What to do and see in Honefoss, Eastern Norway: The Best Museums

Veien Cultural Heritage Park is centrally situated in the district of Ringerike, just north of Tyrifjorden and Honefoss, is one of the biggest burial grounds from the late Iron Age in eastern Norway. Today the burial grounds consist of 107 barrow graves. Traces from the past tell a much bigger story. In the fields, south of the burial ground, excavations have uncovered several flat graves, cooking pits, fireplaces and four longhouses. One of the longhouses is reconstructed the way we believe houses looked like back in late Iron Age. The burial ground is dated back to late Bronze Age and early Iron Age (ca 900 B.C. to 550 A.C). In June 2009 a brand new museum opened housing exhibitions (permanent and temporary), a cafe and a shop.

Ringerike museum was founded in 1923. It acquired and moved into the enormous timber building Norderhov vicarage around 1960. The house dates back to 1635, and until 1960 it was the residence of the vicar of Norderhov church. Anna Colbjørnsdatter The museum tells the dramatic story of how the courageous wife of the vicar, Anna Colbjørnsdatter, tricked several hundred Swedish soldiers in the battle of Norderhov in 1716. A large number of Swedish soldiers were killed. Bullet holes in the walls and weapons in the room bear witness to the terrible event. The dried up body of Anna is still in the crypt of Norderhov church. Jørgen Moe It was here, in Norderhov’s old vicarage, that the fairytale authors Jørgen Moe and Peter Christian Asbjørnsen met for the first time, when they were just 13–14 years old. This is where they laid the foundations for a life-long friendship that awakened their interest in collecting Norwegian fairytales. The museum has hundreds of objects from their lives.

One of the most characteristic buildings along the river Storelva in Ringerike is the former depot of the military camp Helgelandsmoen. It is the army camp's oldest and paradoxically also the tallest one. But the building represents a much richer history than its 136 years' service as a depot. The six floor tall building was initially put up next to the Norderhov church in 1820 as «Ringerikes local storage». It was a grain storage for all the rural areas in the Ringerike region. In addition, some of its rooms were used as custody rooms in the years 1830-1840. The building was sold on an auction in 1868. The military bought it, pulled it down and put it up where it stands today. It is now entirely protected. In the near future it will become an open art gallery and be part of the Galleri Klevjer. Therefore, Helgelandsmoen is no longer an army camp. Now you find several different activities, and many artists have their ateliers here. A dock has also been built at Helgelandsmoen allowing boats travelling on the river to dock here.

Around the year 1850, Mr. Peder Anker built a transport system for timber upwards the river from Steinsfjorden to Storflatan in Nordmarka with a height difference around 400 metres. You can also walk along the path of the old timber-transport system.