Trøndelag
Trøndelag, alternative spelling Tröndelag, is a region and county of Norway, sometimes referred to as Middle Norway. Trøndelag's prominent position between North and South Trøndelag has been crucial in Norway's history. There are major fjords but the landscape is more mellow than the wild West Norway. There are still great mountains and high plateaus popular among hikers and skiers. Trøndelag is home to great valleys and major rivers famous for salmon fisheries. Along the coast there are a few major islands as well as thousands of smaller islands.
Cities
- 1 Hell - not as bad as it sounds, close to Trondheim airport.
- 2 Levanger
- one of the well-preserved wooden towns - 3 Namsos - port of Namdalen district, totally destroyed during the war
- 4 Orkanger - small town at the mouth of Orkla river and valley
- 5 Røros - old mining town in the uplands, a UNESCO world heritage site
- 6 Steinkjer - the hub at the northern end of great fjord
- 7 Stjørdal (Stjørdalshalsen)
- 8 Trondheim - one of Norway's main cities, lovely location on the river bend, historically important as previous capital and seat of the archbishop, Norway's national cathedral.
Other destinations
- 1 Oppdal - regional centre and ski resort in the interior uplands.
- 1 Dovrefjell — a mountainous area consisting of two large national parks (comprises also parts of East Norway and West Norway)
Understand
Trondheim has been a centre of commerce since the Viking Age. Saint Olaf's Way has been an important pilgrimage route. Trondheim has seen the middle ages been one of Norway's three principle cities, along with Bergen and Oslo. The archdiocese of Trondheim included Norway, parts of Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, Orkneys, Shetland and other parts of british isles. For two brief years, 1658 to 1660, Trøndelag was part of Sweden.
Trøndelag is separated from East Norway by the Dovre mountains and uplands around Røros. Along the border with Sweden are the Sylan mountains and more modest wilderness further north. Hitra, Frøya and Vikna are major islands on the outher coast, in addition to thousands of smaller islands. There are also islands in the great Trondheimsfjord. Large parts of Trøndelag are related to the long, wide and deep Trondheimsfjord. At well over 100 km it is the third longest in Norway. As a fjord it is partly quite wide almost like a small ocean. There is no clear demarcation between Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal in the west. Around the upper part of Namdalen valley there are wide uplands around the border with Nordland.
Trøndelag has a range of climates. The coastal areas have a typical humid maritime climate where average temperatures in winter are mostly not below 0°C. The outer coast is also exposed to rough wind in Winter. The high plateaus and sheltered valleys of the interior have a continental climate with some of the driest and coldest areas of Norway. Røros has the lowest recorded temperature in South Norway at -50°C. Most of the rain falls near the coast. Autumn and winter are the rainiest seasons. Inner areas have much warmer summers than the coast and islands, temperatures up to 30°C is possible in the inner valleys, while on the coast 25°C is rare.
Get in
By plane
1 Trondheim Airport Værnes (TRD IATA) serves international and national flights. There are plenty of flights every day to Oslo, and several other main towns including Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand, Bodø and Tromsø, as well as the short-field airports of Mosjøen, Sandnessjøen, Brønnøysund, Namsos and Rørvik. International destinations include London Gatwick, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Riga. There are also flights to many destinations in the Mediterranean and on the Canary Islands, both charter and regular. There is train and bus connection from the airport.
Røros has a local airport with flights from Oslo. Rørvik and Namsos have local airports with flights from Trondheim.
By train
Trøndelag is connected by 4 main lines:
- Dovre line connects Trondheim and Oppdal to East Norway and Oslo via Dombås and Gudbrandsdalen. There are several daily departures between Trondheim to Oslo, trains from Oslo, operated by NSB, electric powered, connection to Rauma line (for Åndalsnes) at Dombås.
- Røros line connects Trondheim and Røros to East Norway, with connections to Oslo and Lillehammer at Hamar. This was Norway's first main line connecting separate parts of the country, but is today the less used, diesel powered.
