The Ivar Aasen Centre is dedicated to the Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen who has changed the language history of Norway. The museum offers great experiences of language, literature, architecture, art and music.
Ivar Aasen
(1813-1896) changed language history in Norway. 22 years old he planned to collect and systematise dialects from the whole country to establish a Norwegian written language. The linguist ended up travelling a distance nearly half across the world, although within the borders of his country, to find the Norwegian language.
The Ivar Aasen Centre
is located at the Northwest coast of Norway, amongst beautiful mountains and fjords, where Ivar Aasen was born. The museum offers great experiences of language, literature, architecture, art and music. It is open every weekday and Sundays all year, and also Saturdays during summer. The museum is easily accessible from the main road E39. There are several flights to and from Oslo and Bergen every day, through the airport located literally five minutes away. It takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes with car and ferry to reach Aalesund, the city region centre known for its Art Nouveau.
The architecture of the Ivar Aasen Centre is an experience in itself. The main building from 2000 is designed by the well-known and award-winning architect Sverre Fehn (1924-2009). The building is designed to interact with the landscape and the historical surroundings. Both in form and idea, the building emerges from a meeting of past, present and future. We offer guided architectural tours throughout the summer.
The exhibition, with installations on language and literature, invites the use of several senses. You can look at the sheets of rough paper that Ivar Aasen never got around to using, listen to authors talk about writing, and spin a globe that shows the spread of different alphabets around the world. Knowledgeable guides will show you around the exhibition and tell you stories for wonder and contemplation. A 20-minute film about Ivar Aasen, texted in German or English, is also included in the ticket. Guided tours in German can be arranged if the booking is done well in advance.
The café serves homemade lunch dishes and cakes, and some local specialities. When the sun is shining, the outdoor sitting area is the perfect place to enjoy a good book. Our own locally produced cured sausage, “Tunpølse frå Åsen”, is not only on the menu in the café, but also available for purchase.
Website: www.aasentunet.no