Kviknes Hotel
Kviknes Hotel is one of the most recognisable buildings in Balestrand. The present wooden hotel was built in 1894 and extended in 1913, with a modern wing added in the 1960s, and the Kviknes family have been its hosts since 1877. Across those generations the hotel has grown and been renovated many times, without losing the distinctive character of its Swiss chalet-style architecture.
Today it is a modern hotel of around 190 rooms, one of the largest of Norway's historic hotels, still run by the fourth generation of the family. An extensive collection of art and antiques, gathered over more than a century, runs through the lounges and gives the hotel much of its atmosphere.
Balestrand drew artists and travellers throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among them Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, a frequent visitor to the village before the First World War. He moored his ship in the bay rather than staying at the hotel, but the connection survives in one of its more unusual pieces: a chair, still kept at Kviknes, inscribed to record that the Kaiser was sitting in it on the afternoon of 25 July 1914 when news reached him that war had broken out. Royalty, presidents, prime ministers, film stars and artists from many countries also appear on the guest list.