Stange muncipality has approximately 19.200 inhabitants and covers a area of 724,2 km2. Stange has the richest farmland and the most open landscape in the whole region around Lake Mjøsa. Stately farms lie side by side and bear witness to generations of care and cultivation of the soil. The area has a rich cultural heritage. The following museums in the Stange district are open in the summer months: The Norwegian Motoring Museum, Atlungstad Distillery, and Lalumsvangen Summer Farm Museum. Stange Sports Hall is highly regarded through out the country for the major sporting events it has hosted.
STANGE VESTBYGD
Stange Vestbygd also called Nordens Toscana has an interesting history and, in cultural history terms, is one of the most important areas in Hedmark for antiquity, cultural heritage and diversity. The area has a number of burial mounds and other ancient monuments. The country’s most historic distillery, seed cleaning plant and remains of a brickworks are all here. The area is home to large-scale agriculture, lying as it does in one of the country’s richest agricultural areas with a very diverse production. This is one of eastern Norway’s lake and Silurian districts. Cambro-Silurian rocks have given rise to the deep, fertile and calciferous moraines.
Here are to be found manor houses with monumental architecture and stylish avenues side by side with artisans’ cabins and cotter’s farms. There is plenty of scope for outdoor activities, with well established walking paths (the Ottestad Path), as well as Lake Mjøsa and all the activities it offers. The geographical area is entirely within the municipality of Stange and in walking and cycling distance of Hamar.
Many of the large farms and manors in the area have buildings that are protected under the Cultural Heritage Act, such as Ringnes, Elton and Hverven. The houses and yards are easily seen in the open landscape. The buildings on these farms and manors can often be divided into two: a more open outer yard area with working farm buildings and a more enclosed inner yard with farm house and barn etc. surrounded by dense vegetation. Many farms have old, tree-lined avenues. The avenues down to Lake Mjøsa date from a time when travel by water was more common and access to the farm also had to look respectable and inviting from the lake.
Distilleries, distilling and aquavit are an important part of Hedmark’s heritage. Atlungstad Distillery (1855) is one of the most intact old distilleries in Norway and currently functions as a reserve distillery for the Arcus company. It is one of two distilleries considered as heritage objects of national interest by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Stange has long wished to focus on this cultural element and chose Atlungstad Distillery as the municipality’s cultural heritage site in the Cultural Heritage Year (2009).
NORWEGIAN ATOMOBILE and VEHICLES MUSEUM
The Norwegian Automobile and Vehicles Museum contains a display of Norwegian auto-history, from the early 1900’s re-built Oldsmobile, called “Oldsfossum”, up to the “Troll”, the last Norwegian produced car in the 1950´s. A number of horse driven vehicles are exhibited: sledges, gigs, carioles and carts. A section has been devoted to the history of the railway, a model railway can be seen. The museum’s oldest car is a Wartburg from 1889. It has a 3 hp, 2 cylinder, air-cooled combustion engine. A steam driven car from 1901 and an electric car from 1917 can be seen. Many of the vehicles are exhibited in a context that shows the roads, petrol stations and workshops of the time, along with their use in work and leisure time.
LAKE MJØSA
Mjøsa is Norway´s largest lake, as well as the one of the deepest lakes in Europe, after Hornindalsvatnet. From its southernmost point at Minnesund to its northernmost point in Lillehammer it is 117 km long. At its widest, near Hamar, it is 15 km wide.
The cities of Hamar, Gjøvik, and Lillehammer were founded along the shores of the lake. Before the construction of railways past the lake, it was an important transport route. Today, aside from minor leisure boating and the steamship Skibladner, there is no water traffic on the lake. Most of its shores are dominated by rolling agricultural areas, among them some of the most fertile grainlands in Norway. From the south European route E6 runs along the eastern shore of the lake until the Mjøsa Bridge connects Moelv on the east with Biri on the west.
FJÆRESTAD FARM
Fjæstad Farm caters for groups of all sizes and sells traditional handcraft.
MALUNGEN LODGE
Malungen Guest Lodge is idyllically situated on one of the many lakes in Stange’s forests, right beside Highway 24. Originally a hunting lodge for the well to-do, it is now a guest house with its own culinary specialities.
STANGE CHURCH
The beautiful Stange Church, dating from 1250, is famous throughout Norway. Famous too, though for different reasons, is the recently built “strawberry church”, a log building erected in order to give the foreign summer-season strawberry pickers a place where they can practise their catholic faith.
HIKING
Already a popular tourist attraction, and starting point for walks on a vast network of trails. These trails are an important part in Stange’s “green” profile, making nature accessible for tourists. Some of the large, stately farms are opening their homes.
FISHING
Lake Mjøsa has 20 species of fish. Among the most common are pike, European perch, common roach, greyling and the Hundertrout, a Brown Trout which can reach a weight of more than 20kg. Another common species is the European smelt, which is the most important baitfish for the predators. Historically, the most economically significant species is the Lågsild (European cisco).
GOLF
Atlungstad Golfclub has an 18-hole course in glorious natural surroundings beside Lake Mjøsa and is one of the most beautiful golf courses in Scandinavia.