Midgard Viking Centre

Midgard Viking Centre (Midgard Vikingsenter), part of the Vestfold Museum network, opened in 2000 in Borre with the mission of animating Viking heritage through tactile learning and storytelling. It sits overlooking the historic Borre burial mounds—monumental Viking and Iron Age grave mounds once believed to hold royalty. These mounds inspired the distinct Borre art style, visible in regional Viking artifacts.

The centre's standout feature is the Gildehall (Viking feast hall), a painstaking reconstruction based on archaeological evidence of longhouses found beneath Borre. Visitors can sit by the central fire, take the “throne,” and feel transported back to a medieval gathering hall. Nearby stands a towering wooden statue of the Norse god Heimdall, horn in hand—an atmospheric nod to mythology you can almost hear echo across the fjord.

Inside, the museum displays local Viking artifacts—including spearheads, harness fittings in the Borre style, and an oversized penannular brooch—each linked to local archaeological finds and high-status graves. The center also features interactive exhibits—textile dyeing with ancient plants, traditional crafts, archery, and food demonstrations—bringing everyday Viking life vividly alive.

Guided tours are available, leading visitors through the exhibitions, the grand feasting hall, and the adjacent Borre Park, where the scale and silence of the mounds evoke a powerful ancestral presence. The setting—Viking display, tombs, fjord views—makes Midgard a richly immersive destination for dark heritage and Norse mystique. Midgard Viking Centre are also the host for the yearly metal festival called Midgardsblot held in August.