Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Norway / Orkanger / Bårdshaug Herregård
Bårdshaug Herregård
Orkanger, Norway · Independent · Near Luxury
Bårdshaug Herregård in Orkanger, Norway, is tied to Christian Thams, the industrial entrepreneur and trained architect who returned to Norway in 1890 to lead his family's timber and building enterprise. The manor became his residence and a showcase for the company's craftsmanship, including locally carved interiors. Thams was known for prefabricated wooden buildings that his business exported internationally, and a richly carved dining room dated 1904 survives as one of its most noted interiors. The former private residence is now part of Bårdshaug Hotel, giving guests a direct link to one of Trondelag's most distinctive industrial-era figures.
- Opened 1890
About Bårdshaug Herregård
- Christian Thams bought Bårdshaug farm in 1890 and spent fourteen years turning the Orkdal parsonage into a manor blending Norse mythological woodcarvings, Jugendstil towers, and Louis XVI furnishings gathered on his travels.
- Thams exported prefabricated log buildings worldwide, designing homes for Brigitte Bardot, King Leopold of Belgium, and associates of Gustave Eiffel, and he brought that international taste back to Orkanger.
- Master carvers Peder Olsen Sognli and Jon Graven Hukkelaas created the dining room's pine paneling, oval Swedish stove, floor clock by Ingebrigt Eggan, and an ornate buffet that still hosts banquets today.
- Royal guests at Bårdshaug included Oscar II of Sweden, King Leopold of Belgium, the Prince of Monaco, and Norway's King Olav V, who slept in Thams' own bedroom now offered as a package.
- After legal troubles drove Thams to flee permanently to Paris, his manor stayed largely unchanged and is now run by a third generation family hotel team preserving the 1904 carved dining room intact.
History
Bårdshaug Herregård in Orkanger, Norway, is inseparable from Christian Thams, the industrial entrepreneur and architect who made his home there in the late nineteenth century. Thams was born in 1867 and returned to Norway in 1890 to lead the family’s timber and building enterprise at Orkanger; the herregård became his residence and a showcase for the company’s craftsmanship, including locally carved interiors.
The property’s historical importance comes less from a single founding act than from its role in the Thams story and the industrial development of Orkland. Thams was trained as an architect and became known for prefabricated wooden buildings; his business exported houses internationally, and the house at Bårdshaug reflects the same period of ambition and experimentation. A richly carved dining room dated 1904 survives as one of the estate’s most noted interiors, linking the home directly to the local woodcarving tradition that Thams supported.
Over time, the former private residence was absorbed into the hotel property and is now part of Bårdshaug Hotel. The estate therefore reads as both a family seat and an industrial-era monument: a place tied to Thams’s business career, his taste for craftsmanship, and the rise of Orkanger as a center of timber and manufacturing activity. The surviving historic rooms are the main attraction, and they give the hotel its strongest sense of continuity with late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Trøndelag.
Restaurants and bars
- Restaurant Ministeren — Restaurant · seasonal culinary experience
Experiences
- Matvegen – The Taste of Trøndelag — A three-day road trip with stays and local meals from Røros through the heart of Trøndelag (2 nights / 3 days).
Amenities
- Free parking right outside the hotel
- Electric car charging (for a fee)
- Wedding receptions with accompanying ceremonies
- Anniversary, confirmation and christening celebrations
- Events and Christmas celebrations
- Electric car charging for a fee
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