About Sagastad
Sagastad is the new knowledge center about the Viking Age in western Norway. Experience the 30-meter long Myklebust ship – one of the world’s largest Viking ships. Learn about mystical rituals, great journeys in fantastic ships, and about our cultural history.
Nordfjordeid was an important place during the Viking Age, and home to the chieftain in Firda county. Here you will find one of the country’s richest, largest and most spectacular Viking graves with the burnt remains of the magnificent Myklebust ship. Remains of a chief or king together with his riches tell an exciting story that can be linked directly to a named person from the sagas. There are also several other rich tombs from the Viking Age in Nordfjordeid, which confirm the towns central role at this time. These unique finds form the basis for the story you can experience at Sagastad.
Sagastad is a knowledge center of national format. The center is anchored in research in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Medieval Cluster. The most central part of the center is the spectacular Myklebust ship. The ship is located in the middle of the center, surrounded by interactive exhibitions that are mainly related to the ship and the other grave finds in Nordfjordeid.
The center opened May 10th 2019 and will have year-round operations with opportunities for parties, concerts, lectures and other events. Sagastad will develop the exhibition by introducing new or changing exhibition installations at regular intervals.
Architecture
The layout of the building is based on the one-room principle, where the circular space has the same diameter as the circular grave from the Viking Age. The room gives the visitor the opportunity to see the ship from different angles, at the same time this is a general room with good zones for exhibitions as well as areas for boat building, crafts, music, dance and socializing.
To achieve an organic expression in combination with the universal circle, the ridge is asymmetrically placed, and the two roof tiles have different roof pitches. For the same reason, the ship is somewhat rotated and dynamically placed in the high building.
The facades are made of glass with a surface-mounted louver wall. The roof is covered with wood cladding, while the ceiling is made of shiny aluminium sheets. All the wood both outside and inside is black stained and gives associations to the burned boat. At the west end there is a gate with a slip so that the boat can be launched for special occasions.
Architect; Arild Wåge, Nordplan
Builder; Eid Industrihus KF
Completed; 2019
