Back to search results
Strandstaden Jelsa
Jelsa is the best-preserved shore town in Ryfylke and was chosen in 2008 as Rogaland’s most idyllic place by NRK (the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation). The shore town’s roots reach back to the 1600s when Jelsa was an important church center and home parish. Today’s Jelsa has a cozy neighborhood with little 18th-century houses with the lovely wooden church as their closest neighbor.
The School Museum, or the Riiberg Trust, is located in one of these little houses. The schoolhouse was built in 1774 for funds from a foundation set up by Marcille Riiberg in 1755. The school was both a primary school for local children and also a free two-year training school for two young people at a time. They were then sent out to work as itinerant teachers in the countryside. This continued for more than 40 years until teacher training was abandoned in 1820 for economic reasons. The primary school remained here until the early 1900s. The schoolhouse was restored and made into a museum on the initiative of personnel from Jelsa school.