Hegge Gård

Hegge has been a listed property since 1923, protected as an important example of the Norwegian National Building Heritage in Mid-Norway, and as a civil servant’s residence from approx 1750.

Hegge is an old farm, part of an ancient center of power in Mid-Norway dating back more than 2000 years. This region has one of the world’s oldest law books, older in fact than the Magna Carta.

Names of drifters at Hegge can be traced back to 1500 AD. The main building of today was raised around the 1750 by a senior official of the Church of Norway, Rev Jacob Hersleb. Shortly after, the County Bailiff of Inderoy, Niels Dorph Gunnerus, bought the estate: He was nephew and foster son of the archbishop of Norway and maintained close contact with the cultural and academic elite in Europe. He also collected taxes for the King in Copenhagen.
Under the Gunnerus period, the main building undertook a major reconstruction.

The house was expanded both in width and height, and many unique decorative elements, important for the enlisting in 1923, were added inside the house.
The current owners have spent the last 15 years restoring the buildings, which were in very bad condition, left empty and without heating for a period of at least 10 years. The whole family has been involved in the restoring process.

Essentially, the house today appears as it did at the end of the 18th century, with elements of rococo, baroque, Louis XIV, and also the empire period. Some of these elements are replicas made based on finings through building archeology. All is hand made by our master of building conservation, Ms. Ellen Giskaas.

The area of the house is approx 520 square meters. More than 30 meters long, 8.5 meters wide, it has 25 rooms. It is surrounded by 10 acres of external areas, a utility garden, and the remains of an ornamental garden from 1750 that is still not restored. In addition to the main building, there are two storehouses and a large side building. One of these, a large storehouse for grains raised in 1883, is also listed. The smaller storage house, raised around 1750, is protected.

On this estate, archeological investigations have revealed the remains of settlement dating back to the Stone Age, 6000 years ago. Nearby there are multiple grave memorials from the Bronze, Iron, and Viking eras. Close to the main building there was recently revealed 2500-year-old remains of a cooking site dated to the early Roman Iron Age.

The estate is not open to the public on a daily basis, but regularly hosts events such as courses in antique craft techniques, meetings for local and regional historic associations, and events like weddings & jubilees, and smaller concerts. An opera has even been performed in the garden.