In the Breidablikk Guide you can read more about the history of the property, and about the building and interior. The guide is for sale at all museum sites. The guide can also be ordered directly from the museum. The price of the guide is NOK 30.-.

Here is a brief outline:

In his poem "Egenæs" written in 1793, Jen Zetlitz refers to plot no. 8 as follows:

"Ye meads of Bosse, I will always hold dear,

Great is my joy on seeing you again,

And doubly so for friendships you have blessed."

The lines refer to Zetlitz’s childhood experiences. He experienced that his step- father, the pharmacist Andreas Bosse, had leased, enclosed and partially cultivated the plot. After Bosse died in 1776, the plot was leased by the merchant Gabriel Kirsebom Kielland, whose widow, Birgitte Nyrop Petersen von Fyren, transferred the property to the merchant Peder Pedersen in 1804. At an auction of his estate, the plot ‘with standing barn and shed for livestock’ was sold to the merchant and ship owner Helmich Gabrielsen. The property remained in the Gabrielsen family until 1880. The old barn was demolished in 1852 when the family built a new house and outhouse facing Eiganesveien – what is now Eiganesveien 38.

Merchant and ship owner, Lars Berentsen (1838-1896) acquired the deeds to the property on October 27, 1880. He was the son of Erik Berentsen (1805-1878), who had established a large company in Stavanger, comprising a dry goods and hardware store in conjunction with a ship owning business and herring trade. Eventually, trading concentrated on pollack and herring, and he made his shipping business into the biggest in the town.

When his father died, Lars Berentsen, his mother, and his brother-in-law, Charles Racine, took charge of the company. As of 1892 Lars Berentsen was the sole proprietor of the company "E. Berentsen". Following in his father’s footsteps he became one of the town’s most prominent citizens. With his enormous capacity for hard work, he was appointed to the highest positions of trust in the town. He was Mayor in 1884 and 1886, and a Member of Parliament from 1886-88 together with the principal, Johannes Steen. Lars Berentsen was one of the founders of the Stavanger Private Bank, Stavanger Preserving Co., and the Work School for Boys, etc. He was the director of Stavanger Maritime Insurance Company, Chairman of the Board of the Stavanger Steamship Company, director of the Stavanger branch of the Bank of Norway, and a member of the Stock Exchange Committee for many years. He was the British Vice Consul from 1888, and in 1890 he became a Knight of St. Olav.

Through his influential work in helping to establish the Seaman’s Home in Øvre Strandgt. 92 in 1876, and the Stock Exchange building in Kirkegt. in 1878, Berentsen became acquainted with the architect Henrik Nissen from Christiania. It was therefore natural that Berentsen turned to him when he began to plan the building of a representative residence on plot no. 8.

The house was constructed during the course of 1881 and went into use the following year. Teak for the windows and mahogany for the doors were imported from Siam by the company’s own ships. All the window panes were made of thick, cut, plate glass. If the cellar is included in the house, it is bigger in both area and capacity than Ledaal. According to information provided by the last owner, the woodcarving was done by the cousin of the artist brothers Bergslien, and the ceiling decorations by the decorative painter, Louis Anton Jacobsen (1865-1945), together with his brothers, Karl and August. Jacobsen was much used as a decorative painter in the 1880s, and was later to become a well-known photographer in Bergen. Breidablikk is one of the best houses in the country from this period, with regards to bother materials and craftsmanship. It is built in the Swiss style with touches of gothic and romantic influence, and is in all respects a typical and excellent example of historicism in the 1880s. Most of the interior was acquired at the time when the house was first occupied, and thanks to the pietistic sentiments of Lars Berentsen’s descendants who cared for their father’s home, the interiors are some of the best preserved from this period in the whole of Norway.

The garden surrounding the main building was designed by the gardener P.H. Poulsson, and has to a great extent been preserved. Characteristic of his many garden designs is the winding paths, the avoidance of sharp angles and the use of exotic trees.

The plot extended from Eiganesveien to Torbjørn Hornklovesgate, and was run as a farm by Lars Berentsen. In Hannasdal he built an outhouse to store hay, firewood, and agricultural equipment. The livestock comprised 9 cows, 1 bull, 1 heifer, 4 horses, 2 pigs, 40 hens, and 20 pigeons.

Lars Berentsen had eight children with his first wife, Hendrikke Housken (1840-1890), four of whom lived to adulthood. In 1892 he married Elisa Haaland (1866-1962) and they had a son, Lars (1893-1940). When Consul Berentsen died in 1896, Elisa and her son moved into Eiganesveien 38 while the three surviving children of the first marriage, Erik (1868-1943), Olga (1877-1965) and Karoline (1868-1954) continued to live at Breidablikk. The oldest daughter Bertha, who married William B. Dietrichson in 1886, died as early as 1893.

Erik Berentsen took over the company from his father. He eventually wound up the shipping company and concentrated on the ship’s chandler business. Unlike his father he did not participate in public life, but addressed himself to a much greater extent to private societies and institutions in the town. He was chairman of the Stavanger Tourist Association, in which he became an honorary member. His interest in Stavanger’s cultural life was expressed in many ways; one of these was his bequeathal of NOK 250 000 for the popularization of the Stavanger Museum’s collections.

None of the three children at Breidablikk married. They wished their home to be preserved as it was during their childhood, though of course a certain amount of replacements and additions had been made to the interiors over the years. The changes made in the house since Lars Berentsen’s time have, however, been inconspicuous. Shortly after 1896, and in cooperation with the architect, three windows on the second floor were changed, an inside entrance to the cellar was made, a bath and WC were installed, and a balcony was erected on the south side. The farm was discontinued and the plot was parceled out to smaller plots and for roads. In 1903 the sisters donated 7183 square meters of land to the municipality, which was to be kept as an "open area". This is now the playground in Madlaveien. In 1906 a dormer window section and a balcony were built onto the garden side of Eiganesveien 38 – both in accordance with the plans of the architect, Karl Kielland. During the fall of 1939, following the advice of Consul Sigval Bergesen, a bomb shelter was built under the garden with access from the cellar.

Olga Berentsen’s will of September 20, 1954 expresses the same support and sympathy for the cultural life of the town as was demonstrated by her brother’s donations. In accordance with her will a bequest was made which should ‘endeavor to maintain the park-like nature of the area around Breidablikk and the family’s old home there – including the equipment and the interior fittings that were there during my sibling’s time and that of my parents, as a reminder of a bygone cultural epoch of the town’. Stavanger Museum was given the professional responsibility for this task. It was of great significance to the museum that the environment at Breidablikk so excellently complemented the historic style of the interiors at Ledaal right across the street.

The two buildings stand as memorials and symbols of two great periods in Stavanger. The first was during the Napoleonic Wars, the second during the culmination of the era of the sail ships. The company survived the great crisis of the 1880s and its continuity was maintained. A reevaluation of this period and the ethnological orientation of more recent cultural research have opened the way for an understanding of the fine work of preservation which, for more 80 years, has been quietly applied to this elegant Stavanger home.

The Breidablikk Foundation was established in 1972 and the first floor was opened to the public in 1975, the second floor in 1977, and the cellar in 1979. In 1989 the Foundation donated the entire property to the Stavanger Museum.