Private buildings

The Vangestad loftAt Nordre Vangestad in Flesberg there is a loft that is dated before 1350. This has been built as a villa with bedrooms on the second floor, but has since been converted to a storehouse. 

The loft is different from the others in the valley. It has galleries on all four sides. This is common in Telemark, but it is only the loft at Søre Rauland in Uvdal that have a similar construction in Numedal. It has two types of log construction (findalslaft and raulandslaft) and is as such unique.

The Vangestad loft has entrance portals on both floors. Broad columns with a top beam in a double arch with a man's head in the middle. The man bites a cloth and from the chapiters on each side two worms crawls out and presses against the man’s chin.

The portals at Nordre Vangestad has a unique representation of Gunnar Gjukesson in the snake-pit, a theme from the Sigurd saga. The portal on the ground floor has columns designed as flat beams with base and column headers. Each column head consists of a stylized snake encircled by two flattened leaves. The snakes coils toward a masked face placed in the middle, above the door.  The lower part of the mask has been cut away because the folks at Vangestad was tired of bumping their heads every time they entered the store room.

The portal on the second floor is much more detailed than the portal on the ground floor, although the motif is the same. Two snakes coils out from their respective column head and attack a face centered over the door. The Romanesque mask has a tape across the mouth, making it seem as if it is gagged.

Per Gjerder (leading conserver at the former historical muesum in Bergen) also sees a connection between the Vangestad portals and stone church portals in Denmark. The church in Southern Onsild is supposed to have a stone portal with many similarities to the wooden portals at Vangestad.