Nystuen is a village in

Vang Municipality Vang is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Valdres. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vang i Va ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). The n ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The village is located at an elevation of about above sea level. The village area sits at the western end of the lake Otrøvatnet in the

Filefjell Filefjell is a mountainous area in Norway. It is located between Lærdal in the Vestland county and Valdres in Innlandet county. It is the historical, as well as modern, main route, linking Western Norway and Eastern Norway. The European r ...

mountain area. The village is the site of an old state hotel.

History

From time immemorial, there has been a road through Nystuen over the

mountain area connecting

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. Th ...

Eastern Norway Eastern Norway ( nb, Østlandet, nn, Austlandet) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Vestfold og Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous regio ...

with

Lærdal Lærdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Lærdalsøyri. The old Filefjell K ...

Western Norway Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrat ...

. The old road followed the south side of the lake Otrøvatnet and there was an old inn where the village now sits. Traffic through the area increased during the 17th century. In 1627, the St. Thomas Church was built just west of the village. A new "modern" road was built through the area in the 1790s and this road was built to accommodate the increased use of horse and buggy transportation. This new road was built along the north side of the lake. During this time the mountain lodge in Nystuen became one of the most important in all of

. As tourism developed by the second half of the 19th century, the lodge was expanded several times into the Nystuen Hotel. It was an important starting point for mountain trips both towards

Årdal Årdal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Årdalsfjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is the administrative center of the municipality. The other main village is ...

Jotunheimen Jotunheimen (; "the home of the Jötunn") is a mountainous area of roughly in southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, i ...

, and

Hemsedal Hemsedal is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hallingdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Trøym. Hemsedal lies on the Norwegian National Road 52 (Rv 52). Hemse ...

. Nystuen was a very popular high mountain hotel for a long time. Starting in 1936,

Widerøe Widerøes Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a Norwegian airline, and is the largest regional airline operating in the Nordic countries. The airline's fleet of 40 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft, and 3 Embraer E190-E2 aircraft, serves over 4 ...

flew tourists with sea planes to the lake. Between 1951 and 1961, an important attraction in the village was the bears Pekka and Lisa who lived in an enclosure near the hotel. In 1958, the hotel burned down and most of the building stock was lost. A new main hotel building was ready in 1964. Towards the turn of the century, Nystuen Hotell struggled with profitability and it was converted into apartments in 2005–2006. Today the area has many

holiday cottages A holiday cottage, holiday home, vacation home, or vacation property is accommodation used for holiday vacations, corporate travel, and temporary housing often for less than 30 days. Such properties are typically small homes, such as cottage ...

References

Vang, Innlandet Villages in Innlandet {{Innlandet-geo-stub