While Bryggen dates back to the 12th century and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is far from a static historic monument. This lively Bergen neighborhood hosts more than a hundred shops, galleries, restaurants and museums — and even the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel — and remains busy from morning until night.
Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, was Scandinavia’s principal urban center in the Middle Ages, and this waterfront district was the region’s commercial heart. From around 1360 the wharf was a hub for the Hanseatic League: German merchants occupied the wooden buildings here (bryggen means “wharf” in Norwegian) and remained influential for nearly 400 years.
A catastrophic fire in 1702 destroyed much of the wharf, but it was rebuilt quickly. Most of the colorful wooden façades you see today date from that reconstruction; roughly 60 buildings stand in rows, four or five deep, along the waterfront promenade. These structures now form a welcoming maze of businesses — from artists’ studios and galleries such as Atelier Hetland, known for prints and paintings, to Juhls Silver Gallery, where jewelers create pieces inspired by the Norwegian tundra.
Bergen fish market © JOYFULL | DREAMSTIME.COM
Guided walking tours typically begin at the Bryggen Museum, which is built over the foundations of the area’s oldest structures and displays finds from archaeological digs, including ceramics from Egypt and glass from China. The Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene, housed in a building dating to 1704, preserves original furnishings and interiors from the Hanseatic era, when as many as 2,000 men lived and worked here in a dense cluster of warehouses and sleeping quarters. The exhibits explain the Hanseatic League’s wide trade network and how Bergen’s wealth was closely tied to the salted cod trade; ships laden with dried fish sailed to Catholic countries where meatless diets were common.
Seafood remains one of Norway’s top exports and features prominently on menus throughout the country. Bergen’s oldest seafood restaurant, Enhjørningen, is located in a former Hanseatic merchant’s building in Bryggen. Directly across the harbor, the Fish Market offers an impressive variety of fresh seafood alongside flowers, fruit and vegetables. It’s a perfect spot for lunch, with tables that look out onto Bryggen’s colorful façades mirrored in the water.