39 Facts About Bergen

Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway.

Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was overtaken by the capital, Christiania .

Bergen Port is Norway's busiest in terms of both freight and passengers, with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, a number that has doubled in 10 years.

Bergen has a mild winter climate, though with a lot of precipitation.

City of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardrade in 1070AD, four years after the Viking Age in England ended with the Battle of Stamford Bridge.

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Bergen gradually assumed the function of capital of Norway in the early 13th century, as the first city where a rudimentary central administration was established.

The principal export traded from Bergen was dried cod from the northern Norwegian coast, which started around 1100.

Bergen retained its monopoly of trade with northern Norway until 1789.

Bergen was separated from Hordaland as a county of its own in 1831.

Bergen is well known in Norway for the Isdal Woman, an unidentified person who was found dead at Isdalen on 29 November 1970.

The city lost its status as a separate county on the same date, and Bergen is a municipality, in the county of Vestland.

Bergen is sheltered from the North Sea by the islands Askøy, Holsnøy and Sotra .

Bergen has an oceanic climate, with plentiful rainfall in all seasons; with intermittent snowfall during winter, but the snow usually melts quickly in the city.

Bergen is considered the rainiest city in Europe, although it is not the wettest "place" on the continent.

The growing season in Bergen is exceptionally long for its latitude, with more than 200 days.

Bergen is the seat of the Diocese of Bjørgvin with Bergen Cathedral as its centrepiece, while St John's Church is the city's most prominent.

From here, the urban area of Bergen extends to the north, west and south, and to its east is a large mountain massif.

Oldest part of Bergen is the area around the bay of Vagen in the city centre.

Simultaneously, an urbanization process was taking place in Solheimsviken in Arstad, at that time outside the Bergen municipality, centred on the large industrial activity in the area.

Wealthy citizens of Bergen had been living in Fana since the 19th century, but as the city expanded it became more convenient to settle in the municipality.

The city council of Bergen had in 1964 voted to demolish the entirety of Marken the decision proved to be highly controversial and the decision was reversed in 1974.

Since 2000, the city of Bergen has been governed by a city government based on the principle of parliamentarism.

Bergen is divided into eight boroughs, as seen on the map to the right.

From 1989, Bergen was divided into 12 health and social districts, each locally administered.

Bergen is the main base for the Royal Norwegian Navy and its international airport Flesland is the main heliport for the Norwegian North Sea oil and gas industry, from where thousands of offshore workers commute to their work places onboard oil and gas rigs and platforms.

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Bergen is recognized as the unofficial capital of the region known as Western Norway, and recognized and marketed as the gateway city to the world-famous fjords of Norway, and for that reason, it has become Norway's largest – and one of Europe's largest – cruise ship ports of call.

Bergen Port, operated by Bergen Port Authority, is the largest seaport in Norway.

Bergen is the southern terminus of Hurtigruten, the Coastal Express, which operates with daily services along the coast to Kirkenes.

Bergen connects to the island of Bjorøy via the subsea Bjorøy Tunnel.

Bergen Station is the terminus of the Bergen Line, which runs 496 kilometres to Oslo.

Bergen is one of the smallest cities in Europe to have both tram and trolleybus electric urban transport systems simultaneously.

The trolleybus system in Bergen is the only one still in operation in Norway and one of two trolleybus systems in Scandinavia.

Buekorps is a unique feature of Bergen culture, consisting of boys aged from 7 to 21 parading with imitation weapons and snare drums.

Bergen was the host city for the 2017 UCI Road World Championships.

Bergen has been the home of several notable alternative bands, collectively referred to as the Bergen Wave.

Bergen is known as the "black metal capital of Norway", due to its role in the early Norwegian black metal scene and the amount of acts to come from the city in the early 1990s.

Bergen is considered to be the street art capital of Norway.

Each year Bergen sells the Christmas Tree seen in Newcastle's Haymarket as a sign of the ongoing friendship between the sister cities.

Bergen received a totem pole as a gift of friendship from the city of Seattle on the city's 900th anniversary in 1970.