Sørhuglo

The tax collector’s farm at Sørhuglo is one of the many farms for state employees in Hordaland. According to history, “Futastovo” was built by the tax collector Gram in the second half of the 17th century. In 1943 the building was moved to Sunnhordland Folk Museum.

Einstapevoll- the farm

Einstapevoll (from einstape: “bregne” (fern)) lies on the west side of the Tittelsnes peninsula. Up to 1831 the farm was a vicarage belonging to Stord parish. The priests had leasing rights. Land rent and other fees from the farm was part of their salaries.

Godøysund

The old hostelry centres were strategically placed with good harbours and anchoring conditions where people travelled. GODØYSUND, or Gøysundet, as it was called, was in the middle of Tysnes Parish, with easy access from the sea, also for the local population. Gøysundet is amongst the oldest hostelries in Sunnhordland.

Finne

Peter Bonde, who owned Finne towards the end of the 1200s, had a jumping stag in his family emblem. This stag is the origin for the heraldic blazon of Voss. Peter Bonde and his descendants acquired possession of many farms and farm parts; the so-called Finne properties became some of the largest land properties in the country.

Mølster

Oppheim

In the slope above Oppheim church lies the old vicarage at OPPHEIM. If you stroll up the road from the church you will arrive in a farmyard marked by traces of building style and living traditions from the Middle Ages.

Stalheim

Stalheim is situated between Stalheimsfossen and Sivlefossen, in a community with the farms Sivle and Brekke. The most likely explanation of the name is “the farm by Stadall”, from “standa” (stand), probably with background in the steep Stalheimskleivi. The farm has for a long time been divided into several units. At Stalheim there has been a transport exchange from the Middle Ages and the farm has been a postal farm since 1647.

Bru

Bruosen is one of the few river harbours in the county. As landing place for the churchgoers, this place and the boatshed environment follow a tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages, but the country store of today is much younger.

Vikøy

Through Adolph Tidemand’s detailed close-ups of smokehouses in Kvam, the vicarage in Vikøy, where he lived during his painting trips through Hardanger, has obtained a central position in the Norwegian national romanticism.

Odda- The tourist town

The pioneering tourists in the 1830s-40s brought a momentum in the tourist traffic to the fjord and mountain country Norway. At the time Odda was a hidden Shangri-La at the bottom of Sørfjorden; the farm and the church on the green headland at the fjord. But when the steamship traffic opened the fjord landscape for tourism, in a few years Odda parish in Søndre Bergenhus County became the focal point for travellers in West Norway.