Barony Rosendal
Encyclopedia
Kvinnherad
Kvinnherad is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Kvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Fjelberg, most of Varaldsøy and parts of Skånevik merged with Kvinnherad on 1 January 1965.The municipality is the 5th in size in Hordaland...
in Hordaland
Hordaland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...
county, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
History
The history of Rosendal dates back to the 1650s, when the nobleman Ludvig Holgersen Rosenkrantz (1628-1685) came to Bergen as commissioner of war for the Danish king. At a ball at the fortress of BergenhusBergenhus
Bergenhus is a borough of the city of Bergen, Norway.-Location:Named after the historic Bergenhus Fortress, Bergenhus makes up the city centre and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding it, including Sandviken and Kalfaret, as well as the mountains to the north and east of the city centre...
he met Karen Axelsdatter Mowatt (1630-1675), sole heiress to the largest fortune of the country at the time. Her father was a great land-owner and had more than 550 farms all over the western part of Norway. They married in 1658, and were given the farm of Hatteberg in Rosendal
Rosendal
Rosendal may refer to:*Rosendal, Norway in Hordaland county, Norway**The Barony Rosendal located there*Rosendal, Free State in the Free State province, South Africa*Rosendal Castle, Helsingborg in Scania, Sweden...
as a wedding present.
In 1661, Ludwig Rosenkrantz started building his own manor in Rosendal. He completed this in 1665.
In 1678 King Christian V of Denmark
Christian V of Denmark
Christian V , was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 to 1699, the son of Frederick III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
gave the estate the status of barony - the only one of its kind in Norway. Around 1850, an expansive renaissance garden was laid out around the manor.
The families of Rosendal were important people in the cultural life of Norway. Authors Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
, Jonas Lie
Jonas Lie
Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie was a Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright who is considered to have been one of the Four Greats of 19th century Norwegian literature, together with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Alexander Kielland.-Background:Jonas Lie was born at Hokksund in Øvre Eiker, in...
and Alexander Kielland
Alexander Kielland
Alexander Lange Kielland was one of the most famous Norwegian realistic writers of the 19th century. He is one of the so-called "The Four Greats" in Norwegian literature, along with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Jonas Lie.-Background:Born in Stavanger, Norway, he grew up in a rich...
and painters Hans Gude
Hans Gude
Hans Fredrik Gude was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters...
and Anders Askevold
Anders Askevold
Anders Askevold was a Norwegian landscape painter. Anders Askevold was best known as an animal and landscape painter.-Biography:...
visited Rosendal often. Musicians like Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
and Ole Bull
Ole Bull
Ole Bornemann Bull was a Norwegian violinist and composer.-Background:Bull was born in Bergen. He was the eldest of ten children of Johan Storm Bull and Anna Dorothea Borse Geelmuyden . His brother, Georg Andreas Bull became a noted Norwegian architect...
were guests here. Often there were concerts in Rosendal, a tradition which is still kept alive.
Baroniet Rosendal museum
The property remained in private ownership until 1927, when the last owner donated it to the University of OsloUniversity of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
. The manor is now operated as the Baroniet Rosendal museum. The museum offers valuable information about an important period of Norwegian history.
A guided tour of the manor takes visitors through the different periods of occupation from 1665 up to 1930. The oldest restored rooms are still decorated as they were in the early 19th century. The garden is often referred to as the most magnificent Victorian garden in Norway. Among other things around 2000 roses in bloom can be experienced here from June to November.