Would you like to learn more about the Eidsfoss’ history, as you enjoy beautiful and scenic surroundings? Then you should consider a walk along the cultural path. The long route is approx. 2 km on small gravel roads and forrest paths, while the shorter one is 1,2 km. The path takes you through the centuries, from the period prior to the ironworks was established in 1697, to the last stoves were produced in the 1960s and right up until today’s Eidsfoss. Enjoy!
In the ‘Eidsfoss 2026’ brochure, you’ll find a map of the Cultural Trail (Kultursti). The brochure is available in both Norwegian and English and can be picked up free of charge at the tourist information office at the Post Office Museum. It is also available in several shops, museums and other visitor attractions in Eidsfoss. The yellow lines on the map show the long route, whilst the short one is marked in red.
You can also download the brochure here: Eidsfoss 2026 (English, pdf)
1. “City” Centre
Bråtagata (The Garden street) is the name of the area where the old workers’ housing was built for labourers between 1700 and 1900. Initially, they were single-storey, but as more workers arrived and families grew, two-storey buildings were constructed (1910–1912). The name Bråtagata comes from the word ‘Bråta’, which means fertile land or plot of land. The land above the workers’ housing is, in fact, very fertile due to the water that flows down from the mountains, carrying various nutrients with it. each appartement had a patch of land, were they could grow their own vegetables and maybe keep a pig or some chickens.
The shop, Norway’s oldest general store still in operation, was established in 1868 and was originally located on the premises of the Post Office Museum until it moved to its current premises in 1888. Until 1960, this was the works’ own shop. It was common practice here for workers to have goods deducted from their wages.
Inside the Tavern, you’ll find the exhibition ‘To Elise’, which tells the story of the fate of a working-class woman who was widowed in the early 20th century.
The Post Office Museum is located at Bråtagata 49. The post office at Eidsfoss was moved from Maren Nilsen’s outbuilding at Kleiva in 1984 and closed in 1997. Inside, everything remains as it was when the post office first opened.
2. Hauane (The Heaps)
The school was run by the ironworks until it became a municipal school in 1875. The first ironworks school was established as early as the 18th century, and from 1750 onwards, ironworks were required to have their own school and teacher if there were more than 30 children at a single ironworks. Hauane also had a library branch until 2005, and today it is home to the Eidsfoss Development Project and the Eidsfoss Ironworks (part of the Vestfold Museums). The old school also houses a school museum and an exhibition about Rakel Seweriin, one of Norway’s first female ministers of Parliament.
Hauane is also one of the three workers’ neighbourhoods at Eidsfoss, with buildings dating from the 18th century. The brown-stained two-storey building on the other side of the school building is called Pynten (the Decoration), and used to be a guesthouse in the old days. The coal inspector, who assessed the quality and price of the coal that the farmers brought to the works, lived here. The white-painted villa situated below Skolestua is a reconstruction of ‘Bekken’ (the Stream), which was the name of the villa belonging to the Thon family, who owned Verket together with the Schwartz family around 1900. All these buildings are now privately owned. Please be considerate.
3. The Industrial Area
The blast furnace, which was the heart of the ironworks, stood roughly where the car park in the town centre is today. The blast furnace was the most important industrial building and one of the first to be erected when the ironworks was established in 1697. However, blast furnace operations were phased out in the 1880s, and Eidsfos Verk A/S transitioned to becoming a foundry, which remelted scrap iron in a so-called cupola furnace instead of producing its own iron. After the foundry closed in 1961, a wire mesh factory was established in the building. Wire mesh is a fine-meshed metal mesh required by the paper industry.
When the company transitioned to becoming a pure iron foundry, hydropower was also phased out in favour of steam engines and, eventually, electricity. As the river lost its importance as an energy source, the production buildings along the river were dismantled and new ones erected further downstream, where several still stand today. This is also where you’ll find the modern industry at Eidsfoss today.
4. The Bath, the Power Station and the Assembly House
Here you will find a cluster of many interesting historic buildings. The bathhouse was built in 1908 as a communal bathhouse for working-class families. This was a major improvement in terms of hygiene. The following year, the new community hall, Eidsfos Hall or ‘Hallen’, was built. Mrs Trine Schwartz, née Anker, the mill owner, financed it but stipulated that the building should not be used for political activities. In the small red building next to the bathhouse, there was a trout fry hatchery which remained in operation until around 1975.
