If there is a better view from a hotel’s lounge I do hope I get to see it someday. The oil painting view from the panorama lounge down the Naeroyalen Valley is reason enough to come to the Stalheim Hotel.
The Stalheim Hotel’s enviable location in western Norway’s fjord country has been attracting throngs of tourists since the 1700s when a postal inn was built on farm land. The hotel is also steeped in Norwegian history, including a dark chapter in the nation’s Nazi occupation.
Stalheim is near Voss in western Norway 340 kilometres west of Oslo or 140 from Bergen. It can be reached from the Oslo-Bergen train or express bus from Bergen.
The Stalheim Hotel is a feature on the popular Norway in a Nutshell tour. It also attracts hikers and visitors who just want to hang out and enjoy the scenery. People like me.
The 1750 postal inn was followed by the first public hotel, established in 1885. The current striking red building, built in 1960, is the fourth incarnation of the hotel. Three previous hotels on the site have been destroyed by fire.
Today’s hotel has 124 guest rooms. They are not particularly luxurious rooms, but comfortable. If you’re looking for five star luxury fittings, a Michelin starred restaurant and a day spa, then the Stalheim Hotel isn’t going to be for you. But if you want to hike and explore some of the best scenery Mother Nature has ever served up and great service from friendly staff, then you will love it.
The hotel serves buffet style meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There’s also a bistro.
Stalheim Hotel Folk Museum
Something not to be missed while staying at the Stalheim Hotel is a tour of the fascinating Folk Museum, a collection of buildings put together by the hotel’s previous owner. It’s one of Norway’s largest privately collected museums.
While I consider myself to be a reasonably knowledgeable person, I am constantly amazed at how little I know. I am reminded of this again while listening to the hotel manager’s stories. I did not know, for example, that the Norwegian and Australian governments were once in serious negotiations for Australia to take Norway’s so-called Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) children as child migrants after they had been kept at the previous Stalheim Hotel.
When Germany occupied Norway during the war they used the Stalheim Hotel as an R&R location. Then Hitler’s right-hand man Himmler came up with a scheme to breed Aryan babies by having Nazi soldiers impregnate Norwegian women. The Nazis liked the Norwegian people because they fit their Aryan ideals.
The Stalheim Hotel was used as a children’s home for the babies born to Norwegian women after their liaisons with German soldiers. At the end of the war 60-80 children were found to be living at Stalheim with a nurse. These children (aged 0-6) were considered embarrassments to the Norwegian people hence their attempt to offload them to Australia. The deal fell through.
Norway’s ‘Nazi babies’ grew up in shame for coming into the world in a way they had no control over, as this 2007 BBC report explains. Others suffered vilification and abuse, as did the women who gave birth to those children, often branded ‘Nazi whores.’
It is a dark chapter of Norwegian history. The Stalheim Hotel doesn’t hide what took place during the war from guests. It’s considered important to acknowledge the past. I am glad to have learned this story.
The Folk Museum provides a detailed history of the development of Norwegian rural life since the middle ages. That original 1750 postal inn that sparked the tourism industry in Stalheim is now part of the museum.
I am grateful, as I head back into the hotel, to note the standard of accommodation has improved significantly since 1750.
Back inside the hotel there is more of that scenery to enjoy from the guest rooms. Conde Naste Traveller once named room 324 of the Stalheim Hotel as one of its best rooms with a view. A large framed print of the magazine issue’s cover hangs proudly in the corridor near the room. My own room doesn’t face the valley, which means I’ll need to get my hiking boots on to go and explore. Or maybe I’ll just hang out in the lounge.