Allmannajuvet Zinc Mine Museum

The Allmannajuvet zinc mines in Sauda were worked from 1881 to 1899 and yielded 12,000 tonnes of ore. The operation brought life to the village, with up to 168 employees and ore shipped abroad by boat; it was a forerunner of the later hydroelectric development and industrial settlement in Sauda.

In 2002 the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) commissioned Peter Zumthor to design a visitor attraction that would bring the old mining history of Sauda back to life; his practice, Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner, is credited with the project. His task, within the Ryfylke national tourist route, was to convey Sauda's industrial history and make the old mines more appealing and more accessible to visitors. The complex was completed in 2016 and opened in September.

Zumthor chose a low-key expression, so that the site would lose neither its natural and cultural qualities nor the sense of a mining community. The complex includes three modest buildings: a museum building devoted to the mining past, a café, and a service building by the main road. In the gorge, these plain constructions follow an industrial building tradition that sits well in the terrain, inspired by the mining, the toil and the hard everyday life of the workers.

All the buildings were prefabricated in Saudasjøen and then assembled in the gorge. Their outer supporting frame is creosote-impregnated glulam; the outside is made of 18 mm plywood panels and jute canvas coated with a special German coating (PMMA). Inside, the walls are painted dark and recall a mine gallery. The car park was enlarged into an open square, closed on the Storelva side by a winding, imposing dry-stone wall.

The site is now a mining museum. The gallery tells the mining history, the café opens in season, and the whole complex works as a rest area and viewpoint on the Ryfylke national tourist route.

The café and gallery open every summer; outside the season, groups are received by booking. In season, guided tours leave every day: they cover the buildings, the mine path and the lower mine, with helmet and torch provided, in Norwegian or English. Visitors sign up at the café or by email.

The site is partly wheelchair accessible. From the south the road is cleared of snow in winter as far as Hellandsbygd and the site stays accessible all year; from the north, the road over the Saudafjellet is closed in winter.