The Museum Centre in Hordaland
The Museum Centre in Hordaland is a foundation, managing several
museums in Hordaland, the western part of Norway. The Museum
Centre also has a department for consulting in protection of
cultural heritage and a department for conservation and storage,
serving all the museums in the county.
Hordaland (western coast of Norway)
Contact information
Address:
The Museum Centre in Hordaland
Salhusvegen 201
N-5107 Salhus
Norway
Telephone: +47 55 25 10 80
Fax: +47 55 25 10 99
Email: post(@)muho.no
The Norwegian Knitting Industry Museum
(Norsk Trikotasjemuseum)
The Norwegian Knitting Industry Museum is located in buildings
which formerly housed The Salhus Knitwear Factory (1858-1989).
The Salhus Knitting Mill was the first fully mechanized knitwear
factory in Norway and was started in 1859 by two Germans, Philip
Clausen and Johan Ramm. The factory was established during the
first wave of industrialization in Norway. The people in Norway
were in general poor, and many emigrated to America. Rather than
going abroad, a lot of young boys from the districts around Salhus
came to work in the factory. The young boys and men, who generally
came from farms, provided cheap labour for Clausen and Ramm.
“Trikotage” means knitted textiles. Salhus Tricotagefabrik
produced underwear, stockings, socks and sweaters in wool and
cotton. The trademark for the products was a crown (krone),
and Kronemacco is still well known. The factory was in operation
for 130 years, until it was closed down in 1989.
Products from Salhus Tricotagefabrik were not only sold to Norwegian
blue-collar workers, fishermen and farmers, but the trademark
Kronemacco was also well known outside the country and was especially
popular in Sweden, Japan and the United States.
Today the industry is gone. Salhus is protected as a cultural
preservation area. The entire village is practically an open-air
museum with buildings from all stages of industrialism, from
around 1860 to the 1950s.
Our visitors are welcome to see the old factory. A guide will
accompany you through the old production area. The original
machinery remains in working order in the original factory premises,
and the walls still retain the smell of oil and sheep wool.
Here you can see how knitted clothes are produced, how the raw
materials are made into yarn, then into knitted fabric, and
finally manufactured into clothes like the popular "Salhus
sweater". Naturally, the sweater may be purchased in the
museum shop. When you have taken the guided tour, you are unlikely
to forget the impressions made on your senses.
Today the Norwegian Knitting Museum is part of the Union of
Norwegian Industrial Museums and is one of the 10 industrial
heritage sites and enjoys the highest national priority in Norway.
Learn more about
The Norwegian Knitting Industry Museum here.
Osterøy Museum - Local history archive
Osterøy Museum is an open-air museum for the island
and the municipality of Osterøy and the surrounding villages.
The museum was founded in 1920 and is beautifully located at
Gjerstad with 10 old buildings moved to the museum from different
locations. We have exhibitions of architecture, handwork, local
industry, handiwork, and textile.
The museum also houses the local history archives.
Havråtunet
Havrå or Havre, sometimes Havretunet or Havråtunet
is a country line courtyard in Osterøy municipality and
is one of the very last and best preserved of the common country
courtyards at the Western coast of Norway. Havrå was the
first cultural environment to be protected under section 20
of the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Act. It was not connected
to road until late in the 1960s.
The country courtyard is situated in a very steep terrain on
the south side of Osterøy and the common country courtyard
is shaped in line typical for steep terrain in the Norwegian
fjords. Many of the buildings at Havrå are characteristic
to the inner coastal district between Bergen and Sognefjorden;
the combination of dry masonry and juniper cladding on barn
facades exposed to rain and wind.
The Heath land Centre at Lygra (Lyngheisenteret)
50 km north of Bergen, is an information centre for coastal
heath lands.
More than four kilometers of paths take you around the historic
landscape of the coast which has not changed in 5000 years.
Today the European heath lands are rapidly disappearing; more
than 90% has already gone due to cultivation, pollution and
growth of shrubs and trees. On the island of Lygra the heath
lands are preserved through traditional land use.
At the Information centre we present an exhibition on the European
coastal landscapes trough 5000 years and a film on traditional
heath land farming. In the restaurant you can enjoy a meal of
traditional Norwegian food with a special atmosphere. The premises
are also used for conferences and other events. Groups may book
special events and tours. Guided walks in the landscape or on
the farm (for groups by appointment).
Learn
more about The Heath land Centre at Lygra here.
Conservation department in Salhus (Bevaringstenestene)
| In 1978 the Textile Conservation Studio for Hordaland
was established under the ownership of the Administration
of Hordaland County. Seventeen years later first plans were
presented to create a general service for museums in Hordaland,
amongst others offering conservation services and storage
facilities. The former Textile Conservation Studio for Hordaland
was determined to be the basis of this new Conservation
Department. The official opening took place in January 2007.
Today the Conservation department in Salhus exists of
a textile conservation studio, a studio for conservation
of cultural historical objects and storage facilities
for items belonging to museums in Hordaland.
The Conservation Department offers free services to museums
in Hordaland. That includes active and preventive conservation
as well as expert advice and training sessions concerning
storage, pest management and presentation of cultural
heritage.
In order to ensure preservation of Norwegian cultural
heritage outside museums the Conservation Department does
also accept orders from external customers. Among those
are: The Royal Court, Directorate for Cultural Heritage
in Norway (Riksantikvaren), Nidaros Cathedral, Stavanger
Cathedral and various private persons.
|
Building conservation services (Kulturverntenesta)
We provide free help and advice to private owners and local
authorities in the Northern region of Hordaland County.
Services:
- advice on building conservation
- preparation of restoration plans for private owners of listed
buildings
- applications for government funding
- monitoring and administration of restoration projects funded
by Hordaland County Council
- collecting and organising documentation material regarding
preserved buildings, cultural recourses and cultural environments
in the region
- advice on restoration projects on buildings owned by The Hordaland
Museum Centre
The Western Norway Emigration Center
Over 800.000 Norwegians have immigrated to America. The official starting date is generally considered to be the fourth of July 1825, when the “Restauration” set sail from Stavanger. The scooter “Ægir” sailed from Bergen in 1837 with many residents of Hordaland aboard. Emigration was thereafter to leave it’s stamp on Norway for over a century.
The Western Norway Emigration Center stands today as a memorial to those who left and their descendants. Learn more about The Western Norway Emigration Center here.
Norway
