The Vika House
This house was built for festive occasions in the 1780s. It stood at Viken, Oppdal in the county of Sør-Trøndelag. It was rebuilt at Sverresborg in 1921, and restored after a fire in 1976.
When Vikastua was built the farm was large and well off, but it was later split into smaller farms. The farmer, Ingebrigt Olsen Viken, and his wife Guri Olsdatter, wanted to build a house with a second storey – a “oppstuge”, which would only be used for festive occasions, and which would demonstrate the affluence of the Vika people.
Vikastua was only used for weddings and burials, not even for Christmas parties. The rest of the year it was not used, except when school was housed during the periods when the teacher came to the hamlet to hold school. In 1795 Ingebrigt and Guri had the best painter in the district, Knut Honne, decorate the house. When they built the house they had selected special large logs and they filled it with top quality furniture. Knut Honne painted vine-like ornamentations in the ceiling, flowers, portraits of kings, horsemen and Samson and the lion on the cupboards, and on the doors Ingebrigt and Guri had their names painted, surrounded by flower decorations. The result was so lavish and uncommon that people called it the "painted house".
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