Notodden — where music and industrial history meet

Heddal Stave Church, built around the year 1250, is Norway's largest remaining stave church. It towers in the landscape with its three spires and characteristic wooden construction — often called the 'cathedral of stave churches'.

The church is still in use as a parish church. Inside, you will find the bishop's chair from the 13th century, old murals, and the famous runic inscription showing that the church was built in an impressively short time. Next to the church is Heddal Bygdetun with older timber houses.

Notodden is Norway's blues town. Since 1988, the Notodden Blues Festival has gathered artists and audiences from all over the world every summer. The festival is one of Europe's most important, and the town has a well-developed music scene year-round.

The European Blues Centre is located in Notodden and actively works to preserve and develop the blues culture. The official blues monument and several blues-related sights are scattered around the town center.

Together with Rjukan, Notodden was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015. Norsk Hydro was founded in Notodden in 1905, and the Tinfos plants were among the world's first production sites for artificial fertilizer based on atmospheric nitrogen. The Tinnoset railway and the Lake Tinnsjø ferries transported Heavy Water from Vemork out to the world — a transport chain that was dramatically put at risk during the war.

Today you can experience the preserved industrial plants, the factory town of Tinfos, and the monumental power plants that tell the story of how Norway became a modern industrial nation.