Bhalisa 4 | Bergen | Local Arrangements

Sunday, June 26 | Guided tour of Bryggen focusing on the Hanseatic League’s place in the city’s identity by Professor Geir Atle Ersland starting at 12:00. 

Guided Tour of Bergen

Bergen was founded in 1070 and is rich in history, culture and traditions.Today Bergen is an international center for aquaculture, shipping, the offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national center for higher education, media, tourism andfinance, and the port is Norway’s busiest in terms of both freight and passengers, with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen.

From the 12 th century Bergen was the preferred seat of the Norwegian kings. A century laterHanseatic merchants were granted extraterritorial privileges in Bergen by the Norwegian king,and until the mid-18 th century they had a colony, or guild, in Bergen.They were often referred to as the German Office, similar to German merchant colonies inLondon, Bruges and Novgorod.The colony of Hanseatic merchants left deep and lasting impressions in Bergen, one of which is what remains of “Bryggen”, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We have been fortunate enough to engage Geir Atle Ersland (https://www.uib.no/personer/Geir.Atle.Ersland), a distinguished professor and researcher in medieval history at the University of Bergen, to take us on a tour of Bryggen on Sunday, June26th , to talk about the Hanseatic colony and urban identity. He is at present working on a project concerned with the legal culture of the Hanseatic office.

The “walk-about” on Sunday June 26 will start at 12 noon from Nikolaikirke Almenneningen(https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Nikolaikirkeallmenningen,+5003+Bergen//@60.3972278,5.3252624,20z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m5!1m1!1s0x463cfea777bf02c3:0x6ef1f4f81ad37dbc!2m2!1d5.3251884!2d60.3972753!1m0) and will last approximately for two hours.

Can you please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to join the tour? Kind regards, Mia