Laerdalsoyri

Laerdalsoyri grew as a market town where the trade routes from eastern Norway met the Sognefjord, and its old quarter preserves about 160 wooden buildings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a grid of narrow streets, one of the best-kept concentrations of timber town architecture in Norway. In January 2014 a fire driven by strong wind destroyed around forty buildings in a night, including one listed building, and the rebuilding that followed has been careful but the loss is visible to anyone who knows the earlier photographs. The village also holds the Norwegian Wild Salmon Centre on the Laerdal river, one of the most famous salmon rivers in the country, and the 24.5-kilometre Laerdal tunnel begins here.

History

The name joins the old river name Lærr with dalr, "valley", and øyri, "sandbank". The village was a major trading port between east and west, where sea-going ships landed goods for the overland journey into eastern Norway, and several County Governors of Nordre Bergenhus lived here; on the night of 18 January 2014 a wind-driven fire spread towards the centre and the town was evacuated (Wikipedia, Lærdalsøyri).

The main sights

• The timber quarter - around 160 protected wooden buildings in a grid.
• The 2014 fire scars - rebuilt sections where forty buildings were lost.
• The Wild Salmon Centre - an exhibition on the Laerdal river and its fish.
• The tunnel mouth - the entrance to the world's longest road tunnel.

When to go

May to September for the village at its best and the salmon centre open; the fjord and the tunnel are accessible year-round. Summer brings traffic through on the E16 route between Oslo and Bergen.

What to expect

Part of what guidebooks describe was destroyed in 2014, and the replacements, though sympathetic, are new. The buildings are private homes rather than a museum. The village is small and takes about two hours.

Nearby

Borgund stave church is up the valley; Aurland, Stegastein and the Sognefjord ferries lie west.

Key facts