A new, modern power station was built in 1915, as the old one had burnt to the ground in 1914. It had a tunnel through the mountain to Lake Bergsvannet. Later in the 1920s, electricity was also connected to the workers’ housing. Today, there is a stage on this site where concerts and events are held.
5. The Manor and its Garden
The main house was probably built as a small residence for Mrs Karen Toller and Caspar Hermann Hausmann during the construction of Eidsfos Ironworks in the 18th century. Initially, it was probably used solely as a summer house. The main building, as it stands today, was most likely built in the 1740s, with the second floor added in the 1770s. The buildings were classified as listed in 1922, the only ones in Eidsfoss to receive this status. In 1987, the last owner of the ironworks, Hans Jørgen Schwartz, moved out, and three years later, Eidsfos Hovedgård became a foundation. Today, the Hovedgård offers both catering and function facilities. It is also a popular venue for art exhibitions.
The Baroque and Renaissance gardens were probably laid out by Hausmann as early as the 18th century. Under the ownership of Cappelen in the 19th century, a park in the Romantic style was established. The garden features, amongst other things, Russian pine and other imported tree species. Four of a total of 16 parterres were restored in the 1990s.
6. The Church
Eidsfoss got its own church in 1904. It was built between 1902 and 1904 by master builder Andreas A. Kolstad. The architect was P.A.H. Sinding-Larsen. It was the factory owners and the workers themselves who raised the money for the church, partly through a ‘church tax’. In 1957, the church was donated by Eidsfos Verk to Hof municipality.
A new path has been created between the church and Hovedgården, which takes you past the old burial ground of the Schwartz family. This type of burial site outside the churchyard signified the family’s status. Under the Cappelen family, the area formed part of a romantic landscape park. If you follow the path towards Hovedgården, you will emerge onto the double Eikealléen, which in earlier times was the main road to the ironworks’ administrative offices.
7. Gata (The Street)
The buildings here in the working-class neighbourhood of Gata were built in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the ironworks’ need for labour grew. The workers’ houses in Gata are timber-framed and clad with panelling on the outside. They were often painted red, as red pigment is a by-product of iron production and thus an affordable alternative to other colours. White paint was particularly expensive, and therefore a luxury reserved for the better-off. That is why the small whitewashed building was popularly known as ‘the Castle’. The building is mainly constructed of slag stone, another by-product of the production process. It served as workers’ accommodation from the mid-18th century until a communal laundry was established for the residents here in the 1920s. The area nest to ‘The Castle’ is the old market square at Eidsfoss.
8. Lund
The name Lund harks back to bygone days, when a ‘lund’ was a common term for a park garden. Here, amongst tall pine trees, lie the last remnants of the romantic park laid out around 1800 by Christine Marie and Peder von Cappelen. A path from Eidsfos Hovedgård led down to this semi-circular, levelled area, which is held in place by a simple row of stones. The owners of Eidsfoss Ironworks and their guests could enjoy the view of Lake Eikeren from here. In the 1950s, the bandstand was built here, where the workers would gather for dancing and fun in the open air. Various brass band and music festivals were held here. Eidsfoss Day was first held here in 1958, and the Day of Song and Music was an annual event. Various performances are still held here today.
The red building is called ‘Synken’ and dates from 1915. Synken is a control and purification station for the water supply from Bergsvannet to the power station below. A tunnel beneath the Hovedgården extension carries water from Bergsvannet to the power station, with the outlet roughly where the former ‘Hammerbekken’ stream flowed into Eikeren.
9. Kølabånn
Kølabånn refers to the fact that coal was stored or burnt in so-called charcoal kilns here. The ironworks required enormous quantities of charcoal to produce and shape iron. In the years around 1900, a boat service ran from here to Vestfossen – a tradition that the MS Eikern has revived on selected Sundays in the summer, when it offers themed trips
After 64 years at the bottom of Lake Eikern and three failed salvage attempts, the old passenger ship ‘Stadshauptmand Schwartz’ was raised with great fanfare on 28 October 1995. Today it lies as a ‘cultural monument on land’, owned by the Eikern Steamship Company Association, which is working on the ship’s restoration.
