Bryne is, after Stavanger and Sandnes, the third largest settlement on Jæren, Norway. The city is an important traffic hub as well as a trade and school centre. Bryne is among Norway’s 50 largest cities and received city status in 2001, and is thus one of the youngest cities in Norway. In addition to being an agricultural town, Bryne also grew to become an educational center with a dairy school and national high school. At Bryne you will experience the hospitality of the Jærs, the Jærs cuisine, fine cultural monuments and beautiful natural areas.
Are you ready for some small-town charm in the footsteps of literature? Did you know, for example, that Arne Garborg is Bryne’s great writer son? Or are you a football fanatic? Then you know that Erling Braut Haaland is also from Bryne. Bryne is easily accessible, only 30 minutes by train from Stavanger. If you are coming by car, the town is close to the national highway.
In recent times, Bryne has become known through the anonymous street artist Pøbel, who likes to surprise the town and the surrounding area with works of art painted in the dead of night. An eventually quite well-known work is the corona artwork “The lovers”, which depicts a masked couple in love in an embrace. It is painted in a busy underpass on Bryne in Arne Garborgsvei. The work became world famous when it was shown as the main image of an article in the New York Times that dealt with corona artworks that had appeared in the wake of the pandemic in several places around the world. Pøbel has also honored Erling Braut Haaland with a substantial mural on a commercial building in the middle of the city centre.
Another artist brought up by Bryne is the sculptor Fritz Røed (1928-2002). His most famous work is perhaps Sword in the mountain standing in Hafrsfjord, but at Bryne på he has a whole park with sculptures in the Fritz Røed Skulpturpark .
If you also have an above-average interest in cultural and literary history, you have the opportunity to learn more about the poet couple Hulda (1862-1934) and Arne Garborg (1851-1924) during a visit to Bryne. Arne Garborg is Bryne’s great writer son and was a champion of the national language (Nynorsk). Among other things, you can visit the Garborgsenteret , a communication center for the couple’s writing. Garborgheimen at Undheim, Arne’s childhood home, is also a museum today. So is Knudaheio , which was the couple’s resort and writing room.
For those of you who are more interested in musical works of art, the city also has some famous artists to pull out of the hat. Janove Ottesen, who was a frontman in Kaizer’s Orchestra, grew up in Bryne. Today he composes music for films, and he has also released a solo album. Several metal bands have seen the light of day in Bryne, but pop music has also come from there, for example with the artist Hilde Selvikvåg.
Nice natural areas
Frøylandsvatnet is a popular place for walks along the water, and in 2016 the water also got a bridge that connects Sandtangen and the hiking trails on the west side with Njåskogen on the east side. The bridge runs from Lalandsholmen on Kleppsiden to Njåskogen. At the location, consideration has been given to the birdlife in the water. The bridge itself has been called the Midgard Serpent after the sea monster from Norse mythology, a fitting name as the bridge winds low above the surface of the water.