Midgard Viking Centre, Borre, Norway

Explore and experience the Viking Age at Midgard Viking Centre. We are part of the Vestfold museums and is located an hour away from Norway’s capitol Oslo. Midgard lies in idyllic surroundings right next to the Borre Park with a beautiful view to the Oslo fjord. A visit to us fits nicely with scenic walks in the park all year round or sunbathing and picnics in summer.

We have exhibitions, a café, a museum store, and an outdoor playground. A short walk from our museum centre, you can experience the majestic Gildehall. It is an interpretation of how we think a Viking age feasting hall could have looked like. Please come inside to the fireplace in the hall and let the surroundings and the stories transport you back in time. Don’t miss the impressive four-meter-tall wooden sculpture of the Norse God Heimdall. You can find him across the road from the hall. He has a massive blowing horn, and according to Norse mythology, he guarded the rainbow, which was the bridge over to the world of the gods. When Ragnarok, the end of the world came, Heimdal would blow his horn in alarm. You are welcome to try the horn, but please don’t set off the alarm.

We have activities and experiences for you to try throughout the year, if you are a school kid, a tourist, or if you live around here. You are all welcome! Please check our web page for details so you can plan your time travels. https://vestfoldmuseene.no/midgard-vikingsenter

The Borre park – mounds, halls and Viking ships

The impressive and beautiful Borre park, next to Midgard Viking Centre, is an iron age and Viking age grave field with about 50 graves, including monumental grave mounds and cairns. One of the grave mounds revealed a ship grave in 1852. The ship was lost, but the outstanding grave goods gave name to the Borre art style and are exhibited in the museum. Many of these artefacts have an eastern character and bear witness to a strong cultural influence from the areas around the Baltic Sea. Remnants of another ship was found here in 2017 with georadar, but it has not been excavated, like the Gjellestad ship across the fjord, found in 2018. The Borre park also has remnants of three to four, big Viking halls, ranging from 33 – 63 meters long.

Snorre Sturluson, the Icelandic author of Heimskringla - The Saga of the Norwegian Kings - claimed that the Viking royals of the Yngling family, descending from the Norse gods, rested in Borre. No matter if this is true or not, the mounds, the halls and the two Viking ships found here, leave no doubt that Borre was a place of power and influence in Europe during the Viking Age.

Vestfold’s Viking heritage

Vestfold, close to Oslo, is the homeland to the world’s most famous Viking ship graves; Oseberg and Gokstad. Trading places in the vicinity to where they were found, like Kaupang and Heimdal, show us that the Vikings were in close contact with today’s Central Europe, England, France, Ireland, and the areas around the Mediterranean. Several coins found in Vestfold originate from Kufa in Iraq.

The Oseberg and Gokstad ship are exhibited in the Viking ship museum in Oslo, which is currently closed. It opens with a brand-new exhibition in 2027, under the new name, The Museum of the Viking Age. The Klåstad ship, at the Slottsfjell museum in Tønsberg, is the only real Viking ship that can be seen in Norway until 2027. An archaeological replica of the Oseberg ship, made by Oseberg Viking Heritage, can also be visited in Tønsberg harbour.