About us:

Hotel Mundal sits picturesquely by the Fjærlandsfjord area.
The short way from the fjord up to the glaciers attracted artists, hikers and tourists by the end of the 1800s. Glacier tour guide Mikkel Mundal and his sister Brita opened "Mundals Gjestgiveri" (Mundal Inn). Some years later, Brita and Mikkel along with their other siblings Per and Johannes and Brita's husband Olaus built Hotel Mundal in 1891.

Architect Peter A. Blix designed a distinctive building with pointed gables and spacious verandas. The round-cornered tower is unique and the house is one of the best-preserved wooden hotel from the late nineteenth century.

Hotel Mundal has a long history of being a family-run hotel. Here you'll find strong traditions in combination with modern comfort, a quiet and pleasant atmosphere and proximity to the stunning scenery of Fjærland.

The visitors:

The first visitors to the fjords and Hotel Mundal were explorers and artists of the latter part of 1800, looking for unspoiled and magnificent landscape. The great painters of the era, both from Norway and from other countries, romanticized the landscape and contributed greatly to the “fjord dream."

Mountain climbers like William C. Slingsby found it a challenge to be the first to ascend the high peaks and cross the glaciers. The Jostedal Glacier and the Jotunheimen mountains are the longest and highest in Norway and both are easily accessible from Fjaerland, even a hundred years ago.

The emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, held the area as his favorite and nobility from all over the world followed in his footsteps. The preparations and activity involved when receiving royalty were enormous and the stories about the visits have been told and retold to new generations in Mundal.

Only one visit has created this kind of excitement in recent years - the visit of then vice president of the United States of America, Walter F. Mondale in 1979.

 

 

Further private visits from Walter Mondale and his family and from other well-known public figures occur every summer without much ado.

Before World War I, travel was an activity for the very few and guests would usually stay in the hotel for two or three weeks before moving on. After World War I, traveling became accessible to a larger public and the boat schedules allowed daily stops at small places like Fjaerland. Thus, it became possible to move more quickly from one place to another in the fjords. The first tour operators, Bennett and Cooks, started organizing trips for smaller groups and the number of British guests in particular increased at Hotel Mundal.

The hotel has been closed down for only one period since its opening, during World War II, between 1940 and 1945. After the war, though the British visitors were still in majority, the general increase in travel brought visitors from other parts of the world in greater numbers.


The family:

The hotel was started by Olaus Dahle, his wife Brita and her three brothers, Johannes, Mikkel and Per Mundal. Brita and her brothers grew up on the farm just behind the hotel. When Brita married Olaus, a teacher from Romsdal, they moved to Lærdal, but still visited Fjærland to stay with her brother Mikkel during the summer holidays.

In 1907, Johannes wanted to invest in his farm and Olaus took over his part of the hotel. At the same time Per went back to America. Olaus, Brita and Mikkel then ran the hotel until their death in the 1930s.

Of Olaus and Brita’s six children, only the youngest, Borghild married and had children. Borghild married Odd Orheim in 1939 and moved to Bergen where they both worked as teachers until they retired in early part of 1970s. Borghild and Odd have three children, Olav, Marit and Alv. They are all married and live partly in Fjærland and partly in Oslo and Stavanger.

Today the hotel is owned by Ola Moe and he aims to keep the tradition at Hotel Mundal for the next generations.