Evje sits at the southern entrance to the Setesdal valley, where the road from Kristiansand leaves the coast and heads inland along the Otra river. It looks like any small Norwegian valley town, but the ground beneath it is extraordinary. Over 550 mines and quarries have been registered in the Evje-Iveland area, and more than 120 different mineral species have been identified, several of them extremely rare on a global scale. The pegmatite deposits here yield feldspar, quartz, beryl, and amazonite: the green amazonite from the Landsverk mine is considered the finest in Norway, and for decades large quantities were exported to the gemstone cutters in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. The Setesdal Mineralpark displays the geological heritage in old mine tunnels and lets visitors hunt for specimens on the mineral trails.
The biggest operation was the Flåt nickel mine, which ran from 1872 to 1946 and was at one point Europe's largest of its kind. Over three million tonnes of ore came out, refined into roughly 20,000 tonnes of nickel and 14,500 tonnes of copper. The mine was the reason the Setesdalsbanen narrow-gauge railway was extended here from Kristiansand in 1896: nickel, copper, and feldspar all went south by rail. When the mines wound down and road transport took over, the railway closed in 1962, the last narrow-gauge line operated by Norwegian State Railways. A heritage section survives near Grovane with original steam locomotives from the 1890s.
Today Evje has reinvented itself around outdoor adventure. TrollAktiv runs white-water rafting on the Otra, one of Norway's warmest rivers, with the 8.5-metre drop at Syrtveitsfossen as the highlight. There is also a treetop climbing park at Hornnes with zip lines crossing the river. The combination of geological history underground and adrenaline on the water makes it a natural stopping point before heading deeper into Setesdal.
The biggest operation was the Flåt nickel mine, which ran from 1872 to 1946 and was at one point Europe's largest of its kind. Over three million tonnes of ore came out, refined into roughly 20,000 tonnes of nickel and 14,500 tonnes of copper. The mine was the reason the Setesdalsbanen narrow-gauge railway was extended here from Kristiansand in 1896: nickel, copper, and feldspar all went south by rail. When the mines wound down and road transport took over, the railway closed in 1962, the last narrow-gauge line operated by Norwegian State Railways. A heritage section survives near Grovane with original steam locomotives from the 1890s.
Today Evje has reinvented itself around outdoor adventure. TrollAktiv runs white-water rafting on the Otra, one of Norway's warmest rivers, with the 8.5-metre drop at Syrtveitsfossen as the highlight. There is also a treetop climbing park at Hornnes with zip lines crossing the river. The combination of geological history underground and adrenaline on the water makes it a natural stopping point before heading deeper into Setesdal.