Maybe you are looking for a place to sleep in Northern Norway for your next holidays, maybe you come back from there, with still some questions. Here is an answer about our norwegian architecture: what is a rorbu? What does it mean? Why do we call that a cabin?

First of all, if you have heard about Norway, you have seen them for sure! You know, those cabins close to the fjord in a special nordic architecture…

Modern and comfortable vacation homes is named Rorbu at Ersfjordbotn Brygge

At Ersfjordbotn Brygge, we rent vacation homes for 1 to 5 people that we called RORBU. But a Rorbu is really not like our comfortable and modern place.

Actually, we really advise you to read all the little lines of rental cabin called like that, because sometimes it could be an authentic one without any details of our contemporary furnishing!

Hva er en RORBU på norsk?

What is a Rorbu in norwegian?

A rorbu means a fisherman but if you divide the word, å ror is to row, and en bu means a little house.

Firstly, outside, that picturesque stilt house is generally built on a rock plus a use of poles, and made by wood. That architectural design is well-known and very used from 1100, up to the polar circle. The red color comes from the cheapest materials easy to buy at that time: the fish oil plus ocher pigments.

Then inside, typically, a rorbu consists of two rooms: a storage room for the cod and the food, and a living room with a bed.

King Øystein decided, in 1120, that rorbuer (cabins in plural) has to be built for fishermen. It is true that a long winter season of fishing requires a place to dock, and to deliver the fish. It is also right that the cod is still now the Gold of Norway. They had to take care of their fishermen!

However a fisherman cabin is not built to live but just to rest between two fishing times. That’s why it is, at the beginning, not so cosy and comfy. Still now, you can find cabin without water and electricity. Some scandinavian people are used to go in that authentic style, for holidays, to find again a simple and minimalistic life. It is also very good for kids to experience an another lifestyle without technology and so on…

Nevertheless, today, most of the rental rorbu you can find, are modern. They used to keep the wooden inside style, and the architectural shape for outside.

Come and experience the new lifestyle of a rorbu with us at Ersfjordbotn Brygge!