- Nordland line connects Trondheim and Steinkjer to Nordland, diesel powered trains
- Meråker line connects Hell (at Trondheim airport) via Storlien border crossing to Östersund in Sweden
By bus
Long distance buses from Oslo and Bergen to Trondheim, NOR-WAY.
By car
- From Oslo there are two options.
- Road 3 is slightly shorter and faster
through Gudbrandsdalen and Dovrefjell is more scenic.
- From Östersund (Sweden)
connects to E6 at Stjørdal
- From Ålesund and Molde
connects to E6 at Klett just south of Trondheim- Via Sunndal: Road 70 connects to E6 Oppdal
- From Northern Norway
- through Saltfjellet
By boat
Hurtigruten sails all the way north to Kirkenes and south to Bergen, stopping at numerous destinations on its way, including Trondheim and Rørvik.
Get around
By train
Trondheim station is the hub for rail as the electrified Dovre line terminates there and the northbound lines operated by diesel trains continue. The coastal areas do not have rail connections. The rail runs through the central interior and along the eastern shores of the Trondheimsfjord, basically along the same route as road E6. There are branches to Røros from Støren, and to Meråker and Sweden (Åre and Östersund) from Hell.
- Local trains Steinkjer–airport–Trondheim and Trondheim–Røros are operated by NSB on the Røros line.
- The Meråkerbanen (Nabotåget) service runs twice daily to the Swedish border at Storlien, continuing to the ski resort Åre and the city of Östersund. There are connections to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
- Long distance trains Oslo-Dombås-Oppdal-Trondheim on the Dovre line and Trondheim-airport-Steinkjer-Snåsa-Namsskogan on the Nordland line (bound for Bodø).
By bus
For local buses in Nord-Trøndelag, search rutebok.no.
And in Sør-Trøndelag including Trondheim, search atb.no
By boat
There are some local passenger boats. Use the same site as for local buses.
By car
There is an extensive road network, however often fairly curvy and slow. The Norwegian north-south highway E6 passes Trondheim and is partly constructed as motorway or semi-motorway.
To cross fjords, there are several bridges and tunnels, but some car ferries also exist. They have fees, but there is no need for booking. The key ferry connection across the Trondheimsfjord is Flakk-Rørvik, several departures per hour.
Some roads, especially new tunnels, and all entrances to Trondheim have road tolls.
See
- 1 Nidaros Cathedral (Nidarosdomen) (Trondheim). This is the biggest church of Northern Europe, the only major Gothic cathedral in Norway, Norway's national cathedral and the pride of the city.
- 2 Røros (Bergstaden ("the mining town")). Røros is a unique place. The town developed around the copper mines and the original town is largely intact. The town with the landmark church is a UNESCO heritage site. The copper mines can also be visited, mining began in 1644 and ended in 1977.
- 3 Stiklestad. Site of the battle in year 1030 where King Olav died.
- 4 Bardal rock carvings (Bardalfeltet) (along FV285, about 15 km west of Steinkjer). 400 stone age and bronze age paintings/carvings on a 300 m² area. Free.
- Saemien Sijte (1.5 km from Snåsa, 60 km north from Steinkjer), ☏ +47 74-13-80-00, post@saemiensijte.no. M–F 09:00–15:00. Culture centre and museum on Southern Sámi culture. Guided tours. 50 kr, children free.
- 5 Steinvikholmen Castle, Stjørdal (Small island, Trondheimsfjord north of Stjørdal village and Trondheim airport, along road E6). Olav Engelbrektsson, the last Catholic archbishop of Norway, fled to this small fortress from his residence at the Nidaros Cathedral (Trondheim). He brought with him St. Olav's shrine with the earthly remains of St. Olav, Norway’s patron saint. In April 1537 the king finally managed to take the fortress and send Olav into exile in Belgium. His exile ended the opposition to the reformation in Norway. 50 NOK.
