Maihaugen Museum

About

Maihaugen offers activities and experiences for the whole family. This is the largest open-air museum in Norway with more than 200 historic houses from the 13th century until today.

See opening hours at Maihaugen!

In the summer you meet actors, guides and working craftsmen in the open-air museum.

Have a peek into historical homes

In the idyllic open-air museum there are more than 200 historic houses from as far back as the 13th Century until today. All year it is nice to stroll around and get an impression of how we lived in the past. Several of the historical houses have open doors so you may have a peek through the door.

A main attraction is the Garmo stave church from the 1200s. 

Queen Sonja's childhood home

Dream back to the various decades of the 20th century. In the Residential Area in the open-air museum, you can refresh childhood memories and share them with your family.

In the Residential Area you may also see the 1930s house which was Queen Sonja's childhood home. The house was built for the Haraldsen family, and Sonja lived here most of the time until she married Crown Prince Harald in 1968. The house is open in summer and until mid-October. The rest of the year you may look in through the windows.

Maihaugen is not just about historic homes from different periods. The open-air museum also has an area dedicated to mountain cabins, showing how Norway's cabin culture has evolved over time.

Great exhibitions

There are open exhibitions both in the main building and outdoors in the open-air museum.

All year you can visit Maihaugens main exhibition Impulses with over a thousand Norwegian cultural treasures such as folk art, textiles, toys, musical instruments and weapons. The main theme is influence and contact across national borders.

You may also visit the exciting exhibition on Norway's history back from the Ice Age, We won the land.

In the Town, you will find many authentic workshops, some of which you can step inside and explore.

Animals and farm work

Both children and adults enjoy meeting the animals at Maihaugen. All summer, there are cows and sheep all around the idyllic grazing areas of the open-air museum.

The horses also graze on the meadows when they are not helping the museum farmers with different farm work done in the traditional way. The farmers are happy to show you their daily work. You can also meet pigs and chickens. The animals are outside until mid October as long as the weather is not too cold.

Café and Museum Shop

The Museum Shop and the café in the visitor center is open every day in the museum's opening hours.

You may also bring your own food for a nice picnic somewhere in the open air museum. Several places there are benches with a nice view.

The Norwegian Olympic Museum is located in the visitor center at Maihaugen and is included in the museum ticket. The Olympic Museum is telling the history of the 1994 Winter Olympics, along with other Olympic moments from all over the world.