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The museum is closed in 2024 due to restoration work
Groups by appointment May - September
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Damsgård Country Mansion

"The little Manor House" - pleasure garden and landmark in Laksevåg, Bergen. Recreation of a typical pleasure garden in Bergen in the 1780s. Guided tours at the Manor House.

The museum is closed in 2024 due to restoration work.

We are very happy to present this beautiful classical summer house to our visitors. In the 1700s, Bergen was a large, busy and rich city. The city’s upper classes adopted trends from the continent and established elaborate, aristocratic homes in the countryside. By 1800 one would find around 70 of these summer houses in the countryside surrounding Bergen, and Damsgård was the most stunning.

Damsgård Country Mansion, as it appears today, was built in the 1770s for General War Commissioner and General Customs Manager Joachim Christian Geelmuyden (1730-1795). Geelmuyden was knighted in 1783, and took the name Gyldenkrantz. The house he built at Damsgård is still considered to be a masterpiece of Rococco architecture in wood in Norway, and it is perhaps Europe’s most authentic wooden building from that period.

In 1796 the property was sold to the royal supplier Herman Didrich Janson (1757 – 1822). The Janson family remained at Damsgård until 1983, and for many years the estate was as well known as Jansongården. The Norwegian state and Bergen Kommune entered the picture in 1983 and purchased Damsgård Hovedgård in order to preserve it as a piece of cultural heritage. From 1983 until 1993 the best resources were used to restore, protect and conserve the whole area. Today the building and its surrounds presents itself as a unique example of a Bergen summer house from the 1700s or 1800s.

At Damsgård you can join a tour which takes you through the building’s exterior and its rooms in order to discover the property’s history. Or you can concentrate on the garden exhibitions, featuring both the Lord’s and the Lady’s gardens. The gardens are recreated as they could have been in the 1780s and the form, content and operation of the two are well worth attention.

Damsgård Hovedgård interiør

During a visit you can enjoy the view of the gazebo outside and visit the wonderful gardens. In the garden exhibition in the Lady and Lord’s gardens, respectively, there is much that pleases both the eyes and other senses. The gardens have been recreated as they may have been in the 1780s and both the form, content and operation of the two gardens are well worth paying attention to.

Damsgård Country Mansion recreated garden

The garden was recreated in the 1980s as it may have been in the 1780s both in form and content. The garden exhibition shows the formal Lord’s garden with 18th century ornamental plants, roses, herbs and vegetables and the lady’s garden with karussdam and willow pond.

Welcome to Damsgård Country Mansion with his Lady and Lord’s garden!

Telephone
+47 55 30 80 33/ +47 55 30 80 30
E-mail
post@bymuseet.no
Address
Alléen 29
Practical information
25 min walk from city centre
Bus nos 6 and 19 from city centre
Small cafè and shop
Wheelchair friendly: No
Map

Gallery

The pleasure garden of the Manor House is recreated to a typical Bergen pleasure garden in the 1780s.
Peons
Cone-shaped shrubs and seating areas in the garden
Statues, roses and perennials in the pleasure garden

Other Museums

Bryggens Museum
The exhibition Below Ground let you come closer to the everyday lives of the medieval people of Bergen and Western Norway.
The Rosenkrantz Tower
The most important Renaissance monument in Norway
The School Museum
Bergens old Latin school from 1706 to 1840. Guided tours of the old Latin school and the school's fantastic school plan collection.