Cultural Heritage

Flood stone at Lake Mjøsa

Situated along Gudbrandsdalsleden
This stone marks the great floods from 1789 (Storofsen) to 1995.

Storofsen was a flood disaster which struck eastern Norway in July 1789. The river Gudbrandsdalslågen overflooded, and the water level of Mjøsa rose to ten meters above its normal level. 61 persons perished in Gudbrandsdalen, 3000 houses were totally damaged, and thousands of livestock drowned. There was apparently an even larger flood in 1742, when Tesen-fallet at Vormsund blocked Vorma for 4 months and Mjøsa grew 8 meters. Storofsen did little damage in Stange and Hamar area as buildings and cornfields mostly lay a lot higher than 8 meters above the water level. The flood of 1995 caused the Migration Museum to be moved to the other side of Åkersvika. The stone is situated just north of the Skibladner quay in Hamar.