The Setesdal Museum at Rysstad - a journey through the culture, history and traditions of Setesdal. The museum features a
small souvenir shop and offer light snacks.

“What we used to wear in Råbyggjelaget” - the museum’s most recent exhibition. Råbyggjelaget is the old name of Aust-Agder’s inner and western villages. Although the exhibition provides snapshots of everyday life, main emphasis is on special occasions such as christenings, confirmations and weddings. Mannequin tableaux, with supplementary information and an abundance of pictures, help bring the past back to life. Do not miss the film
“A different Setesdal”, which shows that the locals were not only
concerned with the past. Never had the Setesdal people been as influential in public life as in the decades leading up to and after the year 1900.

“Hydropower Development in Setesdal”focuses on more recent
history. Above anything else, it is hydropower development that has provided the basis for progress in the valley over the past century. For better or worse, the valley depends on the use of natural resources to provide the wider society with electricity. The environment has suffered, but people have been given work and income opportunities they otherwise would have been without.

The third main exhibition takes a somewhat different approach from previous exhibitions. The topic is "Motorized traffic in the wilderness". We draw attention to an activity which gradually has become a tradition in Setesdal, and which -for better or worse - determines how a number of locals relate to the mountain areas and their use.
The snowmobile has facilitated the work connected to the preservation of old buildings and the clearing of cultivated land which would otherwise have become overgrown and abandoned.
However, it also entails a use that may pose a hazard to the environment.