Entering is the visit
Dark, smoky and warm — a minute teaches what no text explains.
Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0
A reconstruction of an Iron Age farm on Ullandhaug hill west of Stavanger, built on the original archaeological site itself. The site was excavated in the 1950s, revealing the foundations of three longhouses dating from about AD 350 to 550. Two of them were rebuilt on those same foundations using the original materials and techniques: walls of stone and turf, a timber roof covered in bark and turf, a central hearth, and a space sharing people and livestock under one roof. Entering the longhouse is the point of the visit: dark and full of smoke, surprisingly warm, and almost without windows. In a minute you understand what no text explains. In season the place is staffed by guides in period dress who explain daily life, weaving, cooking and smithing, aimed at families and working well with children. Hours are strongly seasonal — check before going.
Dark, smoky and warm — a minute teaches what no text explains.
The longhouse held everyone in one space.
Rebuilt with the original materials and techniques.
Ullandhaug, west of Stavanger
The dominant dwelling type in northern Europe from the Bronze Age to the Viking era: a narrow rectangular building that could exceed thirty metres, framed on internal posts carrying the roof. It was usually divided in two: living quarters around a central hearth, and a byre for livestock at the other end — the animals' heat being part of how the house was warmed in winter. There was no chimney but a roof opening, which is why the interior is always smoky.
Gamle Stavanger, the old town, is the best of it: about a hundred and seventy white timber houses of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on cobbled streets, among the most complete preserved wooden quarters in northern Europe. The twelfth-century cathedral is Norway's oldest in continuous use. And the Norwegian Petroleum Museum explains the industry that changed the whole country from 1969.
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