Bergen is in the county of Hordaland on the south-western coast of Norway. It is an important cultural hub in its region, recognized as the unofficial capital of Western Norway and sometimes also referred to as the Atlantic coast capital of Norway.
The Hanseatic buildings
Foreigners, such as the Low German speaking merchants of the Hanseatic League who lived in Bergen in the period from about 1350 to 1750, have had a profound impact on the dialect.
Rear of the Hanseatic buildings. The buildings were built three and four rows deep.
Fantoft Stave Church
The church was originally built around the year 1150 at Fortun inSogn, a village near the inner or eastern end of Sognefjord. In 1879, the new Fortun Church (Fortun kyrkje) was constructed as a replacement for the medieval stave church.
Fantoft Stave Church was threatened with demolition, as were hundreds of other stave churches in Norway. Fantoft Stave Church was bought by consul and saved by moving it in pieces to Fana near Bergen in 1883.
On 6 June 1992, the church was destroyed by arson. Reconstruction of the church began soon after the fire, taking six years to complete.
Stone cross outside Fantoft Stave Church
Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric.
We listened to a Grieg mini-concert at the museum. Some of his piano miniatures.
Grieg lived here until his death. He wrote most of his best music in a small building a dozen feet away overlooking this lake.
Travels with us 