Over 300 years of living hospitality — shaped by women through generations

1722 — The soldier

It started with a soldier. Peder Larsson Børsem had fought in the Great Northern War, and when he returned home he used his military pension to open a guesthouse in the village of Utne. One parlour, one kitchen and one bedroom. That was all.

1832 — Mor Utne

Torbjørg Johannesdatter was 20 years old when she married into the guesthouse in 1832. She stayed for 70 years — until she died in 1903. When she took over, Hardanger was still largely unknown to the outside world. Her first guests were not tourists but explorers — natural scientists, artists and students who came on foot across the Folgefonna glacier or by boat from Bergen. In time, British travellers found their way into the fjords, and Utne became their base.

It was not only the hotel they came for. People travelled to Utne to meet her. A consul from Stavanger once stopped by simply to see what she looked like. Torbjørg replied: "Am I a wild animal, that people might walk in and gaze at as a curiosity?"

The artist Eilif Peterssen painted her portrait in 1888. The original hangs in the National Museum of Norway. A copy still hangs at the hotel. And in the restaurant hangs the silver wreath that the local community collected for her funeral — a quiet testament to what she meant to the village.

1943 — Hildegunn Aga Blokhus

After Mor Utne, the hotel passed through several hands, but it was the Aga family who saved the building. Lars Aga — Mor Utne's great-nephew — and his wife Guri carried out a thorough restoration after taking over in 1918. Their daughter, Hildegunn Aga Blokhus, took charge of the daily running in 1943. She led the hotel for over 50 years, and even after a foundation took over in 1996, it was still Hildegunn who set the standard. She died in 2016, aged 93 — the last of her family at Utne Hotel.

2022 — Margaret Hystad

In 2022, Margaret Hystad bought the hotel. She came from the tourism industry in Haugesund and felt a deep drive to look after this particular piece of cultural heritage — not just the building, but the living parts: the hospitality, the storytelling, the ties to the village. Everything she does should carry a trace of community purpose, she says. At Utne, it all fell into place.

Together with chef and operator Bjørn Hettervik and the staff, she carries the story forward. Bjørn says he loves serving cider, that being able to share a bit of history in everyday work gives the job a completely different dimension. Most of the staff are local people from the village, and Bjørn has designed a custom emblem shaped like a rose for their aprons, inspired by traditional Hardanger embroidery. When the young staff wear the rose, it is not just a uniform — it is belonging.

2026 — Olavsrosa

In September 2025, the board of the Norwegian Heritage Foundation (Norsk Kulturarv) voted to award Utne Hotel the Olavsrosa — the highest quality seal for places where cultural heritage is alive and in use. In their assessment, the expert panel noted that the hotel can trace its roots all the way back to 1722, that the entire heritage environment — hotel, ice house and courthouse — is protected, and that it is the people, not the building alone, who keep the heritage alive.

De Historiske, Norway's association of historic hotels, gave Utne Hotel a perfect score for hospitality. At the award ceremony, Bjørn put it simply: "It is those of us who work here that make this house different."

The Olavsrosa was presented on 24 June 2026, in the same house where Peder Larsson Børsem opened the door over 300 years ago.