Top 10 Historic Sites in Bergen, Western Norway

Enchanting residence of the composer Edvard Grieg and his wife, who lived there every summer from 1885 to 1907. The museum also comprises the chamber music hall, Troldsalen, where daily concerts are held during the summer season. Museum building with shop, exhibition and cafeteria.

We are very happy to present this beautiful classical summer house to our visitors. In the 1700s, Bergen was a large, busy and rich city. The city’s upper classes adopted trends from the continent and established elaborate, aristocratic homes in the countryside. By 1800 one would find around 70 of these summer houses in the countryside surrounding Bergen, and Damsgard was the most stunning. Damsgard Country Mansion, as it appears today, was built in the 1770s for General War Commissioner and General Customs Manager Joachim Christian Geelmuyden (1730-1795). Geelmuyden was knighted in 1783, and took the name Gyldenkrant. The house he built at Damsgard is still considered to be a masterpiece of Rococco architecture in wood in Norway, and it is perhaps Europe’s most authentic wooden building from that period. Garden exhibition can be visited all trough the opening hours. Access only to the garden.

One of the most important monuments of the Renaissance. Close to Hakon’s hall lies the Rosenkrantz Tower, which is considered to be the most important Renaissance era monument in Norway. Parts of the tower are from the 1270s, but it has been built upon several times, both for defensive purposes and as a demonstration of power over the wilful Hanseatic merchants. Closed 21.12.20 - 09.01.21

Visit Hakon’s Hall this summer. We hold short introductions every hour to give you an impression of life behind the thick stone walls. Hakon’s Hall is over 750 years old and is packed with history. Through its golden age, decay and resurrection. The hall was built between 1247 and 1261 by King Hakon Hakonsson as a royal residence and banquet hall. This was important to the king as his own coronation ceremony was held in a big boat shed. It apparently rained a lot in Bergen even in the Middle Ages! When the King’s son, Magnus Hakonsson the Lawmender, married the Danish princess Ingeborg in 1261, tables were set for 2,000 persons in three different buildings. According to the sagas, ‘The Kings kept their courts in the stone hall’. At the time, Bergen was Norway’s biggest and most important city, and Hakon’s Hall was the scene of many important national political events. One of them was the formulation of Norway’s first collection of laws. 1.-5.04, 11., 21.04, 1., 8., 13., 17.05