Rygnestadtunet Farm Museum

Rygnestadtunet in upper Setesdal is an open-air farm museum that looks exactly as it did when the last residents left in 1919. The farmyard contains a remarkable three-story loft (storehouse) built in 1590, a farmhouse with an open-hearth room dating from before the Black Death of 1349, and painted textiles from the 15th century. Eight buildings in all sit arranged around the yard, from a brook mill to a blacksmith's workshop. Excavations suggest the site has been inhabited since at least 900 AD. The farm was legally protected in 1923, bought by the Setesdal Museum in 1938, and opened to the public in 1940.