I'm Off My Beaten Track in Norway...

Old property in the Hanseatic Quarter

.. today.  Come and stroll with me as I meander through the city of Bergen using my travel journal, Norway Notes, as my guide...

The city of Bergen is the second largest after Oslo, with a population of around 290,000.  By comparison, the second largest city in England is Birmingham, with a population of 1.1 million.  As I meander from the dock where our Captain has parked the boat, I see vast mountains as a backdrop to an urban landscape that reminds me of Portsmouth or Brighton, both of which have comparable numbers of inhabitants and equally long histories.

The earliest indications of settlement in this location date from the start of the 11th century, and trading has been the core of life here since that time.  The city was founded by King Olav in 1070.  It became Norway’s capital city in the 13th century.  It was towards the end of that century that Bergen then became the centre for the Hanseatic League – a medieval commercial group of Guilds that traded across the northern part of Europe.  In many respects, they were an early blueprint for the 17th Century Dutch East India Company.

From the ship, it’s about a twenty-minute walk to Bryggen.  The road runs alongside the inlet that forms the original harbour, and the old wooden buildings on the quay are what remains of the original warehouses and trading rooms of the league.  Established in Germany in the 12th Century, the league gradually extended its reach for trade and commerce across most of northern Europe.  They traded and moved raw materials – wool, leather, wood and other goods – between ports and towns using a variety of sailing vessels, some suitable to navigate the river system as well as much larger ocean-going ships.

As I stroll along the quay, the sounds ring out from the traffic, the people, and the seabirds. Six hundred years ago, this dock area and port would have been full of mast-rigged ships, lighters to move stock and goods from the port side to the ship and back, the constant rapping of rigging, and the noise of men at work on the vessels either stowing or moving cargo, mending equipment and making necessary repairs by hand.  It would have been a hive of activity.

Today, things are much more sedate.  Even the large fish market is a refined and quieter affair.  As I slowly move through the stalls, I’m offered shellfish to try.  I’m shown a substantial side of tuna.  On another stall, there are lobster and langoustine.  I don’t know any of the local names, and some of the produce I’ve never seen on a market in England or France.  But there is one stall that stops me dead in my tracks.  The man behind the counter is clearly very proud of his stock of whale meat.  I’m appalled that it is there and that it’s for sale.  Despite his entreaties to buy, I walk away.

Most of the shipping in this area of the port is now for leisure.  There are any number of yachts and catamarans tied up.  But the real history is in the quay-side buildings and a small bulbous monument that sits on one of the jetties.  As I leave the market I can make my way along the Shetlands-Larssen Brygge that runs parallel to the main quay.  About three-quarters of the way along is a round stone memorial.  On there are the names of all the 515 local sailors who lost their lives in the 1939/45 conflict.

More modern property beside the inlet

There’s much more history to be mined here, and I will be back with more from my Norway Notes next month…