Bergen Norway: Encyclopedia II - Bergen Norway - History

Bergen Norway - History

Bergen was founded as a city by Olaf Kyrre in AD 1070, and considered to be Norway's capital until 1299, Toward the end of the thirteenth century, Bergen became one of the Hanseatic League's four most important bureaus. The reason for its importance was the trade in dried cod from the northern Norwegian coast, starting up around 1100. The German hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarter of town, where low German was spoken, enjoying exclusive rights to trade with the northern fishermen that each summer sailed to Bergen. Today, one still gets a feel of this at the quayside of Bergen called Bryggen, today on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.

In 1349, the Black Death was introduced to Norway by the crew of an English ship arriving Bergen. In 1429 descendants of the Victual Brothers attacked Bergen with some ships, plundered the town and burned it down. In 1536, the king was able to force the German merchants to become Norwegian citizens or return home, heralding a decline in the German influence.

Throughout the 15th and 16th century, Bergen remained the biggest city in the Nordic countries, and it remained Norway's biggest city until 1850, when overtaken by Oslo. Bergen retained its monopoly of trade of Northern Norway until 1789.

In 1916, parts of the city centre were destroyed by a devastating fire. In 1944, during the German occupation, a German warship anchored off the Bergenhus fortress, filled with explosives, blew up, killing many people and damaging historic buildings.

In 1972, Bergen was unified with neighbouring boroughs, thereby getting its present boundaries.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki