Skjervet- road construction

The road between Eide in Granvin and Voss is one of the oldest roads mentioned in the Middle Ages. In a diploma from 1343 from Voss regarding distribution of road works, we also find mention of the road to Angr (the Granvin fjord).

Bergensbanen

Already at the beginning of the 1870s demands were made that there had to be a railway connection between Bergen and East Norway. The first section between Bergen and Voss was finished in 1883. The route alternatives further on were many: Lærdal-Valdres, Aurland-Geiteryggen, Raundalen-Finse and Ulvik-Finse. Following a long dispute, an agreement was finally reached that the middle route alternative, Raundalen- Myrdal- Finse, was the best alternative. In 1894 the government passed a resolution that the Bergen railway should be built, but only the section Voss-Taugevatn. This was a political gamble in order to make the rest of the country participate in the plans. In 1898 it was approved that the railway be continued eastwards from Taugevatn to Oslo. This high mountain project was one of the most challenging railway projects in Europe. The Bergen railway was to be built across a mountain plateau without roads.

Holmen

HOLMEN AND THE KØLLE FAMILY Holmen lies by the fjord, innermost in Ulvikpollen. Originally this was a small smallholding or coast dweller’s place belonging to the farm Håheim. Major Johan Henrik Palludan obtained leasehold for a part of Holmen in 1773, and erected a grand house, as he was the head of Nordre Hardangerske kompani. In 1806 Mrs Palludin sold Holmen to the somewhat eccentric theologian Kristian Kølle, and thus the Kølle family came to Ulvik. Today the Kølle house in Holmen is gone, today it is the residence of the principal of the State horticultural school that occupies the ground – a villa in the dragon style from the turn of the previous century.

Spjutøy

At Spjutøy and Straumsosen there are three entrances from Lurefjorden to the fjord basin inside. Right up the end of the 1800s the ferry could not reach further than to Mølna at Spjutøy. At Skallestraumen there was a bark mill driven by the powerful tidal current in the sound. Here was also a store, a bakery and a hostelry place around the middle of the 1800s.

In Memory of Fartein Valen

“Fartein Valen is the key figure within newer Norwegian music. Not by way of being more popular than other younger composers, but because he aims at things higher, which he is fully confident of being able to reach since he commands all techniques. But there is a price to pay for reaching above the ordinary, and there is a price to pay for demanding more than the ordinary from the listeners. This is something Valen has experienced”.

Tangarås

From his loft window on the doctor’s farm at Tangarås the young Hans Ernst Kinck had a view of the fjord and the Mauranger mountains. The fjord settlements in West Norway made a strong impression on the young boy when his family moved from Setesdal, from “the stifling mystique of the ballad”, to Strandebarm in 1876. The new district doctor bought the old captain’s farm at Tangarås, which had for some time been a military head farm after Håbrekke further into the settlement.

Øystese- Kvam rural museum

Dyrskard

Right from the start the road across Haukelifjell was a road from “fjord to fjord”, from the bottom of Sørfjorden to Dalen in Telemark. The connection between Røldal-Haukelifjell was considered so important by Stortinget (Parliament) that the road construction Odda-Dalen was approved already in 1853.

Hardangervidda – Crossing the Uplands

Slepa, the ancient “drove roads” across the plateau, date back to prehistoric times. Through the centuries cattle have been driven to the markets in the east; the people of Hardanger went on their trading journeys with tallow and salt to the mining town and silver mines of Kongsberg, and soldiers and other travellers also used these roads.

Farmers from the Fjords

Eitt av dei store samferdsleprosjekta på Vestlandet mot slutten av 1800-talet var opninga av Nesttun-Osbanen i 1894 – ei oppbløming av lokalhandel, turisttrafikk og «landliggere».