Vinstra is the name of both a village and a river in Gudbrandsdalen. The village lies in Nord-Fron

Nord-Fron

Nord-Fron is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vinstra. The old municipality of Fron was divided into Nord-Fron and Sør-Fron in 1851...

 municipality in Oppland

Oppland

is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....

 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...

. The administrative centre of Nord-Fron

Nord-Fron

Nord-Fron is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vinstra. The old municipality of Fron was divided into Nord-Fron and Sør-Fron in 1851...

, the population is 2449.http://www.ssb.no/beftett/tab-2005-06-03-01.html The village has rail connections via the Dovre railroad and has a high school. Highway E6 goes through the village of Vinstra. The Vinstra River comes from the west and flows into Gudbrandsdalslågen

Gudbrandsdalslågen

The Gudbrandsdalslågen river flows through the Gudbrandsdal of Norway.The Gudbrandsdalslågen begins in the lake Lesjaskogsvatnet , which lies in Lesja municipality in Oppland. Lesjavatn is the only lake in Norway which has two outlets; they flow into two of Norway’s more famous rivers...

 at the village of Vinstra.

Vinstra and Peer Gynt

Peder Olsen Hågå from Vinstra was the model for the main character in 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...

’s dramatic poem Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...

from 1867. In Sødorp’s old cemetery stands a monument to Peer Gynt, and each year since 1967 the Peer Gynt Festival (Peer Gynt-stemnet) has been held on the Peer Gynt farm, Hågå. The farm consists of 15 old buildings, and the rally includes, among other things, an open-air performance of the play. In addition, from Vinstra begins the “Peer Gynt Way” through Gålå to Lillehammer

Lillehammer

is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...

 and “Peer Gynt’s Seter Way” via Rondablikk to Kvam

Kvam, Oppland

Kvam is a village in Gudbrandsdalen situated along the Gudbrandsdalslågen river. The place lies in Nord-Fron municipality in Oppland County, Norway. During the military campaign in Norway in 1940, Kvam was the scene of a large military action between German and British soldiers. The place has a...

.