Things To Do in Bergen Norway

The Wharf and Hanseatic History

Bryggen, Bergen's old wharf, is one of the best-preserved examples of Hanseatic merchant architecture in Europe. The colorful wooden buildings that line the harbour date back centuries — many rebuilt after fires but retaining the original street plan and character. Bergen was among the most important trading ports in medieval northern Europe, and that maritime heritage runs deep in the city's identity. The wharf is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it earns the designation.

Gateway to the Fjords

Bergen is the main departure point for Norway's most celebrated fjord journeys. The Sognefjord, the Nærøyfjord, and the Hardangerfjord are all accessible within a day trip, and the train journey through the mountains to Flåm is consistently rated among the most scenic railway routes in the world. The city itself is surrounded by seven mountains, several of which are reachable by funicular or a short hike, offering views over the fjord landscape that put the surrounding geography immediately in context.

Arts and Music

Bergen has a cultural life that outpaces most cities of its size. The Bergen International Festival is one of Scandinavia's oldest and most respected arts gatherings, covering classical music, theatre, and visual art. The city's concert halls host a year-round program, and there is a lively independent music scene that has produced several acts with international followings. The rain that Bergen is famous for may contribute — there is plenty of time to rehearse.

Fish Market and Food

Bergen's open-air fish market on the harbour has been a focal point of city life for centuries. Today it remains one of the best places in Norway to eat freshly cooked seafood in an outdoor setting, with traders selling everything from whole salmon to king crab. The city's restaurant scene has grown in ambition in recent years, with a number of places focusing on the exceptional quality of west-coast Norwegian seafood and the natural larder of the surrounding mountains and forests.

The Fjords, Hardangervidda and Bergen as a Gateway to Western Norway

Bergen's position at the mouth of the Sognefjord and Hardangerfjord makes it the primary departure point for the most celebrated fjord scenery in Norway. The Nærøyfjord, a UNESCO World Heritage branch of the Sognefjord only 250 metres wide at its narrowest with walls rising 1,700 metres, is accessible by express boat from Bergen in a day excursion that is the most popular single tourist journey in Norway. The Flåm Railway, descending 864 metres over 20 kilometres from the Myrdal mountain station down to the Aurlandsfjord, is one of the steepest standard-gauge railway lines in the world and part of the Norway in a Nutshell route that combines train, ferry, and road travel through the fjord landscape in a single-day circuit. The Hardangervidda plateau, the largest mountain plateau in northern Europe at 8,000 square kilometres, begins two hours from Bergen and provides hiking through a landscape of wild reindeer, glacial rivers, and Arctic flora whose scale gives it a character unlike any lowland national park. The Trolltunga rock formation and the Kjeragbolten boulder wedged in a cliff crevice above the Lysefjord are among the most photographed natural formations in Scandinavia and both accessible from Bergen within a day.

Bryggen, the Hanseatic Wharf and Bergen's Medieval Commercial History

The Bryggen wharf, a row of colored wooden warehouses lining the eastern side of the Vågen harbour and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the most immediate visual symbol of Bergen's medieval identity as a Hanseatic trading post. The German Hanse merchant community maintained a kontor (trading post) here from 1360 to 1754, and the current buildings — rebuilt after fires, most recently in 1702 — preserve the spatial organization of the medieval commercial district with its alleys, storehouses, and assembly rooms at a human scale that makes it one of the most legible surviving pieces of medieval commercial urban fabric in northern Europe. The Bryggens Museum, built over the excavations of the 12th-century Hanseatic settlement uncovered after the 1955 fire, displays the finds in situ and documents the layered history of the site. The Hanseatic Museum in one of the original wooden buildings preserves the rooms, equipment, and social conditions of the Hanse merchants in period-furnished interiors that include the sleeping quarters where apprentices were forbidden to light fires against the cold. The Bergen International Festival in May and June, the oldest and largest arts festival in Norway, programs classical music, opera, theatre, and visual art across the city for two weeks and draws an international audience to the city. The KODE art museums in Bergen, a system of four museum buildings around Byparken housing the collections of the Bergen Art Museum and several specialist collections, hold the most significant assemblage of Norwegian and international art outside Oslo, including major holdings of Edvard Munch, the Norwegian Romantics, and one of the largest collections of Nikolai Astrup anywhere. The Bergenhus Fortress, one of the oldest and best-preserved medieval fortresses in Scandinavia and housing the Håkon's Hall from 1261 and the Rosenkrantz Tower from 1560, dominates the entrance to the Vågen harbour from the northwest. The Fløibanen funicular, running from the city center to the summit of Mount Fløyen at 320 metres, is the most used public transport line in Bergen by passenger count and provides the standard panoramic view of the city, the fjords, and the surrounding mountains that every visitor to Bergen takes and that consistently justifies the reputation of its setting.