Cradled by emerald mountains and fed by glacial streams, Olden is Norway's hidden gem where nature's artwork dazzles in every gaze.
Ice Age glaciers were responsible for carving out Norway’s famous fjords and valleys; today Norway’s Jostedal Glacier is the biggest in mainland Europe at 188 square miles. From Olden, you can see one of Jostedal’s glacier branches called the Briksdalsbreen Glacier – set between waterfalls and depositing melting ice crystals into the nearby lakes and rivers, which turns them an emerald green in the summer.
Jostedalsbreen National Park Visitor Centre has a wealth of information about the glacier’s history and geography, as well as the local flora and fauna found in the region. The centre is also worth visiting for its building alone - constructed like a Viking longhouse and with a botanical garden that holds over four hundred regional plants.
Although Olden is home to just five hundred residents, the village has two churches: the ‘old’ Olden church, built in 1759, and the ‘new’ Olden church, built in 1934 to preserve the original. Both are traditional Norwegian wooden structures; the older church features antlers on the corners of each pew for folk to hang their hats.
Singerheimen is the home of American millionaire and artist William Henry Singer Jr, who invested an inheritance from his family’s steel company into a life in 1900s Norway. Together with his wife Anna, Singer spent each summer living amongst the mountains and contributed a lot to Olden’s community, including the building of a road, a hospital and eventually his house. Singerheimen is open both for rentals and guided tours, exhibiting the vast collections of Singer’s international art.
Which cruise lines sail to Olden?
