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In the middle of the flat pastures at Torsnes was the farmyard of the estate, undivided until the middle of the 1700s

In the middle of the flat pastures at Torsnes was the farmyard of the estate, undivided until the middle of the 1700s. The old main building with the “blue hall” and the “knights’ hall” was demolished around   1860. Today the farm is divided into four units. Two of them still belong in the Galtung family. (Svein Nord).

When bishop J.Neumann was on a visitation in Hardanger in 1825 he also visited Torsnes, the seat of the Galtung family. They were then in the process of pulling down the old dwelling house on the farm. As the committed observer of ancient monuments and antiquarian buildings that he was, bishop Neumann has provided us with interesting details:


All the same I saw in a half demolished Castle, one of former times’ grand Halls. How humble and thrifty our Forefathers were! Low Doors, dark, and not large Rooms – but these were decorated, as in a church, with moral texts, painted on all the Roof Beams and Arabesques on the Walls, and Names and Coat of Arms on the small Windows, framed in Lead.”

This house that was demolished, was perhaps from the late 1500s or early 1600s. We may compare this building with another building from the same time; the beautifully decorated “bed-loft” of the mighty farmer at Gjerde in Mauranger; in later centuries called “Målabuo” (the painted house). Through inscriptions this house has been dated to 1589, and we can easily imagine that it may have been the same painter from Bergen, who has had assignments both at Gjerde and at Torsnes.

In 1504 a new, stone-built cowshed was erected on the farm by the owner at the time, Peter Nilsson. The walls of this stood right up to the 1950s. Today there is nothing left of the old estate.

  • Slektsvåpen frå Galtungslekten

A family saga

  • From Øyjorda by Torsnes, toward the south.

From Øyjorda by Torsnes, toward the south. Gangdalsnuten by the boundary with Kvinnherad in the background. (Helge Sunde)

  • Galtung, J. (1974) Galtungslekten i fortid og nutid. Oslo.