Farmer Spends 7 Years Building Incredible Spiral Ramp to His Barn

This beautiful barn in Valldal, Norway is an incredible feat of amateur engineering featuring a stone ramp spiraling out from the hay loft. With the barn completed in 1885, one farmer spent the next seven years constructing the grassy ramp, which gained greater attention when the work was published in a 2014 book about Norway's historic barns.

Lars Petter Olsen Valldal was both a farmer and lover of design who went to great lengths to customize his barn. He used rocks from a nearby hill, which he either transported by hand, by sliding the rocks on cowhide, or by using a custom built sled for larger pieces. The archway visible close to the barn was necessary, as an access road to other farms cut through the property.

If that weren't enough, Olsen Valldal even designed and constructed a crane device to lift the heavy pieces into place. It's said that he enjoyed tinkering with his inventions more than farming, leaving the agricultural work to his wife while he toyed with his designs. Of course, most of what he created went back into increasing the farm's productivity. Aside from the ramp, which would have allowed quick storage access, he also created a machine to help spread manure and designed a system of ditches around his fields to optimize irrigation.

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Jessica Stewart

Jessica Stewart is a Contributing Writer and Digital Media Specialist for My Modern Met, as well as a curator and art historian. Since 2020, she is also one of the co-hosts of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. She earned her MA in Renaissance Studies from University College London and now lives in Rome, Italy. She cultivated expertise in street art which led to the purchase of her photographic archive by the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia in 2014. When she’s not spending time with her three dogs, she also manages the studio of a successful street artist. In 2013, she authored the book 'Street Art Stories Roma' and most recently contributed to 'Crossroads: A Glimpse Into the Life of Alice Pasquini'. You can follow her adventures online at @romephotoblog.
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