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Norway

4 city guides · Europe

Cities in Norway (4)

Europe
🇳🇴 Norway

Bergen

Bergen (population 290,000 — the second largest city in Norway and the "Gateway to the Fjords") is one of the most dramatically situated cities in Europe: ringed by seven mountains (the "Seven Mountains" — Ulriken (642m), Fløyen (320m), Sandviken, Løvstakken, Damsgård, Landås and Blåmanen), built around a fjord (the Byfjorden — the 30km inlet of the North Sea) and shaped by the rain that defines the city (Bergen averages 239 days of rain per year — it is the wettest city in Europe, with an annual precipitation of 2,250mm: the local saying is "Bergen har fire årstider: regn, regn, regn og regn" ("Bergen has four seasons: rain, rain, rain and rain")). Bergen was the largest and most prosperous city in Norway for most of the medieval period, from the early 11th century until the 1830s (when Christiania/Oslo overtook it): the Hanseatic League merchants of the German Hanse established the most important of their Norwegian trading posts in Bergen in 1360, building the wharf buildings of Bryggen (the most celebrated medieval wooden building complex in Scandinavia, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and controlling the most important fish trade in Northern Europe (the dried salt cod (klippfisk) and the stockfish (tørrfisk) trade from the Lofoten and Vesterålen fisheries of northern Norway). Bergen is the birthplace of the composer Edvard Grieg (born 1843 — the most internationally performed Norwegian composer, whose Peer Gynt suites and the Piano Concerto in A minor are the most frequently performed Scandinavian orchestral works), and the city where Grieg's piano was preserved in the Troldhaugen villa.

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Oslo

Oslo is the capital of Norway and one of the world's most liveable cities — a compact Scandinavian capital of 700,000 where the Oslofjord, forested Marka hills and a world-class arts and museum cluster combine with one of the highest standards of living, transparency in government and press freedom on earth. The city sits at the head of the Oslofjord with forests behind and water in front — within 30 minutes of the city centre you can be skiing in winter or hiking in summer in the Nordmarka forest, or sailing to forested islands in the fjord where Oslo residents swim from their own boats. Oslo has the densest concentration of Edvard Munch works anywhere — the National Museum (reopened 2022 in its stunning new building) holds The Scream (1893) and over 1,000 works; the Munch Museum on the Oslofjord holds 26,700 works bequeathed by Munch himself. The Viking Ship Museum (temporarily closed for renovation until 2026) holds the Oseberg and Gokstad ships — the two best-preserved Viking vessels anywhere, dug from burial mounds in the 1800s and including the Oseberg ship's extraordinary carved wood, sleds, wagons and textiles. Oslo is genuinely expensive (consistently ranked the world's most expensive city) but Nordic quality is evident in everything — the Aker Brygge and Tjuvholmen waterfront redevelopment, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, the new Munch Museum and the innovative Norwegian cuisine centred on New Nordic principles (using only Norwegian and Arctic ingredients seasonally) at restaurants like Maaemo (3 Michelin stars).

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Tromso

Tromsø (the "Gateway to the Arctic"; population 78,000 — the largest city in the Norwegian Arctic, on the island of Tromsøya at 69.6° N latitude (350 km north of the Arctic Circle); the northernmost city in the world with a population over 50,000) is the world's premier destination for Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) viewing and the centre of Norwegian Arctic tourism. The city is located above the Arctic Circle, which means two extraordinary and opposite natural phenomena: the Midnight Sun (the sun does not set below the horizon from May 20 to July 22 — a continuous 62 days of daylight; the sun is visible at midnight on the summer solstice at exactly 69° elevation above the southern horizon) and the Polar Night (the mørketid — the "dark time"; the sun does not rise above the horizon from November 27 to January 15 — 49 days of complete darkness; the blue twilight at noon on the darkest days (the pale blue-purple light of the mørketid noon is unique to the High Arctic and is one of the most distinctive visual experiences in Norway)). The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights — the natural light display in the Earth's magnetosphere caused by solar wind particles interacting with atmospheric gases at 100-300 km altitude; the lights appear in the emission spectra of oxygen (the green (557.7 nm emission) and red (630 nm emission)) and nitrogen (blue and purple) ions excited by the charged solar particles; the Tromsø area is within the "auroral oval" (the ring of maximum aurora activity centered on the magnetic pole) for approximately 200 nights per year; the best viewing period is late September to late March when the nights are dark enough to see the aurora; the peak period is the autumn and spring equinoxes (September and March) when the Earth's magnetic field is most aligned with the solar wind). The iconic Arctic Cathedral (Ishavskatedralen — the 1965 church on the Tromsø mainland across the Tromsøysund strait — the distinctive triangular aluminium facade with the largest stained glass window in Norway) is the defining architectural landmark of Tromsø. The Midnight Sun concert at the Arctic Cathedral (the annual summer midnight sun concert where the sun does not set during the performance) is the most atmospheric concert in Norway.

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Trondheim

Trondheim (Nidaros in Norse — "the mouth of the Nid"; Þrándheimr in Old Norse; population 210,000 city, the third-largest city in Norway) is on the southern shore of the Trondheimsfjord (the longest and deepest fjord in central Norway — 135 km long, 620 m deep at maximum), at the mouth of the Nidelva River. Trondheim was the medieval capital of Norway (the royal seat and the most important city in Norway from the Viking Age until the 16th century) and the most important pilgrimage destination in Scandinavia (the Nidaros Cathedral, built over the tomb of Saint Olav II Haraldsson (995-1030 CE — the Norwegian king who Christianised Norway and was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030; canonised 1031 as "Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae" — the Eternal King of Norway) was the most visited pilgrimage site in Scandinavia in the medieval period). The Nidaros Cathedral (Nidarosdomen — the Gothic cathedral begun 1070 and substantially rebuilt and extended in the 12th-14th centuries; the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world (at 63.4° N latitude); the largest medieval structure in Scandinavia; the only medieval Gothic cathedral in Norway; the national cathedral of Norway (Norwegian monarchs are consecrated at Nidaros Cathedral — the most recent was King Harald V in 1991)) is the defining structure of Trondheim and the most significant religious building in Norway. The coloured wharfhouses (Bryggen) along the Nidelva River (the row of 17th-18th century warehouses on the north bank of the Nidelva — painted in the traditional Trondheim colours of yellow, orange and red, reflected in the river) are the most photographed image of Trondheim. The Old Town Bridge (Gamle Bybro — the 1861 ironwork bridge across the Nidelva with the painted wharfhouses in the background) is the most photographed single viewpoint in Trondheim. Stiftsgården (the Royal Residence in Trondheim — built 1774-1778; the largest wooden building in Scandinavia (140 rooms); the official Norwegian royal residence in Trondheim, used by the royal family during state visits).

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