Halsnøy Monastery in Kvinnherad Municipality

Halsnøy Monastery is located in the middle of the lush fjord landscape in Sunnhordland. Gentle slopes leads down to the water on each side; Klosterfjorden to the south and Klostervågen to the north. Halsnøy Monastery was most likely established in 1163-64 by Erling Skakke, after the crowning of his son Magnus. If Erling built the monastery with his own money or with funds from the king is unknown, but there must have been a large and wealthy farm here before the monastery was established.

The people who lived at the monastery were not really monks, but priests that was called regular canons or choir brothers. There were probably not more than 13 choir brothers in the monastery, but there were also servants and others who were responsible for taking care of the monastery. Halsnøy was one of the largest and most important monasteries in the Middle Ages. It owned large land areas in West Norway, most of them in Sunnhordland and the northers part of Ryfylket. Around the year 1300 the monastery building was adapted and extended, and it was kept that was until the Reformation. From the Reformation and onwards the monastery started deteriorating. It was kept as a noble estate through many owners. In 1642, Erik Ottesen in Orning in Stord was granted permission from the king to take 400 stones from the church ruins to improve the other buildings.