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

. The long valley begins at the village of Øvre Eidfjord 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 ...

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

(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, 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 ha ...

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 occurred in 1988 on the new road. The Fossli Hotel is situated on top of the mountain, overlooking the Måbødalen valley and the Vøringfossen waterfall, just off Rv7. The hotel owns a Zimmermann 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 o ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maaboedalen Valleys of Vestland Eidfjord