Bryggen
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How it came to be
Bryggen is the old harbour district of Bergen in Norway. The town of Bergen arose in the 11th century, and one of the earliest piers here has been dated to around 1100. By the 12th century the district was already a centre of trade.
Around 1350 the Hanseatic League set up a kontor in Bergen and gradually came to own the district. Through royal privileges its merchants controlled the stockfish trade from northern Norway, exchanging the dried fish for grain. The kontor's operations ended in 1754, when its properties passed to Norwegian citizens. Of the League's four overseas offices, this is the only one whose buildings survive.
The district burned many times and was rebuilt each time on the same plan and with the same techniques; most of what stands today dates from after the fire of 1702. A fire in 1955 was followed by thirteen years of excavation, which brought to light some 670 runic inscriptions on wood and bone, one of them reading "my darling, kiss me". Bryggen was inscribed in 1979.
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