Where to Stay in Bergen, Vestland

What is Bergen known for?

Bergen is the second city of Norway and the seat of Vestland, set in western Norway (Vestlandet), on the North Sea coast. The old Hanseatic wharf of Bryggen, the medieval Bergenhus festning and the stone Mariakirken mark the historic harbour, while the funicular climbs to Fløyen above the centre. The sea made the city.

Travellers reach Bergen for the fjords and mountains that ring it, and for museums such as the Hanseatic Museum and Universitetsmuseet i Bergen that tell its long trading past.

What are the main landmarks in Bergen?

Bryggen is the famous face of Bergen. The old Hanseatic wharf and its row of timber gables line the harbour, with the Hanseatic Museum and Bryggens Museum telling the story of the German merchants who traded here. The wharf made the port.

Nearby rise the stone Mariakirken and the medieval walls of Bergenhus festning, while Korskirken, Nykirken and Johanneskirken stand across the old town and the funicular climbs to Fløyen above. Museums such as Universitetsmuseet i Bergen, the KODE galleries and Akvariet i Bergen draw visitors through the year in Vestland.

What is the history of Bergen?

Bergen was established in 1070. It rose as a royal and trading town on the western coast, below the walls of Bergenhus festning. The kings of Norway held court here, and the stone Mariakirken and the abbey of Nonneseter kloster mark the early medieval town that grew along the harbour in western Norway (Vestlandet), on the North Sea coast.

The sea drew the merchants. German traders of the Hanseatic League settled the wharf of Bryggen, and their counting houses, kept now in the Hanseatic Museum and Bryggens Museum, made Bergen one of the great trading ports of the northern seas. Fire and trade shaped the centuries that followed.

The timber town burned and rose again along the same harbour, and churches such as Korskirken, Nykirken and Johanneskirken marked the growing parishes, while the leper hospital remembered at Lepramuseet served the sick of the port. Bergen kept its place as the chief town of the west, gathering shipping, fishing and learning, and grew into the second city of Norway and the seat of Vestland, its museums and the old wharf of Bryggen still telling the long story of trade on this stretch of coast.

Where is Bergen?

Bergen lies in the south-western part of Vestland, in western Norway (Vestlandet), on the North Sea coast. The city wraps around its sheltered harbour between steep hills, with Fløyen rising straight above the centre and the bay of Sandviken curving north past Mariakirken and Bergenhus festning. Mountains hem the streets.

The municipality spreads across islands, peninsulas and fjord arms toward the open sea, taking in suburbs such as Laksevåg and Årstad and the long indented coast that runs out from Bergen into the waters of Vestland.

What is the climate of Bergen?

Bergen has the wet, mild maritime climate of the western coast. Rain is the city's great companion, the moist Atlantic air banking against the mountains above Fløyen and falling on the harbour in every month of the year. Winters stay cool and grey.

The North Sea keeps hard frost and lasting snow off the low streets around Bryggen and Bergenhus festning, so the city rarely freezes for long, while summers run cool and damp under the long northern daylight along this stretch of coast in Vestland.

How do you get to Bergen?

Bergen sits at the western end of the railway from Oslo across the mountains. Trains run the long line over the high country to the harbour city, and the station lies a short walk from Bryggen and the old centre. Many arrive by sea.

Coastal ships and fjord boats call at the harbour below Bergenhus festning, the airport west of the city handles the flights of Vestland, and the roads and tunnels carry traffic out across the islands and fjord arms of this coast in western Norway (Vestlandet), on the North Sea coast.