Skjolden is a village in the municipality of Luster in

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, whe ...

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 ...

. It is located at the end of the Lustrafjorden, a branch of the Sognefjorden. Skjolden is located at the innermost point of the Sognefjorden, Norway's longest fjord, and the length of the Sognefjorden is measured from Skjolden to the island of

Ytre Sula Ytre Sula (also called Nordviksula) is a mountain in the municipality of Surnadal in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Location The peak lies just north of the village of Todalsøra and the Todalsfjorden. Ytre Sula, meaning "Outer Sula", lie ...

where the fjord meets the ocean—over 200 km. The valleys of Mørkridsdal and Fortunsdal meet at Skjolden, just west of the Hurrungane mountains. Skjolden is home to about 200 people. The village is located along the

Sognefjellsvegen The Sognefjellsvegen or Sognefjellsveien is the highest mountain pass road in Northern Europe. Part of County Road 55, it is located in Innlandet and Vestland counties in Norway. It is a national tourist road and starts in the village of Lom i ...

road, about west of the lake Prestesteinsvatnet and the mountain

Fannaråki Fannaråki (or ''Fannaråken'') is a mountain in the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. The tall mountain is located in the Jotunheimen National Park, just south of the lake Prestesteinsvatnet and the Sognefjellsvegen road. This ...

. Skjolden is about northeast of the municipal center of

Gaupne Gaupne is the administrative center of the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located along the Gaupnefjorden, an arm of the Lustrafjorden, about north of the village of Hafslo. The village of Veitastrond is loc ...

and about northeast of Hafslo. North of the village is Breheimen National Park, home of the glaciers Harbardsbreen and Spørteggbreen and the mountain Tverrådalskyrkja.

Notable people

The village was home to philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian- British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is cons ...

who lived here after 1913 during some periods of his life; the longest one was 13 months. Important parts of his works were written here. He had designed a small wooden house that was erected on a remote rock over the Eidsvatnet Lake in 1913 and called "Østerrike" (Austria) by locals. It was broken up in 1958 to be rebuilt in the village. A local foundation collected donations and bought the house in 2014; it was dismantled again and re-erected at its original location; the inauguration took place on 20 June 2019 under international attendance.

Media gallery

File:P1000394Vassbakken.JPG, View of the Vassbakken waterfall File:P1000393copySkjolden.jpg, Skjolden village File:Skjolden, Luster.JPG, View of the village with waterfall behind File:Skjolden.jpg,

's cabin used to be to the left in this picture Julian Baggini
''Secular pilgrimage''
Aeon magazine (2019)

References

Villages in Vestland Luster, Norway {{Vestland-geo-stub