Vollen was a shipbuilding village for over 200 years. Local craftsmen at the Jensen yard built everything from fishing boats to ocean-going vessels on the shores of the Oslofjord. Their most famous commission was the polar ship Maud, built for Roald Amundsen and launched from this spot in 1917. Amundsen needed a vessel as strong as the Fram, with the same oval hull designed to ride up on the ice rather than be crushed by it. Christian Jensen's yard delivered exactly that.
The Maud sailed the Northeast Passage and spent years locked in Arctic ice before sinking near Cambridge Bay in Canada in 1930. In 2016, the hull was raised from the seabed and towed home. It arrived in Vollen on August 7, 2018, returning to the place where it was built a century earlier. The ship now rests under a protective roof while a permanent museum is being planned.
The Oslofjord Museum sits right where the old shipyard once stood, with exhibitions on maritime life and boat-building traditions along the fjord. The village itself is small: wooden houses, a marina, and a handful of restaurants along the waterfront. Old summer villas from the early 1900s line the shore, built by wealthy Oslo families who have used Vollen as their retreat for generations.
Parking can be difficult on summer weekends when the village comes alive.
The Maud sailed the Northeast Passage and spent years locked in Arctic ice before sinking near Cambridge Bay in Canada in 1930. In 2016, the hull was raised from the seabed and towed home. It arrived in Vollen on August 7, 2018, returning to the place where it was built a century earlier. The ship now rests under a protective roof while a permanent museum is being planned.
The Oslofjord Museum sits right where the old shipyard once stood, with exhibitions on maritime life and boat-building traditions along the fjord. The village itself is small: wooden houses, a marina, and a handful of restaurants along the waterfront. Old summer villas from the early 1900s line the shore, built by wealthy Oslo families who have used Vollen as their retreat for generations.
Parking can be difficult on summer weekends when the village comes alive.
