Alvøen or Alvøy is a manor house located on a historic industrial site in the

Laksevåg Laksevåg is a borough of the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. The borough is located in the western part of the municipality. Historically, the area was called ''Laxevaag'', and it was a separate municipality until 1972 when it was m ...

borough of the city of

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 o ...

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 the ...

. Alvøen Manor was once one of the grander private homes in Bergen.

History

Alvøen is the site one of Norway's oldest industrial communities and one of the best preserved industrial locations. In 1626, King

Christian IV of Denmark Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian mon ...

granted the right to establish a gunpowder mill on the site. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1733, but rebuilt. Didrich Jansen Fasmer (1706-1770) improved it and built another gun mill in the 1760s. Towards the end of the 1700s, Alvøen became an industrial site with working houses attached to the factories. Later it started production of saltpeter, linseed oil and paper. Hendrik Jansen Fasmer (1766-1836) founded the paper mill during 1797. In 1858, Hendrik Fasmer (1835–1930) built a new papermill in Alvøen and from the late 1800s the production was concentrated on finer grades in different blends of cloths and cellulose. Alvøens Papirfabrik A/S manufacturing

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...

in Alvøen until stopped production in 1981. At that time, it was the oldest paper mill in the country. The specialty was finer paper for documents and from 1908, supplier of paper for Norwegian banknotes. Alvøen Manor was the main residence of the owners of the paper factory of Alvøen. Alvøen Manor was originally built as a countryside retreat for members of the Fasmer family in 1797. Eventually the rococo main building was surrounded by several gardens. Alvøen Manor and the factory were opened as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

(''Alvøen Hovedbygning'') in 1983, as a branch of the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art. It is now managed by the

Bergen City Museum Bergen City Museum ( no, Bymuseet i Bergen) is a foundation which operates several museums in Bergen, Norway. History The museum foundation was established on 1 July 2005 through merger of the former independent institutions. The establishment ...

. The site includes Alvøen Manor together with some forty worker cottages and production buildings dating from the 1800s.''Historikk'' (Alvøen Gamle Mølle)
/ref> Alvøen lies at the Vatlestraumen strait, west of Bergen, where the cargo ship ''Rocknes'' hit an underwater rock and

capsize Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...

d in January 2004. The wreckage was towed to Alvøen, stabilised and partly examined, before being taken to the CCB base at Ågotnes in Sotra for further examination and recovery.

Interior of Alvøen manor

File:Alvøen.3.jpg, Living room File:Alvøen.6.jpg, Large room File:Alvøen.7.jpg, Dining room File:Alvøen.8.jpg, Porcelain chamber

References

External links

Alvøen Hovedbygning website

Bergen City Museum Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvoen Populated places in Bergen Farms in Vestland Manor houses in Norway Historic farms in Norway Museums in Bergen Historic house museums in Norway Industry museums in Norway Open-air museums in Norway

History

Interior of Alvøen manor

See also

References

External links