A tiny village on the route between Bergen and Voss
Once upon a time... Evanger was a bustling small rural centre, with its own administration, small businesses and skilled craftsmen, and a favoured spot for English lords enjoying the excellent salmon fishing on the Vosso river. The village was the administrative centre of the old municipality of Evanger, which existed from 1885 until 1964, and Evanger Church (Evanger kyrkje), built in 1841 is the focal point of the village centre.
Evanger is situated one hour by car/train from Bergen and 20 minutes from Voss, where the river Vosso flows into the lake Evangervatnet, and is surrounded on all sides by mountains and beautiful nature.
Within walking distance of the house, there are a shop and café, workshops and other activities, hiking trails, and the start of The Green Loop, a spectacular round trip by bike or car. From here, it is easy to get to Gudvangen, Flåm, Voss, Bergen and other places in the region, by car, train and bus; you can also take one of the Norway in a Nutshell round trips or do a similar trip on your own.
There is free parking outside the house, and Evanger station and bus stops are a stone's throw from the house, with good connections to Voss, Bergen and Oslo. In winter, the morning and afternoon trains correspond with a free shuttle bus to Myrkdalen ski resort and with the gondola, which goes directly to the Bavallen ski resort. The E16 highway, one of the main routes between the city of Bergen and
the Norwegian capital Oslo, runs past the village. The local Bergen-Voss trains all stop at Evanger Station. The Oslo-Bergen express
trains stop in Voss, and you need to transfer there to a local train or bus. Several long-distance buses stop in Evanger.
Evanger kraftverk
The Evanger Hydroelectric Power Station (Evanger kraftverk) is situated 1,500 metres inside the mountain behind the grocery store. The power station started production in 1969, was modified in 1977, and has been undergoing new upgrades since 2016. The original construction activity, lasting twenty years, reached its peak around 1965 when the construction crew totalled approximately 500 men.
Evanger kraftverk is the tenth largest power station in Norway and is equipped with three Pelton turbines. It produces approximately 1.3 billion kilowatt hours annually - equivalent to the electricity consumption of 65,000 households.
The turbines are supplied with water through a 34.3-kilometre long tunnel from Askjelldalsvatnet and other lakes and reservoirs, high in the mountains north of Evanger and above the Eksingedalen and Teigdalen valleys. The tunnel has a vertical drop of 770 metres.45,000 cubic metres of rock were excavated to create space for the power station.
The machine hall inside the mountain is enormous, with a monumental wall-mounted sculptural relief, by Reidar Johan Berle (1969), on one wall, the largest ornamentation of any Norwegian power station to date. Unfortunately, the power station is no longer open to visitors!
The intake area covers a huge area in the mountains
The lakes, reservoirs and tunnels are the result of spectacular engineering
Knute Nelson, U.S. senator born in Evanger.
Knute was born in 1842 on a mountain farm at Kvilekvål in Evanger. His mother, Ingebjørg, was unmarried and had to provide for the boy on her own. When he was only six years old, she borrowed money and took her son with her to America.
Knute, who later took the name Nelson, acquired an education as lawyer, and practiced law in addition to his farming activities. He was elected governor of Minnesota in 1892, and senator in 1895, as the first Scandinavian. He was later re-elected time after time and sat in the Senate in Washington for 28 years. He was involved in law-making processes, and was for many years chairman of the law committee in Congress.
Outside the congress building in St. Paul, Minnesota a large monument has been erected to Knute Nelson, and in Evanger, between the church and the old town hall, a monument has similarly been erected in memory . Knute Nelson never lost his interest in his native country and visited Evanger twice in later life.
Knute Nelson, the little boy who was born in poverty in Evanger and emigrated with his mother, and eventually became a legislator and senator in America, stands as a symbol of the struggle and fate of some of the poor who emigrated from Norway in the 19th century.
The following articles contain a wealth of information about Knute Nelson and Kvilekvål:
MNopedia Wikipedia History Magazine The gate to the landscape, UiB
After we moved into Rongahuset in 2017, it took a long time to get everything in order! In fact, I don't think we will ever finish...
In 2017, we already had three guest rooms available, plus a shared dorm on the ground floor, and we had a lot of happy guests. It is amazing to think back to that first summer. I had five small children - and we had one bathroom available that had to serve the family as well as the guests in the three rooms!
We waited until 2018 to reopen the café, and were finally ready in June, just in time for the annual EvangerLaurdag event. The then Mayor of Voss, Hans-Erik Ringkjøb, came to cut the ribbon and declare the café open, after local musician Vemund Styve played a fanfare on the flugelhorn to bring everyone together.
My son Benjamin - now the lead singer of tundra rock band SLOMOSA - played on the stage throughout the day.
It was a chaotic, but happy and optimistic time in the history of Rongahuset! Thankfully, we now have several bathrooms and much better use of space, but we try to keep the spirit of family life, optimism and hospitality.
