Bergen, a fortified seaport in the west of Norway, and the second city of the kingdom, in the province of the same name, situated on a promontory at the head of a deep bay, and, with the exception of the north-east side, where lofty mountains inclose it, surrounded by water. The harbour is safe and commodious, and around it the town is built, presenting a picturesque appearance from the sea, with its wooden houses of various colours. It has a cathedral, various churches, schools, hospitals, and public institutions; and is the seat of a bishop, and the station of a naval squadron. The museum has valuable collections of Norse antiquities and specimens of
Norwegian fishes. The chief manufactures of Bergen are gloves, tobacco, porcelain, leather, soap, and cordage. It has numerous distilleries, and several shipbuilding yards. Its principal trade, however, is the export of stockfish, herrings, and fish-oil and roe. Twice a year, the Norlandmen come to Bergen with their fish, receiving in exchange for them such articles of necessity or luxury as they require. The annual value of the stockfish exported from this port is about £450,000. In addition, it exports about half a million barrels of herrings and 20,000 barrels of cod-liver oil. There is constant steam communication with Copenhagen, the Baltic ports, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Hull, Newcastle, and New York. Since 1883 Bergen has been connected by railway with the north of the Hardangerfjord. The chief imports are brandy, wine, corn, cotton, woollens, hemp, sugar, tobacco, coffee, &c. The climate is exceedingly humid, but not unhealthy; the yearly rainfall is 89 inches, and the temperature averages 46° F. Bergen, formerly called Björgvin ('the pasture betwixt the mountains'), was founded about 1070 by Olaf Kyrre, who made it the second city in his kingdom, and it was soon raised to the first rank. English and Scottish traders were early displaced here by the merchants of the Hanse towns, who continued to exercise and abuse their monopoly until their supremacy was broken by an act issued by Frederick II. of Denmark in 1560; and in 1763 their last warehouse fell into the hands of a citizen of Bergen. In the 13th century, Bergen had thirty churches and religious houses, but these have been mostly swept away in the numerous conflagrations which have devastated it from 1189 to 1855. The town was long the most important trading town of Norway, but has been recently surpassed by Christiania. The castle of Bergenhus was till 1397 the residence of the Norwegian kings. Bergen was the birthplace of Holberg, the painter, Dahl, Wellhaven, and Ole Bull. Pop. (1891) 52,083.