Buildings at Opsal Farm
The existing farm buildings play an important role in the visitor’s experience. Instead of modern houses or ordinary cement farm buildings, we gather in the old farmhouse for workshops, food and socializing.
Here, the atmosphere is slower, perhaps quieter, in the winter, darker. Your body may be buzzing after physical participation. You may be inspired to action or deeper reflection.
See part one of the renovation of Våningshuset
In the storage barn (Stabbur) from around 1790, there are still signs of a truly self-sufficient life. Here you can find your tools, and wander out into forest or field to meet some of the farm’s non-human inhabitants.
During the spring of 2021, the ‘Stabbur’, which is a traditional building you will find on almost all Norwegian farms was refurbished! With support from Kulturminnefondet.
See the transformation here.
This house is called the Føderådet, the house traditionally for the elderly on the farm. There is even a special ‘coffin door’ only used when your body leaves the house for the last time.
For those who take courses over several days, this is the place where you experience what it was like to live without electricity and water. Light glows from oil lamps and water is fetched from the well. Some people might have to watch their heads and bend to get through the doors, as the ceilings are seriously low.
The living room is used for storytelling gatherings in the evening, and participants are welcomed to tell stories. You might hear about the respect and contact many had with animals only a short time ago, and how unbelievably tough life was for many.
The aim is that we feel inspired to act as a key-stone species, as so many of our ancestors have done for millennia.
This outhouse
could do with some
TLC
– tender loving care!
This barn is over 200 years old, its quite a unique building. Before it would have housed many animals, today the neighbour’s cows enjoy the fine pastures.