Risøbank greenhouses (wood and cast iron, 1901, restored 1992)

Risøbank occupies a corner of the Furulunden woods, two kilometres west of Mandal town centre. The place was industrial first: the Salvesen family, settled in Leith in Scotland, built a paraffin-oil factory here, in operation from 1862 to 1871 according to the journal Skarung. In 1895 Christian Salvesen passed the Mandal property to his son Edward, who had a summer estate in English style built here in 1901. The heritage register describes him as a jurist who became one of the thirteen judges of the High Court of Justice in Scotland from 1905 to 1922, which entitled him to the title of Lord for life. The complex comprises a main house, two outbuildings, a caretaker's house, a garden pavilion and the greenhouses. A regional tourist board credits the design to the Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer; no register consulted confirms the attribution or names the author of the greenhouses.

The state bought the land in 1969 and the buildings in 1971, and the site became a recreation area open to all. The greenhouses, meanwhile, were decaying: in 1977 Mandal town council decided to have them demolished. Mandal Byselskap and the Vest-Agder branch of Fortidsminneforeningen then chose to cooperate on restoring them. The association took on the task six years before the work was completed, in 1992, the year greenhouses and wrought-iron fence stood restored again. The greenhouses have been protected by decision (vedtaksfredet) since 20 December 1994, under section 15 of the Cultural Heritage Act.

The heritage register describes greenhouses "sammenbygget", built together, in a combined wood-and-cast-iron construction. Free photographs on Wikimedia Commons show a white-painted frame glazed on both walls and roofs, standing on a brick plinth: a central volume topped by a small hipped roof, flanked by two large glazed gables, with a brick chimney rising from the roofline. A wrought-iron fence with scrollwork runs along the terrace in front of the building, above a stone wall; the register lists it with the greenhouses among the elements restored in 1992.

The greenhouses lean against the wooded, rocky slope to the east of the estate, which the tourist board calls the hillside facing east; in a 2008 photograph, the view from beside them drops to the lawn and the main house. Cold frames (mistbenker) stand just outside. The building outline in OpenStreetMap, tagged as heritage and carrying the register's building number 168600445, fits within a rectangle of about 14 m by 12 m, with a 77 m² footprint (irregular plan), an order of magnitude to be treated with caution.

Lindesnes Hagelag, the local branch of the Norwegian garden society (Det Norske Hageselskap), is responsible for planting and tending what grows in the greenhouses and in the cold frames next to them, and the tourist board adds that visitors may even take a few samples to taste. An image alt text on the Visit Norway listing describes, inside, a bed of plants on the left and a white door opening to the outside; a Commons photograph taken in November 2008 shows autumn-yellow foliage behind the panes.

The group also holds an annual free plant-and-seed swap in the greenhouses in spring, with a demonstration on dividing perennials. Around the building, the Norwegian Wikipedia article mentions a large English garden in which an important collection of rhododendrons, as bushes and as trees, surrounds the estate.

The greenhouses stand on the hillside east of the main house, in an estate that is accessible all year; the tourist board calls them always open to the public. In summer a seasonal café is added, an exhibition on the upper floor of the main house and, on Sundays, a historical tour. Lordens beach, the protected garden pavilion with its sea view, the likewise protected tennis court and the paths of the Furulunden recreation area combine easily with the visit. Half an hour is enough for the greenhouses alone; allow more for the park and the beach. The garden group's spring meeting is a chance to see the greenhouses in use.