The open air museum

The house was built on Buholmen in Ålesund in 1879. It was put up by two families from Godøya, Arnt Ystenes with his wife Marta Ystenes, and Ole Kristian Dyb (born 1847) together with his wife Petrine Severine Larsdatter Dyb (b. Alnæs, 1852). The master builder did also come from Godøya.

Ole Dyb was a fisherman like most of the others who came and settled as residents on Buholmen. These were people who had moved from the rural district to the city.

The houses on Buholmen were not destroyed by the great
fire in Ålesund in 1904. Therefore is this house from Buholmen one of the oldest houses that remain from Ålesund. In 1978 the houses were demolished in order to give way for the new highway to Ålesund.

Style of building
A lot of the houses in Ålesund looked like the Dyb house before the city burned down in 1904. Houses like these were also commonly built along the coast of Sunnmøre from the 1840’s on Giske, Godøya, Valderøya, Vigra and Haramsøyene. In the middle of the house lie a hallway and a kitchen with a livingroom and a bedchamber on either side. On first floor lie a bedroom and a storeroom coming out on each side from the staircase. We know that the centre room upstairs was used as a shoemaker’s workshop by the families living in the house in 1910.

This shoemaker’s workshop was built by the cobbler Johan Danielsen Myren in 1920. Myren had done his apprenticeship with Petter Spjelkavik, known as “Petter Shoemaker”, in 1917, and he ran his cobbler’s shop from this little cottage for over 60 years.

Locally the cottage was known as the “Stock Exchange”, and it was here that people would meet to catch up on the latest news. During WWII (1940-45), this was where people found out how the war was going, and where illegal publications changed hands.

The cottage was moved to Sunnmøre museum in 1982. Instead of being taken down and put back up again, it was transported whole on the back of a truck.

Larsnes wharf from Larsnes in Sande was a warehouse built at Haugen near Larsnes in Sande Municipality in 1888-89.

At the end of the warehouse facing inland, there was a shop with a counter and shelves. There were also two other small rooms: a storeroom and an office. Towards the sea, the building had a winch for raising fish and goods up from boats. This part of the warehouse was used for buying and salting fish.

In the days when the sea was the most important communication route, Larsnes was in an excellent location to be a steamship port and trading post. Until WW1, alcoholic drinks were also traded here.

The Flydal smithy was built in 1937 at Ytrebø farm, in Østrem, Emblem.

Making scythes was an important part of his business, but the smithy also acted as a small workshop for repairing agricultural tools and machinery.

There was a large forge, with an electricallydriven blower, and an anvil, as well as a power hammer, lathe, drill press and emery wheel / sanding equipment. Everything was belt driven by an electric motor. The smithy was later extended in order to create space for a welding workshop.

The building itself is new, but it was built in the same way as the original one.

This fjordmannstove was erected in Fosnavåg in 1868 by to farmers from Dalsfjord. They each captained an “åttring boat” witch had a crew of 7 men.

Almost all farmers would take to the sea when spawners such as herring and cod neared the shore. During winter it was not possible to sleep overnight in open boats. Nor could the fjord dwellers return home from the fishing grounds every single night. They had to seek shelter somewhere on the coast. They found lodgings with people living on the islands or by building a hut. The islanders named these huts “fjordmannstover” after the men from the fjords who owned them.

The era of these buildings came to an end with the arrival of decked boats with cabins and engines.

These five church huts are the only ones left of the 60 huts that once stood lined up between the church and the boathouses in Stranda. The huts were used for storage. Goods due to be shipped by boat to Trondheim in spring were taken by rowing boat, packed on horsesor carried by hand to the huts in winter andstored there. Similarly, goods that had been purchased in town were stored here beforeeventually being transported home.

The huts were also useful when travelling to church and when tribunals were held. Many people would travel all day to get to church,and they would use the huts to eat and getchanged into their Sunday best. When the sermon was over, they store their clothes in the huts together with their hymn books, clothes brushes and other useful items.

In 1739 a law was introduced stipulating that “no person shall receive the sacrament of Confirmation unless he has first been schooled”. Peripatetic schools were the most common, but children of the poor were often unable to access this form of education.

Pastor Meldal in Borgund donated this building to the poor school “Borgund Fri- og Fattigskule” in 1743. The school was run by a teacher and a housekeeper, and they were able to accept 12 children at a time. The pupils were given free board, accommodation and tuition. There would be a new in-take of pupils every two or threemonths.

Slettereitstova was originally the main farmhouse on the tenant farm Slettereit owned by the Klokk farm in what is now the municipality of Sykkylven. The building was erected at Sunnmøre Museum in 1947.

Bernt Pedersen Melset acquired the lease on the small holding in 1836 and assumed ownership of it in 1840. The farm remained a modest homestead.

The cottage was rebuilt in 1862, and a secondaryliving room, hallway, kitchen, large main roomwith an open hearth, bedchamber and atticroom were added.

Skodjestova, from the Kristen farm in Svorta in Skodje. This cottage was built as a three-room house in 1753.

A woodshed was later added with an entrance from the porch. Along the back of the house is a veranda. The doors to these rooms are still in place.

Skodjestova is a good example of a common building design in the Sunnmøre region from the late Middle Ages (16th century) until around 1850.

The cottage was built in 1856 as a “smokehouse” with a main room, hallway, kitchen and a bedchamber at one end. There was originally an open hearth, but a cast iron wood burner was soon installed to heat the room.The hole through which the smoke escaped can still be seen in the ceiling.

The kitchen is small, and in order to save space, the fireplace and baking oven were built outside the house.

The house has served a number of different uses over the years. For a while it was used for housing the retired farmer and his wife.

The farmhouse from Habostad, Stranda. This type of house was common in the inner fjords of Sunnmøre from the late 18th century until the 1850s.

Framgarden was one of four small farms that occupied what had once been a single big farm; Habostad. Three buildings from Habostad are preserved at Sunnmøre Museum: the farmhouse and “new house” from Framgarden,and the farmhouse from Bakkegarden.

Originally it had an open hearth and was probably built in 1831. Later (after 1854), it was extended to its present form, with a bedroom anda hallway on the left side, and a sleeping loft.

Such longhouses, often referred to as “sunnmørsstover” where several generations lived together, were typical of farms in Inner Sunnmøre in the late 19th century.

The kårstove, the annex on the left, was built in 1867 as a home for the retired farmer. The main building on the right replaced an older building in 1876. In the annex there are remnants of the past in the form of an open hearth. The main building was also built with an open hearth, but it wassoon replaced by a cast iron wood burner.

In the kitchen there is a fireplace and a stoneoven.

The layout of the cottage with a main room, kitchen and bedchamber is typical of this period. In the past the main room wouldcontain all these functions.

Åkre chapel was completed in 1889 after the big Christian revivals in the 1880s which continued make their mark on local faith communities, culture and business right up until the present day. Along with the school, the Åkre chapel was an important meeting place in the local community. It has hosted countless meetings, fêtes, school classes and gymnastics events.

Åkre chapel is one of the oldest and best-preserved chapels in Sunnmøre. The building underwent several changes and adaptations in the 110 years it served as a chapel. In 1948 it was clad with corrugated sheets externally and wall panels internally. In 1966 an extension was built housing a kitchen and toilets.

When the building was moved to the museum in 2016 it was fitted with original external panels, windows and front door. The original interior timber walls have also been uncovered, and all the surviving fittings have been kept.