshing barn and a hayloft. The definite date of the storehouse from Hammervoll farm is not known. But it is estimated to date from the first part of the 1700s but could be even older.

The chapel was built especially for the Romsdal Museum out of house timber from several old buildings. It is a small and intimate chapel, which can seat around 70 people. The chapel has the form of a small long church and was designed by the architect Jon Villa. The chapel was finished in 1952 and was consecrated by Bishop Arne Fjellbu in May of the same year. The building is dedicated to the memory of Kong Haakon the 7th and Crown Prince Olav who stayed in Molde during the bombing by the invading German forces in the April of 1940. Today, the chapel is used for church functions such as weddings and christenings. Originally, the chapel was only supposed to be used as an exhibition room for old church inventory but Molde Cathedral holds regular evening services here in the summer. The beautiful interior of the chapel is mostly from the 17th century and has come from the old churches around Romsdal. The altar was originally in the church in Grytten and dates from around 1670. And the two doors in the altar wall are from Hen church. The pulpit dates from 1665 and was previously in Visdal church. The oldest object in the church is probably the church clock which dates to the Middle Ages and was previously in Hen church. Outside the Chapel you will see a pillory which came from Tresfjord Church.

The Eidsbygda farmhouses at the Romsdal museum belonged to the old cluster farm from Eidsbygda in Rauma municipality. The museum is home to seven houses from the old cluster farm. There would have been around 40 houses in the cluster farm, dealt into five usages. During the 1920s there was a change in the running and land usage of such cluster farms. The old system of land consolidation was replaced, and the land was split between the farm users The old collective at Eidsbygda was dissolved and the owners moved out of the cluster farm. Eide was one of the last remaining communal cluster farms in the area. Eidestua’s eastern part is the oldest and dates back to the 18th century. This house was in use until the middle of the 18th century and was extended with an entrance and rooms at the back. The extension had a smoke oven and a long room with a loft, but these were demolished at the end of the 1800s. The brew house has timber dating back to 1636 or 1637. In the brew house, people baked or cooked. Laundry, beer brewing and the drying of corn also took place here. The store house is from the first part of the 18th century. The barn was in use until around 1925. There was space for cattle and calves, but there was not enough room for feed, that had to be carried to the barn from other buildings.

The summer farm area at the museum consists of two living quarters and two fodder rooms. The population of Norway increased from the 1500s onwards, farmers therefore needed more pasture for their animals. The solution was to take the animals up to the summer farm during the summer months to make use of the mountain grazing. Up until around 1900 most of the farms in Romsdalen had a summer farm. But the second half of the 19th century saw a big change in land use, and the running of summer farms was gradually discontinued. It was up at the summer farms that the winter supplies of butter and cheese were produced. Danielbua was probably built before 1800. And it was located on Storstølen in Kanndalen in Eresfjord. There is a stove with a large pot for cooking cheese. The middle room is of course the living area, which functioned as a work room, living room and bedroom, in the innermost room cheese, cream and butter were stored. Jobua was built around the middle of the 1800s. And this building was in use right up until around 1950. There were two rooms here originally. The Langøy hayloft is from Eikesdalen. This hayloft was built in 1904. Inside, they dried and stored hay. Erikløa tilhørte Erikgarden. Karakteristisk for skogfattige strøk er denne løa stavbygget og har god lufting med store sprekker i veggene. Fôret ble dratt ned til bygda på slede om vinteren. The Erik hayloft belonged to Erik Farm, and is characteristic of an area lacking in timber, the hayloft is built of posts and has good ventilation with large cracks in the walls. In winter fodder was dragged down to the village on a sledge.

Tresfjordstua is an old årestue which stood at Ellend Farm in Tresfjord. It was the first building to be bought by the Romsdal Museum. The timber for this building was cut in 1601 or 1602. Back in the Middle Ages this type of building was common in Norway. In the årestue there is only one room. The floor is made from compacted earth and the open fireplace placed in the middle of the floor. It could get really sooty in the årestue, despite the hole in the roof ridge to let out smoke from the fire. The hole also let in some light. The family lived in this single room, and everything to do with their lives played out here from cradle to the grave. They prepared food here, children were born and raised in here and the elderly and sick were looked after in here. Clothing and equipment were also made here. Inside there are earth benches around the walls. They functioned both as insulation between the foundation wall and the first log and as a seating and sleeping area. The Tresfjordstue had an extension built on and a kove. A kove is a small room inside the stue, and it had several functions. It could be used as a room that the previous owners of the farm could live in, an extra sleeping area, , a pantry, or as a storage room. As a general rule there was neither a fireplace nor a window in the kove. Eventually, a window, oven and a laid wooden floor were added to the Tresfjordstue. But when the stue was moved to the museum these were removed. The Tresfjordstue that you see at the museum is preserved in its original form. This allows us to imagine what an authentic årestue in the Middle Ages looked like.

According to reports, this building was bought by Pål Farm at the beginning of the 19th century. The house was previously located in the fishing village of Bud. Pål Farm is one of the five Løvik farms that were on Gossen, they were amongst the largest in the area. The Pål farmhouse is an attic construction with a kitchen and living area on the ground floor and two rooms on the first floor. The loft rooms required a different type of hearth than the smoke oven room that had an opening in the roof to let the smoke out. Around the villages in Romsdal, the smoke oven houses still dominated at the start of the 19th century. The living room was on the ground floor and the loft room was used both as a work and storage room and possibly as a guest room. At Pål farm there is a chimney with an open fireplace in the kitchen. The fireplace had an opening where the fuel could be pushed into the cast iron stove, from the living room. This method of burning was well suited to peat, which was the most important source of fuel in the sparsely wooded areas along the coast. The annual peat harvest which took place between the spring harvest and the hay harvest was carried out by both the adults and the children. On the north wall you can see an extension with an entrance to the kitchen. This was used as a storage area for fuel.