- For other meanings of the word Dovre, see Dovre (Disambiguation)
Dovre is a municipality in the county of Oppland, Norway. It is bordered on the north by the Oppdal municipality, on the east by Folldal, on the south by Sel and Vågå, and on the north-west by Lesja.
History
- People have lived at Dovre for about 6000 years. In the stone age, they were hunters and fishermen.
- Approximately 2000 years ago, the first farms were developed at this location.
- Dovre is mentioned in the Heimskringla (The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway) by Snorri Sturluson. In AD 1021 King Olaf laid hold of all the best men, both at Lesja and Dovre, and forced them either to receive Christianity or suffer death, if they were not so lucky as to escape.
- The old Kings' Road and Pilgrim´s Route between Oslo and Trondheim in the 16th century passed up through the Gudbrandsdal and, leaving the valley of the Lågen at present day Dombås, over the Dovre Mountains in the Dovre municipality. The heavy stream of pilgrims which yearly visited the shrine of St. Olaf in Trondheim prior to the Reformation resulted in erection of mountain stations where the pilgrims could find food and shelter. In speaking of this route, Gjerset quotes Peder Claussøn Friis as writing, “But in the winter people of high estate, as well as members of the court, travel mostly this way, because however high and deep the snow may fall, it blows together on the high mountains and becomes so hard men and horses can walk on it. The bonder run over it on ski and snow-shoes. There are three stations: Drivstuen, Herdekinn and Fogstuen built on this same mountain in order that travelers may find lodging there. …at the stations there are implements and dry wood, so that the traveler may build themselves fire, and not suffer from cold, when they have to remain over night, and cannot find the way across the mountain.”
- The Battle of Kringen took place in August 1612, just downstream of Dovre, where the Scottish force stayed on 24th August.
- Dovre Church was built in 1736.
- Dovre became a separate municipality in 1861.
References
A History of Norway by Karen Larson, Princeton University Press, 1948
The History of the Norwegian People by Knut Gjerset, MacMillan, 1915
External links
