Agatunet

**Agatunet**
	; Agatunet Open Air Museum
Data
place	Ullensvang, Norway
Art	open air museum
Website	http://www.agatunet.no

Agatunet is an open-air museum with 30 listed and in situ preserved houses in the municipality of Ullensvang in Fylke Vestland in western Norway . The museum is located north of Odda and south of Utne on the west side of the Sørfjord in the inner Hardangerfjord .

history

Agatunet in Sørfjorden, Ullensvang

Aga was a traditional aristocratic seat. Several burial mounds testify to a very early settlement. The farm was one of the largest in the Hardanger. Throughout the Middle Ages, she had close ties with the aristocratic estates in western Norway.

The name of the farm is documented from around 1220. There are several guesses as to the meaning of the name. The area was an undivided property until the late 13th century. Later it was divided among descendants. Up to 1940, nine landowners lived on the farm, which comprised 80 to 90 buildings.

The museum today

The peculiarity of Agatunet is that it is an in situ preserved settlement and not transferred houses. Agatunet lies below the Tveita mountain, which protects the houses from avalanches.

The oldest surviving building, dating from around 1250, is Lagmannsstova , a one-story wooden building that stands on high stone cellar walls. It was built by the judge, knight and councilor Sigurd Brynjolfsson, one of the advisors to King Eirik Magnusson . The wood comes from the island of Varaldsøy . It is the oldest surviving medieval building in Norway that stands in its original place.