Bryggen (The Wharf), Bergen (must see)

The Wharf area originally covered all the buildings between the sea and Øvregaten. The earliest remains of harbor installations date to around the mid-1100s. Bergen itself is traditionally said to have been founded around 1070 by King Olav Kyrre, though people were already living in the area. Most of the surviving wooden buildings of the Wharf date from the rebuilding that followed the great fire of 1702.

The Hanseatic League established its office in Bergen around 1350. The merchants traded mostly imported cereal grains for stockfish from northern Norway. Bergen grew into an important center for international trade, and the buildings of the Wharf near the waterfront were, piece by piece, brought under the control of the Hanseatic merchants. The stockfish and the grain had found a home.

The great fire of 1702 destroyed almost all of the Wharf, but the Hanseatic merchants rebuilt the buildings on the old plots, largely following the traditional layout. Bryggen suffered another major fire in 1955. In the archaeological excavations that followed, hundreds of medieval runic inscriptions were discovered, mostly carved into pieces of wood. Nearly 700 runic objects have now been found in Bergen.

For a long time, runes were associated mainly with monumental inscriptions, religious texts, or solemn messages. These runes, however, were often concerned with much more mundane day-to-day business—trade, gossip, personal messages, and even love. One famous example reads: “My love, kiss me.” It is not known if the wish was granted. The runic finds are held by the University Museum of Bergen, while many are displayed at Bryggens Museum.

Hiding behind the Wharf façades is a little world of alleyways, shops, galleries, and studios. Local artists and designers have taken over many of the former storage spaces for stockfish and grain. The rooms now hold art, designs, jewelry, books and, wait for it, cafés. Artists and designers are hiding in the narrow passages among the houses. UNESCO notes that arts and crafts businesses began replacing the old stockfish and commodity trade here from the 1960s onward.