01. The distant past, made to order
Norway, the second half of the 19th century. The country is in love with its distant past. In the stave churches carved dragons coil, and archaeologists such as Sophus Müller and Oscar Montelius are mapping the old Nordic animal ornament. Now it is to live again.
It starts small. As early as around 1840 Johannes Flintoe paints the decorative panels of the Bird Room in the Royal Palace in Kristiania. In the 1870s the silversmiths take over. Then come the houses.
In Sweden it is called the Old Norse style, fornnordisk stil – and Sweden is early. Lysekil, 1873. Carl Curman, physician and director of the sea baths, has a log villa built for himself and his family. The architect is probably Hugo Hörlin, working from Curman's own sketches. The upper floor juts out. The joinery borrows its patterns from the Old Norse. The house arrives ready to assemble from a joinery factory. At midsummer 1878 it burns to the ground. In 1880 it stands there again.
In Norway the breakthrough comes around 1880, and it has a name: Holm Munthe. He is trained in Hanover but builds in wood. Horizontal logs meet stave construction. The upper floor projects. On the gable tips dragon heads gape. The Holmenkollen tourist hotel is finished in 1890. The restaurant at Frognerseteren follows the year after.
Word reaches Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm II wants his own piece of Norway. Munthe designs him a hunting lodge at Rominten in 1891. Then a station building and a stave church in Potsdam.
But wood has an enemy. The Holmenkollen tourist hotel burns in 1895, only five years old. Munthe's park restaurant at St. Hanshaugen goes the same way in 1936.
Around 1900 the dragons soften. In Henrik Bull's Historical Museum in Oslo, 1898, the dragon style merges with Art Nouveau. Kristian Biong's royal villa, 1907–1910, is the last offshoot. Then the saga is over.
02. How to spot it
- 1.Dragon heads on gable tips and roof ridges
- 2.Log walls – often horizontal logs combined with stave construction
- 3.An upper floor that projects over the ground floor
- 4.Carved interlace and animal ornament, often mixed with Romanesque plant tendrils
- 5.Wood throughout, sometimes painted in several colours
03. The giveaway
Look up at the ridge. Is a dragon head gaping there? A good start – but the dragon alone is not enough. Dalen Hotel in Telemark has dragons on both ridge and gables and still counts as Swiss chalet style. Look for the logs and the projecting upper floor as well.
04. Architects and builders
- Holm Munthe
- Henrik Bull
- Kristian Biong
- Hugo Hörlin
- Agi Lindegren
05. Where to see it
- Frognerseteren, Oslo1891, Holm Munthe
- The Curman villas, Lysekilmain house 1873, rebuilt 1880, smaller house 1878; a listed building since 1986
- The Biological Museum, Djurgården in StockholmAgi Lindegren, modelled on the stave churches of Borgund, Lom and Urnes
- Historical Museum, Oslo1898, Henrik Bull; dragon style on its way into Art Nouveau
- Dalen Hotel, Telemark1894, Haldor Larsen Børve; Swiss chalet style with dragons on ridge and gables
06. Often confused with
Swiss chalet style. The same years, the same material and the same delight in joinery. Dalen Hotel shows how close they are: Swiss chalet style with dragon shapes on the roof. The difference lies in the model. The Swiss chalet style looks to the Alps. The dragon style looks to the stave church.
National Romanticism. Both search their own past. But National Romanticism prefers dark brick and granite – and manages without dragon heads.
Sources
- Store norske leksikon (snl.no): "dragestil", "Frognerseteren" and "Dalen Hotel"
- Norsk biografisk leksikon (nbl.snl.no): "Holm Munthe", by Ole Petter Bjerkek
- Bohusläns museum, report 2005:28: Tomas Brandt, Utvändig ommålning av Curmans villor (conservation inspection report)
- Skansen, photograph SKAFOT.0000101 (via K-samsök/Europeana): the Biological Museum, architect Agi Lindegren