Ringve: A Manor House Full of Music
On the Lade peninsula northeast of Trondheim sits Ringve, a manor whose history reaches back to the Viking age. Archaeological finds suggest a high-status farm here as early as the 11th century, possibly connected to the powerful Lade earls who ruled Trøndelag before Norway became a unified kingdom. The current main house, however, is a graceful 18th-century timber building set in formal botanical gardens.
Ringve owes its modern fame to one couple: Christian Anker Bachke and his Russian wife Victoria Rostin, who bought the estate in 1920. Victoria was a passionate collector of musical instruments, and over four decades the couple assembled one of the largest private collections in Europe — keyboards, strings, wind and folk instruments from across the world. After Christian's death in 1946, Victoria devoted herself to turning Ringve into a museum, which opened to the public in 1952.
Today Ringve is Norway's national museum for music and musical instruments. Its galleries trace the development of Western classical instruments alongside Norwegian folk traditions, and many of the instruments are still played during guided tours, so visitors hear a 17th-century harpsichord or a Hardanger fiddle in the room where it lives. The surrounding botanical garden, run by NTNU, is one of the most northerly in Europe and a quiet pleasure on a summer afternoon.