The steam ship was built at Kølabånn and named after the father of the then factory owner, Paul L. Schwartz – Stadshauptmand Johan Jørgen Schwartz. The main shareholders in ‘Eikerns Dampskibsselskap’ were Eidsfos Verk and Drammens Jernstøberi & Mek. Værksted. The aim was to operate passenger and freight services on Lake Eikern. The steamboat was registered to carry 102 passengers, with two classes and a crew of three. It operated a scheduled service, with several stops, between Eidsfoss and Vestfossen from 1903 until 1926, when the company went into liquidation. The stately vessel sank at the ironworks’ jetty in 1931, after lying there for five years as scrap metal. Today, you can see a model of the ship in the yellow parlour at Gamle Eidsfos Kro.
10. Pusserstallen (The Cleaning Shed)
The Cleaning Shed is one of the last remaining buildings from the Tønsberg–Eidsfoss Railway (1901–1938). It was here that the boiler and pipes of the steam-powered locomotive were inspected and cleaned. The same was done in Tønsberg, as the locomotive had to be cleaned after every journey. Due to limited traction and numerous stops, the journey to Tønsberg took around two and a half hours. In front of the Cleaning Shed, you can see the remains of the turntable, where the locomotive was turned by hand.
11. Bettum Workshop, Eidsfossen (Waterfalls) and the Eidselva (The River Eid)
During the ironworks era, all the industrial buildings were situated along the river, as the bar iron hammers, the blast furnace, the mills and the sawmills were powered directly by water power. The river between Bergsvannet and Eikern was therefore of central importance during the ironworks era. The three waterfalls – Dagseid, Thokke and Prestebolsfossen – had a combined drop of 17 metres. Among other things, this provided the power to drive the bellows that fuelled the blast furnace and the hammer mills. In addition, various water channels carried water into the workshops. This is why the industry was situated along the river during the ironworks era. From the dam and down along the river, you can still see remnants of this today.
The Bettum Workshop is today the best-preserved example of an industrial building from the ironworks era at Eidsfoss. It was built around 1780 and is a so-called ‘kleinsmidde’, the German term for ‘small smithy’. It was strategically located near the bar iron hammers, where the pig iron from the blast furnace was hammered into bar iron using water power. This was a much sought-after semi-finished product on which the smithies depended. It was therefore a vital part of the ironworks’ production. Behind the hammer house stood the coal sheds, where the coal for iron production was stored. At the Bettum workshop, nails and fittings were made, as well as tools and equipment needed for iron, charcoal and ore production. Since the late 19th century, when the Eidsfoss ironworks transitioned to becoming a foundry specialising in cast iron, the building has been used as a model workshop. It was then given its current name, after Hans Bettum, who made wooden models for several of the popular cast-iron stoves produced here.
12. Sandvik
A lovely area with designated campfire sites, shelters and a bathing beach. Accessible by boat or canoe, or via a footpath from Verkstedsstranda along Lake Eikern – a 15–20-minute walk.
The Cultural Trail was established in the early 1990s and later upgraded. 18 Historical signs tells the ironworks history along the 3 km long path.
Welcome to a time travel on foot!
Places to visist along the Cultural Trail (the numbers are indicated on the map):
- Center – Old Eidsfos Inn, Country store, Exhibition “To Elise”, Post office museum/ tourist information, toilets
- Old school at Hauane – Museum exhibition about Rakel Seweriin
- Industrial area – the Ironworks Museum, Galleries, Knife Maker and Molene knitting shop,
- Festival area – Stage, Eidsfoss hall, the old public bath and the power station.
- Hovedgården (Eidsfos manor) – Restaurant, café, events, Crocus Farm Shop, Eidsfoss Ceramics Workshop
- Eidsfoss church – Path to Eidsfoss manor.
- Gata (The Street). Gallery “Slottet” (The “Castle”)
- Lund – Small stage in the middle of nature.
- Kølabånn – The steamship Stadshauptmand Schwartz. Quay for M/S Eikern. Toilets.
- Pusserstallen (The Cleaning Shed) – Concerts, events and playground.
- Bettumverkstedet – Arts & Craft Shop “Fruene på Smia” (The Ladies at the Forge), Gallery “Stabburet” (The Storehouse)
- Sandvik – swimming area, open-air huts, campfire site, space for tents and hammocks
