Fossli Hotel


Fossli Hotel is a hotel situated at Vøringsfossen on top of Måbødalen, in the municipality of Eidfjord in Vestland county, Norway. The hotel owns a Zimmermann piano where Edvard Grieg composed his Norwegian Folk Songs, Opus 66, in 1896.

History

Ola L. Garen was the one who got the idea to build the hotel in the 1880s. At that time there was only a walking track to the top of Vøringsfossen. English tourists had previously figured that a hotel would become a world attraction, and John took their word for it. But to make his plans come true he had to have a better way to transport the building materials so that the horses might climb up the Måbødalen. A new road was built and named Tømmerløypet. The hotel, named Fossli Hotel, was designed by architect Fredrik Konow Lund in the Art Nouveau style. It welcomed its first guests in 1887 and was finally completed in 1891.

Attractions

Fossli Hotel naturally attracts many visitors because of the magnificent Vøringsfossen. Over the years, it has been visited by writers, musicians and royal physician. Edvard Grieg lived in the hotel in the summer of 1896, and composed Norwegian Folk Songs, Opus 66, here. There is still a piano on site made in 1896 by Zimmermann factory in Leipzig, as Edvard Grieg once played on it. The hotel has been in the ownership of the Garen family for four generations, and currently is run by the great-grandson of John, Erik Garen. It has today 21 rooms, a restaurant, cafe, terrace, bar and a souvenir shop, being also possible to use the hotel as a conference facility.