The two farms belonged to Botolv Mølster and Arnfinn Ringheim in 1917, when the museum took over the old communal farm hamlet. The buildings make out a square farmyard, and the houses are set in a row, continuous for each farm. The scullery at Botolv’s farm is probably from the 1500s, an old smokehouse with a vent in the roof joined to a newer house from the 1800s. Many traces indicate that there has been an older house on the same site earlier. Close to the scullery there is a small shed. This feature, with the houses facing inwards in a row – scullery, dwelling house and shed – is common in many older farmyards in Voss. This is probably a tradition from the Middle Ages. Furthest out in the farmyard, towards Vangen, there are a loft and storage house on stilts, and facing east there is a hayshed and cowshed. From the farmyard on the upper side there was a stone-built wall to guide the cattle into the grazing fields, a structure that takes us back in time.
The Mølster farm in the interim war period.
The Mølster farm in the interim war period. (Sanns. Christian Hermann Neupert. Ark nr. B 280, R.A.)
Mølster
“Above the old Vossevangen lies the old Mølster family farm. It is situated on a hill, as family farms will do. It is as if chance has wanted to make something out of this farm with its wonderful situation. Because it has to be said that it has been something of a coincidence that precisely this farm should have retained its ancient appearance, right up to the present day. To ascend to Mølster is like delving into the past, to meet one’s ancestors. Houses and lofts, storage houses and sauna, cowshed and stable, they stand there with their fairly-tale look, as had we entered an old king’s farm. Not from the times of the sagas, but from a time when the country quietly pulled itself together again. And Mølster lies as a farm full of memories from this time.” This is how the Director for Cultural Heritage in Norway, Harry Fett, described the old hamlet at Mølster when it was opened as a museum in 1928.
Mølstertunet (Svein Nord).
Snitt av stovehuset, 1911 (Gerhard Fischer).
Interiør frå årestova (Egil Korsnes).
Voss folkemuseum er i den sjeldne situasjonen at dei bygningshistoriske samlingane er representerte av tre gardstun som står på sine gamle tufter; Mølster, Nesheim og Oppheim gamle prestegard. Alt i 1906 hadde Fortidsminneforeningen teke opp tanken om vern av det gamle tunet på Mølstergarden med bygdehistorikaren Lars Kindem. Då utskiftinga tok til i 1917, stilte Lars Kindem seg i brodden for arbeidet med å sikra dei gamle bygningane gjennom avtalar med dei to brukarane – ei verneform som var mange år føre si tid. I 1927 hadde brukarane på Mølster fått bygt seg nye hus og flytta ut or gamletunet, og i 1928 kunne museet offisielt opnast. Då hadde samlingane 4000 nummer; i tillegg kom samlingane i Finnesloftet. I 1970 overtok museet Nesheimstunet og i 1976 Oppheim gamle prestegard i tidlegare Vossestrand kommune. I 1982 vart det nye eldfaste museumsbygget på Mølster opna.