School history
From monasteries and manor houses to folkehøgskole .
The school's history begins in 1915, but the site where the school is located has a history that stretches back many centuries. There has been both a monastery and a manor house on the site before it was folkehøgskole .
Monasteries in the Middle Ages
The history of Store Milde The manor house can be documented all the way back to 1528. It is probably even older, as the area belonged to the "Black Brothers" – the Dominican monks of Bergen – from the late Middle Ages. In 1526, the Dominican monastery in Bergen centre, and the abbot moved to Store Milde The old garden and surrounding walls probably date from before this time.
The monastery's last prior, Abbot Jens Mortensen, received in 1530 Milde in a gift letter from the King. Milde became a tax-free seat farm until around 1620.
18th century manor house
The farm again became the King's property in the years 1624-1639. Over the next few centuries, the farm was owned by several distinguished Bergen citizens.
The current main building at Store Milde was built in 1723 by merchant Henrich Henrichsen Weinwich, and among other things the baroque wallpaper and ceiling painting in the east room are from his time. In the middle of the schoolyard, two of the trees from the entrance avenue to the main building still stand. In the main building, the Rococo Hall and the Regency Hall have been preserved from the manor house period. Some of the wall and ceiling paintings in these rooms are older than the building itself.
The then owner Johan Fredrik Cappe rebuilt the house in 1786 and gave it the large hipped roof; he also created a garden with a gazebo and a fish pond.
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14th century
The garden is created Monks plant a herb garden
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1528
Monasteries The Dominican order builds monasteries
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17th century
Manor The king takes over the farm
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1723
The main building is being built
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1915
Martin Birkeland Folk High School starts folkehøgskole
Milde main courtyard (1851) painted by Tycho Christoffer Jæger
Folk high school from 1915
The property was purchased by Fana municipality in 1909 and transferred to the Nord- og Midhordland høgskulelag. In 1915, it was started folkehøgskole at Store Milde , but also since then, a lot has happened.
When the school was first started, the students were younger than they are today and they came from the local area around the school. The very first class consisted of only 36 students. Most of them had to live on nearby farms.
When school is on Milde opened its doors to the first cohort in October 1915, the northern and central parts of Hordaland finally got their own folkehøgskole . Hardanger had received Lofthus folkehøgskole in 1912 and Sunnhordaland received folkehøgskole at Halsnøy Monastery in 1914. The oldest school in the district was Lars Eskeland 's Voss Folk High School which had been in continuous operation since 1895. All of these schools were part of the Grundtvig school tradition which started with Sagatun in Hamar in 1864.
The school's first board member was Martin Birkeland. He was a goal keeper, and in the early years, the goal was important at the school. This was entirely in line with Grundtvig's thoughts on the importance of the vernacular. He saw the vernacular as the tool young people needed to acquire knowledge that could become their own, about their own origins and the opportunity to open themselves up to the world.
