Byparken (City Park), Bergen (must see)

The City Park is regarded as the city's first public park. Like so much of central Bergen, its origins are connected with fire. After another devastating blaze swept through the city in 1855, Bergen was extensively replanned. Streets were widened, new open spaces were introduced, and the City Park was laid out as part of the new urban plan. The park began taking shape in the 1860s and has been in use since 1865.

Today, the City Park forms part of a long green axis through the city center. One of its most recognizable features is the ornate Music Pavilion, erected in 1888. Made of cast iron, it was donated to Bergen by businessman and consul Fredrik Georg Gade and remains a popular landmark surrounded by colorful flowerbeds right in the center of the park.

Looking south from the Music Pavilion, you will see the Sæverud Monument, a large abstract sculpture of curved steel arcs created by French artist Bernar Venet in 2000. Behind the monument stands Permanenten, the monumental red-brick museum building completed in 1896 and formerly known as the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art. Looking north from the pavilion, on the opposite lawn, stands a bronze statue of another famous Bergen composer, Edvard Grieg. Created by sculptor Ingebrigt Vik and unveiled in 1917, the statue shows Grieg standing on a rough stone pedestal.

On the east side of the square, crossing Christies Street, the green space continues around Lille Lungegårdsvann Lake and Festplassen square, used for public gatherings, concerts, and celebrations. Festplassen plays an important role in Bergen's Constitution Day festivities on May 17 and also hosts the annual Festival of Lights at the beginning of the Christmas season.

The centerpiece of this part of the park is Lille Lungegårdsvann. It was once directly connected by a narrow channel to the much larger Store Lungegårdsvann to the southeast. The channel was filled in in 1926, but the two bodies of water remain connected through an underground channel.