- 6 Austrått (Austrått Manor). Austrått Manor (Austråttborgen) at Ørland at the mouth of Trondheimsfjorden is known as a residence for prominent persons since the 10th century. The building was destroyed by fire in 1916 and restored. Henrik Ibsen's play Lady Inger of Ostrat is based on a real Lady of Austrått. The building is now owned by the national governement and is open to visitors in summer.
- 7 Hessdalen Valley. The sparsely populated Hessdalen valley is known for the Hessdalen lights, some unexplained lights observed in a 12-kilometre-long (7.5 mi) stretch of the valley.
- 8 Tautra (Tautra island). Tautra is a small island in Trondheimsfjorden. The island is a nature reserve for birds and the site of a monastery abandoned after the reformation. Ruins of the buildings. Access by bridge from Frosta.
- 9 Frosta. A fertile peninsula in Trondheimsfjorden. Assembly hill (Tinghaugen) at Frosta was the site of the medieval parliament for Trøndelag and adjacent areas. These areas were governed by Frostatingsloven, the law (or law book) of Frosta assembly. This law included the famous phrase at lǫgum skal land várt byggja en eigi at ulǫgum eyða (with law shall our land be built, and not desolated by lawlessness, reproduced in modern Norwegian on the monument there). The law originates from before year 1000 and in oral form perhaps much older, making it one of the oldest in Norway. The law was consolidated in written form around 1100 and is a relatively sophisticated legislation. Several elements of are retained in Norway's modern legislation. Frosta was effectively the capital of Trøndelag until the assembly was moved to Trondheim.
- 10 Orkla Industrimuseum (Orkla mining and industry museum). Copper mining at Løkken began in 1654 and operations ended in 1987 making this one of Norway's oldest businesses. The Orkla Company ran the mining business and still exists as a large conglomerate and Norway's biggest private company. A private electric railway, Thamshavn Line, was constructed between Løkken and Orkanger port at Thamshavn. Thamshavn Line was in 1908 Norway's first electric railway and is now operated by the museum.
- 11 Austrått Fort, Austrått, Ørland (Brekstad village). Austrått Fort is a disused coastal artillery at Austrått in Ørland. It was constructed in 1942 by the German Wehrmacht to control the entrance to the Trondheimsfjord during the German occupation of Norway during World War II. The three-gun turret weighs 800 tons and was capable of firing 730-pound shells 38 kilometres (24 mi). It opened as a museum in 1991. Like its sister battery at Sotra near Bergen, a shaft was cut out of the rocks for the huge former Gneisenau battleship gun turret. Along with Fjell fort at Sotra this was one of the largest artilleries along the German "atlantic wall". The fort lis located next to Austrått manor and overlooking the mouth of Trondheimsfjord as well as Ørland Airforce Base.
Do
Alpine skiing
- 1 [formerly dead link] Oppdal ski resort (Oppdal skisenter), Oppdal (Road E6 or Dovre railway). One of Norway's major alpine ski resorts. Frequently listed among top 5 or top 10 resorts in Norway. 46 slopes, 3 chair lifts, 14 T-lifts, 1 band lift. Slopes and lifts close to Oppdal village.
- Vassfjellet, Klæbu
- Meråker skisenter, Meråker
- Grong/Bjørgan skisenter
Hiking
- 2 Trollheimen. Trollheimen is a mountainous area shared with Møre og Romsdal. Lodges are owned and operated by Trondheim hiking association. Trollheimshytta (lodge) is the hub. Lodges in this area are known for their solid, traditional log-built style. The terrain offers easy hiking between, and there are notable summits for the skilled mountaineer.
Eat
- Try Norwegian seafood!
Drink
Stay safe
Go next
- Jämtland County in Sweden
- North to Nordland county
- West to the fjordlands of Møre og Romsdal
- South to the wide uplands of Oppland
| Routes through Trøndelag |
| Kirkenes ← Fauske ← | N  S |
→ Lillehammer → Oslo |
| Ålesund ← Molde ← | S  N |
→ Orkanger → Trondheim |
| Kristiansund ← Sunndal ← | W  E |
→ Oppdal |