Where to Stay in Kongsberg, Buskerud

Kongsberg is the old silver town of Buskerud, built around the rich mines that opened in the seventeenth century at the mouth of the Numedal valley. Silver made the town. The story of the workings is kept at Norsk Bergverksmuseum, while the great Kongsberg kirke stands at the heart of the mining town and the slopes above hold the heritage of the Kongsberg Skimuseum, in this municipality in the southern part of Buskerud, in south-eastern Norway.

Kongsberg's landmarks rise from its mining past. The great Kongsberg kirke stands at the centre of the silver town, one of the largest baroque churches in the country, while the workings and tools of the mines are gathered at Norsk Bergverksmuseum. Silver runs through it all.

The ski heritage of the hills is kept at the Kongsberg Skimuseum and the country life of the valley at Lågdalsmuseet, while the outlying churches of Hedenstad kirke and Jondalen kirke mark the parishes along the Numedalslågen in this part of the southern part of Buskerud.

Kongsberg was founded as a mining town when rich silver was struck in the hills in the seventeenth century. Silver built it from the rock. A king's town grew at the mouth of the Numedal valley to work the mines and mint the coin, and the great Kongsberg kirke rose at its heart as the wealth of the silver years gathered the workers and officials into one place along the Numedalslågen.

The mines ran for centuries. Their workings, tools and history are kept at Norsk Bergverksmuseum, a record of the silver that made the town. The town outlived the silver.

As the mines wound down, Kongsberg turned to arms production and forestry, and later to the high-technology industry that took root in the old mining town. Skiing took to the hills. The slopes above the valley gave the country its skiing tradition, kept at the Kongsberg Skimuseum, while the country life of the district is held at Lågdalsmuseet.

Around the centre the older parishes of Hedenstad and Jondalen kept their churches, Hedenstad kirke and Jondalen kirke, and the town grew into the municipality that holds the mouth of the Numedal valley together in the southern part of Buskerud, in south-eastern Norway.

Kongsberg lies on the Numedalslågen at the entrance to the Numedal valley, in the southern part of Buskerud, in south-eastern Norway. The town sits where the river runs out of the valley, ringed by the forested hills that held the silver mines and rise to the ski ground above. Hills close it round.

Kongsberg kirke stands by the river in the old centre, while this municipality in Buskerud reaches up the wooded ridges and out along the Numedalslågen toward the outlying parishes of Hedenstad and Jondalen.

Kongsberg has a cold inland climate, set among the forested hills of the southern part of Buskerud well back from the coast. Winters run cold and snowy, with frost and deep snow lying over the valley and the slopes above the town through the long heart of the season, feeding the ski ground in the hills. Summers are warm and green.

The river valley and the woods around the old silver town warm under the long northern daylight, while rain and cloud cross the Numedalslågen and its ridges through every month of the year.

Kongsberg sits on the rail line and roads that run up from the lowlands into the Numedal valley, in the southern part of Buskerud. Trains call at the town station near the river, and from there it is a short walk to Kongsberg kirke and the old mining centre. Many arrive by train.

The valley roads and rail carry the traffic of this Buskerud town between the lowland towns and the inland heights, while the routes up the Numedalslågen open the way to the parishes of Hedenstad and Jondalen for travellers reaching this part of south-eastern Norway.