Gjønavatnet and Kikedalen

Holdhus church

The old church at Holdhus is one of the oldest timbered churches left in the west of Norway. The new church at Eide, built in 1889, replaced the church location from the Middle Ages. As the small, tarred church lies today, in the hilly landscape at Holdhus, it was taken over by the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments, who obtained title to the property in 1900 from Hans Holdhus.

Møshovd

Vinnesholmen

Teigdalen

It is not surprising that there are several folk tales connected to the large and unusual scree deposit that is found at Langeland, uppermost in Teigdalen. It is said that folk have been taken into the mountains by these stone blocks and have come back and told about how the wood nymphs live. It is also said that packs of thieves hid here in the old days, both themselves and the treasures they had stolen.

Vangskyrkja

Vangskyrkja (Vangen church) is the largest of the medieval churches in Hordaland; one of the four “fjordung” churches in the county. A royal letter from 1271 shows that the church was under construction at this time. Vossevangen at Vangsvatnet, where the wide and expansive valleys of the Voss communities meet, was the natural location for a church.

Lyse chapel

The small white-painted chapel with the red brick tiled roof just south of the monastery ruins at Lyse was built in 1663 as a local chapel for the monastery estate, following the takeover of the property by the District Recorder (Stiftskriver) Niels Hanssøn Schmidt two years previously. The chapel, with its harmonic proportions, lies in the cultural landscape beside the grand monastery estate, witness to a time gone by. But even today, there is a tradition of high mass on the 2nd day of Ascension in Lyse Chapel.