Stalheim is a place in Voss Municipality in the western Norwegian
province of Vestland. It originally consisted of the farms of
Stalheim, Sivle, Brekke and Solheim, as well as their day laborer
dwellings.
location
Stalheim is located above a ravine
that separates Haugsvik by Lake Oppheimsvatnet at about 330 meters
above sea level from Nærøydalen at about 100 meters above sea level.
The river Stalheimselvi flows past Stalheim and forms the 126 meter
high Stalheimsfossen below Stalheim. The origin of the name Stalheim
is not clear, but it could come from Old Norse staðall, which can be
translated as "standing upright" or "the stander" and can possibly
go back to the almost vertical waterfall. North of Stalheim, the
Brekkedalen valley branches off, leading to Vikafjellet and from
there to Vik i Sogn on the Sognefjord.
“Den Bergenske
Kongevei”
Since the Middle Ages, the most important route between
eastern Norway and western Norway has led from Voss via Stalheim to
Gudvangen and from there by boat to Lærdal. In 1647, the Danish
governor of Norway, Hannibal Sehested, established the first
Norwegian postal system. The old route between East and West thus
became the “Royal Postal Route” (Den Bergenske Kongevei) between
Oslo and Bergen. The farmers along the way were responsible for the
maintenance and transport of the mail on this route. In return,
these "postal farmers" received privileges such as being exempt from
military service or from transporting royal or spiritual travelers.
Mail and travelers were rowed down the Nærøyfjord and brought to
Gudvangen. From Gudvangen the trail led through Nærøydalen to the
steep climb to Stalheim. Until the 1840s, the path up the Stalheim
Gorge consisted only of an unpaved mountain path. The Stalheim farm
above the gorge became a post farm in 1647, and about 100 years
later the number of travelers on the post route had increased so
much that a skysstasjon, a simple hostel for travelers and a stable
for changing horses, was built. This first accommodation in Stalheim
can now be seen in the local open-air museum.
Stalheimskleiva
By the 1840s, the volume of mail had become so high that a safer and
faster connection between Gudvangen and Voss was needed. In 1842,
officer and road engineer Henrik Christian Finne (1762–1870) was
commissioned to build a road up the steep Stalheimskleiva (kleiv -
ravine). The construction work, which was mainly carried out with
dynamite and by hand, lasted three years before the road could be
opened in 1847. The road, which is almost two kilometers long and
also known as Stalheimskleiva, overcomes around 270 meters in
altitude in 14 hairpin bends and was part of European route 16 until
the opening of the Stalheims and Sivle tunnels in 1980. With a
gradient of up to 1:5, it was considered the steepest country road
in Northern Europe. From 1936 it was possible to drive on buses and
trucks, some curves were widened and in the 1980s the
Stalheimskleiva was asphalted. Otherwise, the street is largely in
its original condition and protected as a cultural monument. As of
2012 it was only possible to drive the road uphill, after an
avalanche in 2020 the road was finally closed to traffic and is now
to be restored to its original form.
Stalheim Hotel
The
place became one of the first tourist destinations in Norway and in
1885 the coaching inn was replaced by the first hotel. This burned
down in 1900 and was replaced by another that burned down in 1902,
as did its successor, which was destroyed in the worst fire to date
in 1959. The current hotel was built in 1960 and, due to fire
protection measures, is the first to be built not primarily of wood
but of concrete.
Since 1865 the town of Gudvangen could also
be reached by steamboat, and Stalheim became important for mass
tourism. Horse-drawn carriages brought the tourists to this very
scenic place. The most famous guests in the hotel are the German
Kaiser Wilhelm II, who spent 25 summers at a time here, and the
Swedish-Norwegian Union King Oskar II, each of whom is commemorated
by a memorial stone.
Many painters from the National Romantic era chose Stalheim as their
motif. The most important work is the picture "Fra Stalheim" painted in
1842 by the Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl. It is considered one
of the central images of Norwegian national romanticism and is on
display at the National Gallery in Oslo.
The poet Per Sivle grew
up on the Brekke farm in Stalheim and immortalized the area in several
of his works, including his best-known work, Berre ein hund (English:
Just a dog). A memorial stone was erected in his honor in 1909 at the
entrance to Stalheimskleiva.
A film adaptation of Berre a dog by
Norwegian state television NRK was filmed in and around Stalheim and
premiered as a Christmas film on Christmas Eve 1975.