Nordfjord Folkemuseum is an open-air museum on a low hill just east of Sandane, at a place called Jølet. The collection was started in 1920, first at a site called Åsen, and moved to its present location in 1960. Today it holds 45 historical buildings brought here from farms all over Nordfjord, most of them dating from the 1700s and 1800s.
The houses are arranged as they would have stood on working farms: dwellings, storehouses, barns, stables, a school room, a dye-house. Inside the buildings sit roughly 25,000 objects collected over more than a century, from simple kitchen tools to wedding clothes and farm machinery. It is one of the bigger regional folk museums in western Norway.
The standout piece is the Holvik boat, a Viking-age oak vessel found in a burial mound just outside Sandane in 1878. Because of its long, narrow lines it is sometimes called the stave church of the sea. It is one of the best preserved boats of its kind from this part of the country.
The museum runs a full summer programme of guided tours and craft demonstrations. Buildings are outdoors and spread out over a steep hillside, so rain changes the experience. Check opening hours on the website before driving up. Allow at least an hour and a half to do the place justice.
The houses are arranged as they would have stood on working farms: dwellings, storehouses, barns, stables, a school room, a dye-house. Inside the buildings sit roughly 25,000 objects collected over more than a century, from simple kitchen tools to wedding clothes and farm machinery. It is one of the bigger regional folk museums in western Norway.
The standout piece is the Holvik boat, a Viking-age oak vessel found in a burial mound just outside Sandane in 1878. Because of its long, narrow lines it is sometimes called the stave church of the sea. It is one of the best preserved boats of its kind from this part of the country.
The museum runs a full summer programme of guided tours and craft demonstrations. Buildings are outdoors and spread out over a steep hillside, so rain changes the experience. Check opening hours on the website before driving up. Allow at least an hour and a half to do the place justice.