Måbødalen ( en, Måbø Valley) is a narrow valley in

Eidfjord Municipality Eidfjord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The municipality is located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Eidfjord, where the majority of the municipal populatio ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The long valley begins at the village of

Øvre Eidfjord Øvre Eidfjord is a village in Eidfjord municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located at the southern end of the lake Eidfjordvatnet, about south of the municipal centre of Eidfjord. Øvre Eidfjord sits along the Bjoreio River, ...

and ends at the Sysendalen valley on the western side of the

Hardangervidda Hardangervidda ( en, Hardanger Plateau) is a mountain plateau (Norwegian: ''vidde'') in central southern Norway, covering parts of Vestland, Vestfold og Telemark, and Viken counties. It is the largest plateau of its kind in Europe, with a cold ye ...

plateau. The valley contains one of the most notable waterfalls in the country:

Vøringfossen Vøringsfossen ( en, Vøring Falls) is the 83rd highest waterfall in Norway on the basis of total fall. It lies at the top of the Måbødalen valley in the municipality of Eidfjord, in Vestland county. It is located near Norwegian National Road 7 ...

, which is easily accessible via

Norwegian National Road 7 Norwegian National Road 7 ( no, Riksvei 7, ) is a national road in Norway which runs from the town of Hønefoss in Viken county to the village of Granvin in Vestland county. The route is long and runs east–west through Viken and Vestland coun ...

(Rv7).

The first road through the Måbødalen valley was built from 1900 to 1916. Consisting of three tunnels and three bridges, including the

Måbø Bridge The Måbø Bridge ( no, Måbø bru) is a stone arch bridge over the Bjoreio River in the Måbø Valley just below Lake Måbø (''Måbøvatnet'') in the municipality of Eidfjord in Vestland, Norway. The bridge was built in 1910 and has two spans, ...

, it is characterized by its many

hairpin turn A hairpin turn (also hairpin bend or hairpin corner) is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn about 180° to continue on the road. It is named for its resemblance to a bent metal hai ...

s. The road is widely used by pedestrians and cyclists today and it is regarded as a good example of early 20th century road engineering. This was the first road connection between Eastern and Western Norway over the

plateau when it was finally completed in 1928. A new road through Måbødalen was opened in 1986, and it replaced the old road (which was not removed). The new road is wider and has many more tunnels to replace the narrow, old road and all its hairpin turns. The

Måbødalen bus accident The Måbødalen bus accident or Måbø Canyon bus accident was a bus crash on 15 August 1988 during the descent from Hardangervidda into the Måbø Valley on the way to Bergen, Norway. The bus collided with the concrete arch at the exit of the ...

occurred in 1988 on the new road. The

Fossli Hotel Fossli Hotel is a hotel situated at Vøringsfossen on top of Måbødalen, in the municipality of Eidfjord in Vestland county, Norway. Fossli Hotel is situated just off Rv7 on top of the mountain, overlooking the Måbødalen valley and the Vøri ...

is situated on top of the mountain, overlooking the Måbødalen valley and the Vøringfossen waterfall, just off Rv7. The hotel owns a

Zimmermann Zimmermann is a German occupational surname for a carpenter. The modern German terms for the occupation of carpenter are Zimmerer, Tischler, or Schreiner, but Zimmermann is still used. ''Zimmer'' in German means room or archaically a chamber wi ...

piano where

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

composed ''Norwegian Folk Songs,'' Opus 66 (1896). In 1854,

Johan Christian Dahl Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by some ...

painted ''Måbødalen'', a landscape painting of the area. The painting is in the art museum in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maaboedalen Valleys of Vestland Eidfjord