University of BergenPublished: 05.02.2013 | Author: Nils Georg Brekke
The guesthouse place at Brattholmen. (Helge Sunde).
The old guesthouse location in Brattholmen on the east side of Litlesotra, was probably established in the first half of the 1700s. A list from 1748 mentions that the place “for some years has been inhabited by an Enrolled Sailor by the name of Peder Michelsen”. As was the case for most other military hosts, he was exempt from paying income tax.
The guesthouse in Brattholmen was primarily placed here because it was “a very comfortable harbour for those sailing from and to Bergen when there was either no wind or the wind and the current prevented the ships from continuing”. From 1772 Thomas Friis ran the guesthouse and he again sold it to customs officer Hans Dahle in 1788. Dahle himself lived in Bergen and ran the guesthouse by way of a tenant Niels Pedersen. Endre Dale took over Brattholmen in 1827 and John Wilhelm Juuhl in 1845. Thereafter the guesthouse settlement also developed to become a key trading post with stop for the steamer, as long as this type of traffic went on.
From the sea the old main building is easily recognisable, with a Swiss style exterior popular at the beginning of the 19th century; characterised by a tower and dragon’s heads at the gables. In addition to the main building there has also been a sea house with distillery, shop, servants’ quarters, skittle alley and bathhouse.
