Holmestrand museum

Experience Holmestrand's history from the 1500s and up to "the 20 century". Holmestrand Museum Association is the owner of the property Nils Kjærs gate 4 and has established a town museum in almost the entire house which is operated on a daily basis. The house which is a patrician house from 1756 also has an interesting history.

The house was built for the Holst family who operated in shipping and trade, as well as several farms in Botne. Holmestrand Municipality bought the farm in the 1850s. Here the Citizens' School was held and several well-known persons from Holmestrand were students here. The school moved to Gausetangen in the 1890s, and a school for the deaf was established. Later, it moved to Nedre Gausen. The museum bought the building in 1932.

The Holmestrand Museum has various exhibitions:

▪️ The Holst living room is traced back to what it probably looked like in the 1840s, when the house was inhabited by the Holst family.

▪️ The Craft Department shows how traditional craft businesses were run. Watchmaker and master optician Brastad's shop and workshop are set up here. Hans Jørgen Johnsen's hair salon has moved here. Sewing and tailoring activities are also shown, as well as how a female photographer ran her business.

▪️ Master watchmaker and optician Brastad's shop was donated by the museum's family and shows how a traditional artisan business was run.

▪️ Exhibition of paintings of city pictures by Holmestrand's Artists.

▪️ The kitchen on the ground floor is made so that it tells about what a kitchen in a patrician house could look like when the house was inhabited by the Holst family.

▪️ Småkårsstuen shows how a family may have lived while the husband was at sea and his wife and children were waiting at home.

▪️ On the second floor, there is a maritime department that tells a little about shipbuilding in Holmestrand and about the maritime town of Holmestrand during the sailing ship era.