7
Already during the Bronze Age, Hamarkau-
pangen was a popular trading centre and is
often compared to Birka in Lake Mälaren
in Sweden. Hamar also became a place of
importance during the 12th century when
the Catholic Church decided to found a
diocese inland.
A cathedral and a bishop’s palace were
placed here. The bishop in Hamar had
a lot of power and was one of five on
the Norwegian state council. The most
influential bishop, the archbishop, lived in
Nidaros, but Hamar was the place which
held most power inland during the Middle
Ages.
But then the Reformation
came and in
1537, King Christian decided to close the
diocese. And only 30 years later, after the
Northern Seven Years’ War, Hamar was
a town in ruins. By then, Gustav Vasa’s
men had finished their mission to destroy
Hamarhus Castle, which also led to the
cathedral being burnt to the ground.
The ruin on the headland was all
that remained. The grounds which had
previously belonged to the church became
the property of the Crown. It was not until
1879 that Hamar restored itself as a town
again. A harbour was needed for the steam
ships on Lake Mj
ø
sa where goods could be
loaded on to the railway and transported
to Oslo.
You will learn all about this, the people,
the trade, the church and a whole lot more
when you visit the Hedmark Museum,
which was established in 1906. The
remnants of the castle and the barn that
belonged to it have been complemented by
a historical path made in concrete by the
well-known architect Sverre Fehn.
As time passed
, the ruins of the cathedral
began to crumble, but as this historical era
is considered to be of national importance,
it became a national matter to stop the
decay. There were plans of a protective
structure already in the 1980s, however,
there were financial issues. They were not
solved until well into the 1990s when the
museum received an inheritance from a
woman who had emigrated from Hamar to
the US and who had later passed away. The
inheritance included a proviso saying that
the construction had to begin within three
years.
At the opening of the building in 1998
there was another positive surprise; when
The Hedmark
Museum,
Hamar
Back to
medieval
times
30 | naturally
