Lofotr Viking Museum

Explore Viking history at Lofotr Viking Museum in Bøstad, Norway, featuring the world’s longest reconstructed longhouse and interactive exhibits.

Planning your visit

In 1981 a farmer ploughing at Borg on Vestvågøy hit something unusual, and excavation revealed the largest Viking Age building ever found: a chieftain's longhouse 83 metres long, occupied from the fifth to the tenth century. The site produced gold foil figures and imported glass and pottery from the Rhineland and England, indicating a household of considerable rank trading across the North Sea.

The museum reconstructed the longhouse in full on the original site, using period methods — turf walls, timber frame, thatched roof — and it is furnished and staffed by costumed interpreters, with a fire burning in the central hearth. Visitors eat at the chieftain's table, try crafts, and can row a reconstructed Viking ship on the lake below in season.

The reconstruction is unusually well grounded because the excavation was thorough, and the museum handles the interpretive uncertainties openly.

Lofoten's landscape — sheer peaks rising from the sea — is a substantial part of the experience. Allow three hours. Bookable options combine the museum with Nusfjord fishing village and pickup. Current availability is listed below.