Vestre Slidre

Vestre Slidre is a municipality in the county of Oppland, Norway.

View over Lomen from the Garberg site, with Vang slightly to the left and Jotunheimen in the background. Down by the lake and to the right is Lomen.

Location

Vestre Slidre is bordered to the northwest by Vang, to the northeast by Øystre Slidre, to the east by Nord-Aurdal and to the southwest by Hemsedal.

Vestre Slidre is part of the Valdres region in central, southern Norway. It is situated between Gudbrandsdal and Hallingdal.

History

The Einang rune stone, located at its original location atop the Garberg site.

High above Slidre there is an ancient burial ground called the Garberg site. Above this site there is a rune stone which reads I Godguest wrote the runes. This stone is known as Einangsteinen, - the Einang Stone.

Vestre Sildre figures prominently in the Sagas:
*Harald Fairhair was, according to the Sagas, the first king (872 – 930) of Norway. In 866 he made the first of a series of conquests over a number of petty kingdoms. One of the encounters leading to the overall conquest was with Skallagrim Kveldulvssøn in Vestre Slidre. In 872, after winning the battle of Hafrsfjord near Stavanger, he found himself king of the whole country.
* In the Heimskringla attributed to Snorri Sturluson, it is recorded that in 1023 Saint Olav came unannounced from Sogn as part of his campaign to Christianize Norway. At Slidre he caught the peasants unawares, and secured all their boats. As a condition for having their boats restored, they accepted Christianity.

Slidredomen, medieval stone church

Slidredomen, a medieval stone-built church, was once the main church for Valdres. The church is built around 1170. Its treasures formerly included a chalice presented by Bishop Salomon of Oslo (1322-1352), the only Bishop in Norway to survive the Black Death. Slidredomen is also known to have had a local bishop.

Lomen stave church during painting the summer of 2005

Lomen stave church is located in the small village of Lomen. It was built circa 1170. The exterior of the present Lomen church is post-Reformation, and only the wall and roof timbers remain from the original building.

A church of the same period, the Høre stave church (the Dano-Norwegian spelling of the word Høre was Hurum), was almost entirely rebuilt and extended. Only the south door, with dragons and other carvings, still exists.

Famous residents

*Knut Hauge (1911–1999), author

References

East Norway and its Frontier by Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 1956