Bergen (Norway)
According to abbreviationfinder, Bergen is a city and administrative seat of the province of Hordaland, Norway, (2021) 285,600 residents, next to Stavanger the most important port on the Norwegian west coast and for several years the oil metropolis, after Oslo the largest, economically and culturally most important city in Norway; the city was destroyed several times by major fires.
Bergen lies on the inner Byfjord, surrounded by high mountains, on whose slopes rich in precipitation (up to 2,000 mm annually) the city stretches up; the development is now increasingly in the side valleys. Bergen is the seat of a Lutheran bishop and has a university (founded in 1948), business school, Bergen University, art school, conservatory, theater, concert hall »Grieghallen«, numerous museums (including Bryggens Museum with excavated finds; Hanseatic Museum in Finnegård courtyard with documents on the history of the Hanseatic League; cultural history and natural history collections of the university museum; the Grieg Museum, the composer E. Grieg came from Bergen), international music and theater festival; Aquarium. Fisheries and fish farming (“aquacultures”), Trade and shipping, steel production, machine and shipbuilding, textile, food and petroleum industries, bio and petroleum technology, electronics; Tourism; Flesland international airport.
Attractions
The former fortress Bergenhus from the 17th century, into which parts of the medieval royal court were included, so the Håkonshalle (1247–61, gable and staircase 19th century; almost completely destroyed in 1944) and the Rosenkrantzturm (1562–68, at its core) 13th century; damaged in 1944) were rebuilt. Its partially preserved branch “Tyskebryggen” (German Bridge) with merchants’ houses and warehouses (rebuilt after the fire of 1702; UNESCO World Heritage Site) dates from the time of the Hanseatic League. Important church buildings are the Romanesque-Gothic Marienkirche (12th – 13th centuries), a three-aisled basilica with a Gothic choir and a baroque pulpit; the cathedral (begun at the beginning of the 12th century, consecrated in 1248; renovated in 1537 and 1870) and the Kreuzkirche (founded in 1170, current construction from 1593). The town hall dates from 1550. The following are also important in terms of art and culture history: Fantoft stave church (around 1150, heavily restored); Ruins of the Cistercian abbey “Lysekloster” (1146); Open-air museum Gamle Bergen.
History
Founded around 1070, Bergen (Bjørgvin in Old Norwegian “mountain pasture”) had been the Norwegian coronation town since the 12th century. The Hanseatic trading post opened in the 14th century dominated the city and trade until the 16th century.
Bergen is the location of around 500 runic inscriptions (in the area of Bryggen), mostly on wood, from the 13th to 14th centuries. Century, with a clear reference to daily life: trade (owner’s labels, invoices, delivery notes), personal communications (e.g. love letters), as well as Christian prayers and sayings, magical formulas and evidence of poetry.
Natural resources
Due to its geological structure, Norway has numerous ore deposits (sulphidic iron ores, copper, silver, titanium), which have led to the emergence of mining sites in mostly peripheral locations since the early modern era (Kongsberg, Røros, Sulitjelma, Knaben). Due to the exhaustion of the deposits and a lack of competitiveness on the world market, however, almost all mines were abandoned in the course of time. It is only in view of the increased prices for mineral raw materials that investments in mining have been increasing again in recent years.
The greatest economic importance (2016: 13.1% of GDP and 48.6% of export earnings in terms of value) are today crude oil (production since 1971) and natural gas (production since 1977) in the offshore regions. They made Norway one of the richest countries on earth. As early as 1965, Norway, Great Britain and Denmark agreed on the division of the North Sea (up to 62 ° north latitude) according to the center line principle. The secured Norwegian reserves (2016) are estimated at 0.9 billion t (7.6 billion barrels) of oil and 1,800 billion m 3 of gas. The annual production volume of oil is (2016) 90.4 million t; natural gas production is 116.6 billion m 3. The individual fields are connected to one another by a large number of pipelines. Oil and gas are also transported via pipelines to Great Britain, the Norwegian mainland and, above all, to the Central European customer countries. Since the long distance of the gas discoveries in the Barents Sea makes the use of pipelines impossible, a liquefaction plant was built at Hammerfest, which enables transport by means of special tankers. However, the importance of the oil industry for the labor market and thus its regional political effectiveness is low: only around 2.1% of all Norwegian employees work in this industry. However, the oil sector provides around 25% of government revenue. Part of the oil income is invested in a fund, which is intended to facilitate the transition into a post-oil era; it contained (2017) 8 020 billion
