Bergen Facts

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with 380 000 inhabitants (2009) including the surrounding areas. Counting only the city area, there are 250 000 citizens. Bergen is called "The city between the seven mountains" - which also can be seen in the city's coat of arms (below). It is also called "City of Rain" because of the heavy rainfall throughout all seasons. In 2007 it was raining constantly for 84 days in a row witout break.

Bergen is the main city on the west coast and is typically regarded as a rival to the capital Oslo on the eastern side. Because of the large mountain areas dividing the western and eastern parts of Norway the two regions developed distinct differences in culture and language. Today the eastern part of norway dominated by Oslo is mostly focused on services and technology, you will find the majority of industrial companies based with their operations on the west coast, typically within offshore and shipping.

The city is connected by ferries to numerous domestic destinations along the coast as well as to UK and Denmark. There is a number of direct flights to Bergen Airport Flesland (BGO) and you can also reach Bergen by train from Oslo in about 6-7 hours.

Bergen played a historically very important role in the north of Europe as one of the busiest trading ports controlled by the Hanseatic League for several hundred years. As well, Bergen served as the capital when Norway was at it's hight of power when Haakon Haakonsson ruled over large overseas areas to the west.

The traditional building material is wood, and because of this there have been several fires up through the centuries. This is also the reason why Bergen is quite a mix of different styles and shapes and can seem a bit caothic in terms of architectual consistency.

More facts about Bergen

Bergen Oil Industry

City of Rain