Balestrand

Balestrand became fashionable in the late nineteenth century when landscape painters settled here and the fjord tourism boom brought steamers, and the buildings from that period define it: timber villas in the dragestil, the dragon style, a national romantic idiom that borrowed carved beasts and steep roofs from stave churches, along with the Kviknes Hotel, a huge wooden building of 1877 still run by the same family. Kaiser Wilhelm II came here summer after summer before the First World War and paid for two statues of Norse figures on the shore. Saint Olaf's church, a small English-style timber church of 1897, was built for the British visitors. The village faces the fjord with mountains behind and is reached mainly by boat.

The main sights

• The dragon-style villas - carved timber houses in the national romantic idiom.
• Kviknes Hotel - an 1877 wooden hotel still in family hands.
• Saint Olaf's church - a small English-style timber church of 1897.
• The Norse statues - shore monuments paid for by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

When to go

May to September, when the express boats and ferries run their full schedule and the hotel and museums are open; the village is very quiet in winter with limited transport and most places shut.

Practical notes

Balestrand is small and can be walked in an hour, and outside the historic buildings there is little to do. Ferry and express boat timetables constrain visits. Accommodation is limited and the main hotel is expensive.

Nearby

Fjaerland and its bookshops lie north; Vik, Hopperstad and the Sognefjord ferries are across the water.

Key facts