City Information Fjord Norway

Only the main cities in Fjord Norway will be described here:

Bergen – a world heritage city

King Olav Kyrre founded Bergen in 1070. The town was favourably situated in relation to shipping traffic and was for a long time the country’s most important commercial, shipping and industrial town. Moreover, Bergen became a commercial and shipping town of European significance and for a while, during the Middle Ages, Bergen was also the largest of all the towns in the Nordic countries. Bergen is the only town in the whole of Scandinavia, which has followed a classical European pattern of development. In the twelfth century an economic breakthrough occurred in Lübeck, which was the first town on the Baltic to become a centre for international commerce. After a time, Lübeck also influenced circumstances in Bergen, which now became the natural geographical and economic centre for the Norwegian maritime empire. Trade with the north, importing grain and exporting fish, laid the foundation for growth during the first centuries. From the fourteenth century and for several centuries, the Hanseatic merchants dominated trade. The Hanseatic merchants established one of their four most important trading stations in Bergen, the "German Office" on the Wharf. During the period from the last half of the nineteenth century until the First World War, there was strong growth in trade and industry resulting in an increase in population, from 17,000 inhabitants in 1855 to 103,500 inhabitants in 1920.

Today Bergen is an international town with small-town charm and atmosphere. The inhabitants love to show off their beautiful and many-sided city. They are proud of Bergen’s shipping, trading and cultural traditions. The city with its 235,000 inhabitants is like a spectacular amphitheatre clambering up the mountainsides, overlooking the sea, embracing you. You can roam through living history in this modern city, the gateway to the wildest and loveliest fjords of Norway. Tradition, initiative and drive have made Bergen one of Norway’s most vigorous cultural cities. It is not merely by chance that Norway’s biggest cultural event, the Bergen International Festival, is held here each year, or that the town was chosen to be one of the European Cities of Culture in the year 2000. The old parts of town are living history, and the museums and galleries keep both art and the ancestral heritage alive. The Hanseatic wharf Bryggen, the Fish Market, the composer Edvard Grieg’s home at Troldhaugen, Rasmus Meyer’s art collection, the Aquarium and Old Bergen are just a few of the many attractions worth visiting.

Hostels in Bergen	Bergen Hostel Montana
	Bergen Hostel YMCA

For more info about Bergen visit: www.visitbergen.com

Stavanger

It was the bishop Reinald  who in 1125 arrived from Winchester and announced that he was going to build a cathedral  by the lake Breiavatn. Since that year Stavanger has been a township. The name Stavanger means “the fjord by the steep mountain”.

The rich herring fisheries, which began in the mid 19th century, led to a rapidly growing population in Stavanger. Especially the new canning industry made prosperous times for the town. Around 1915 approximately 350 million cans were produced. Due to Norway’s neutrality during the First World War, the canning industry was able to sell its canning goods to both sides.  

When the fisheries started to decline in the last century the town moved into shipbuilding and ultimately the oil. In the late 1960s, the North Sea once again became a source of prosperity for Stavanger and Norway as a whole.
Today Stavanger is a modern and lively city of approximately 175.000 inhabitants, which has managed to keep a “small-town” feel. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the town is Old Stavanger, which contains one of the largest concentrations of wooden buildings in Europe. Approximately 170 houses from the 18th and 19th century have been preserved

Hostel in Stavanger

Stavanger Family and Youth Hostel

For more information about Stavanger: www.visitstavanger.com

Alesund - the Art Nouveau city of Norway

In January 1904 more or less the whole city of Alesund burned to the ground. Something like 800 buildings vanished over night.

Young Norwegian architects, who had been trained in Germany, England and Scotland and were influenced by the architectural trends on the continent, redesigned the city. To the continental style they added old Norwegian building elements – like dragons and human faces inherited from the Vikings.

This makes Alesund distinctively different from most other cities in Norway. Population is today approximately 44.000 inhabitants.

Hostel in Alesund

Alesund Family and Youth Hostel

For more information about Alesund:  www.visitalesund.com