Bergen, Norway Travel HD - Bergen, Norway Tours HD Travel Videos HD, World Travel Guide http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=World1Tube Bergen, Norway is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. As of 18 February 2014, the municipality had a population of 271,800 and the Greater Bergen Region had a population of 399,500, making Bergen the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers an area of 465 square kilometres (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are located on Byfjorden and the city is surrounded by mountains. For this reason, Bergen is known as the city of seven mountains. Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are located on islands. Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Årstad, Åsane, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg and Ytrebygda. Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, but the city was not incorporated until approximately 1070. It served as Norway's capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad. The remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site. The city was hit by numerous fires. The Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936 and the University of Bergen in 1946. From 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county. In 1972 the municipality absorbed four surrounding municipalities, and at the same time became a part of Hordaland county. The city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, tourism and finance. The city's main football team is SK Brann and the city's unique tradition is the buekorps. Natives speak the distinct Bergensk dialect. The city features Bergen Airport, Flesland, the Bergen Light Rail and is the terminus of the Bergen Line; Bergen Port is Norway's busiest. Four large bridges connect Bergen to its suburban municipalities. History Bergen, Norway The city of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardråde in 1070 AD four years after the Viking Age ended. Modern research has, however, discovered that a trading settlement was established already during the 1020s or 1030s. Bergen gradually assumed the function of capital of Norway in the early 13th century, as the first city where a rudimentary central administration was established. The city's cathedral was the site of the first royal coronation in Norway in the 1150s, and continued to host royal coronations throughout the 13th century. The functions of capital city were lost to Oslo during the reign of King Haakon V (1299--1319). In the middle of the 14th century, North German merchants who had already been present in substantial numbers since the 13th century, founded one of the four kontors of the Hanseatic League at Bryggen in Bergen. The principal export traded from Bergen was dried cod from the northern Norwegian coast, which started around 1100. The city was granted monopoly in regards to trade from the North of Norway, by king Håkon Håkonsson (1217-1263).Stockfish was the main reason that the city became one of North Europe's largest centers for trade at the time. By the late 14th century, Bergen had established itself as the centre of the trade in Norway. The Hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarter of town, where Middle Low German was used, enjoying exclusive rights to trade with the northern fishermen that each summer sailed to Bergen.Today, Bergen's old quayside, Bryggen, is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. In 1349, the Black Death was inadvertently brought to Norway by the crew of an English ship arriving in Bergen. In the 15th century, the city was attacked several times by the Victual Brothers, and in 1429 they succeeded in burning the royal castle and much of the city. In 1665, the city's harbour was the site of the Battle of Vågen, where an English naval flotilla attacked a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet supported by the city's garrison. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, Bergen remained one of the largest cities in Scandinavia, and was Norway's biggest city until the 1830s, when the capital city of Oslo became the largest. From around 1600, the Hanseatic dominance of the city's trade gradually declined in favour of Norwegian merchants (often of Hanseatic ancestry), and in the 1750s, the Hanseatic Kontor finally closed. Bergen retained its monopoly of trade with Northern Norway until 1789. ============= Visit Bergen, Travel Bergen, Tours Bergen, Vacation Bergen, Tourism Bergen, Bergen HD, History Bergen, Norwegian Coastal Voyage, Norwegian Coastal Cruises, Visit Norway, Travel Norway, Tours Norway, Vacation Norway

• published: 14 May 2014
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