Museums in Stavanger

The Museums in Stavanger makes a wide range of interesting exhibitions, both very special ones, and the more traditional kind of museums that we all find so fascinating.

Let's take a look at some of them.

Stavanger Museum

The main "Stavanger Museum" is the oldest one, opened in 1893, and has exhibitions of cultural and natural history.

One is the "Town History Tableau", which shows glimpses of every day life in the old Stavanger. Here you can watch life sized dolls in school, children's play, art and handcrafts.

Another exhibition is the "Twisted Animals and Smiling Skeletons".

Here you can see a collection of stuffed animals, skulls and skeletons, collected from all over the world.

This is also an exhibition showing the bird life in the Stavanger region, as well as foreign, exotic birds.

Adress: Muségt. 16

Stavanger Maritime Museum

Here you find exhibitions showing the towns history through 2000 years, and the maritime history of the South Western part of Norway.

The museum has collections of maritime items, photographs and documents from the coastal culture in the region.

The exhibions shows ship models, tools and equipment, about 350 paintings, and a huge collection of 15.000 photos.

Adress: Nedre Strandgt. 17 and 19

The Stavanger Art Museum

The Stavanger Art Museum has great collections of both Norwegian and international art, while the main collection is the unique colletion of paintings by Lars Hertevig.

The Art Museum now has more than 2000 works, and in addition to the permanent exhibitions, the museum also do several temporary exhibitions each year.

Adress: Henrik Ibsens gate 55

The Norwegian Canning Museum

The Canning Industry in Stavanger started in 1873 when the Stavanger Preserving Co. was established.

The Norwegian Canning Museum (Norsk Hermetikkmuseum) is located in one of the old, canning factories in Stavanger, which gives the exhibitions an authentic environment.

Here you can see how the production of traditional, fish balls and the brisling was done.

Next to the factory building, in the worker's cottage, you can also see the how the living conditions were for the workers at the canning factory at that time.

In the summer, on Tuedays and Thursday, as well as on the first Sunday's every month, the factory ovens are working, and you can taste smoked sardines straight from the ovens.

Adress: Øvre Strandgate 88 & 90

The Norwegian Oil Museum

The most visited museum in Stavanger is the Norwegian Oil Museum (Norsk Oljemuseum), and is the only oil museum in Europe. The museum exhibitions does explain how oil and gas are created, how it's discovered and produced, and what purposes they are used for.

The museum also includes information about how petroleum influences Norwegian society. Original objects, models, films and interactive exhibits illustrate everything from everyday life offshore to technology and dramatic incidents. The Petroleum Museum was opened in 1999, with an architecture that makes it an exciting landmark in the Stavanger Harbour.

More than 95.000 persons visited the museum in 2008.

The Missionary Museum

Also one of the oldest museums in Stavanger, is the Missionary Museum (Misjonsmuseet), which was established in 1864.

The museum has appr. 5000 items from different missioning areas, as South Africa, Madagascar, Cameroon, Mali, Ethiopia, China, Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and Brazil.

The Norwegian Children's Museum is situated in the Stavanger Culture House, and has continous changing exhibitions about our childhood history and children's culture.

The museum was opened in 2001, based on Per Inge Torkildsen's huge collection of toys.

Adress: Stavanger Kulturhus Sølvberget

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