Old Bergen Museum - Bergen City Museum

About

The open-air Old Bergen Museum is a reconstructed small town consisting of around 50 wooden houses dating from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

About

In the 1800s Bergen was Europe’s biggest wooden city, a distinctive city environment with closely spaced wooden buildings, busy streets, markets and alleys. At old Bergen open air Museum you can experience some of this atmosphere, with houses from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. What did it look like? What did people talk about?

In beautiful natural surroundings you can meet both masters and servants from the past. You can peek in windows, open doors, and walk into exhibitions and historical interiors. The museum’s role players help to bring the site to life and provide answers to some of the questions on how life could have been lived in Bergen one or two hundred years ago. Teatrical plays at the square four times a day.

But the visit should not stop there; old Bergen is a large place! A walk in the surround park is ideal for a sense of peace and quiet and can be visited without a ticket.

Old Bergen Museum also provides the setting for several fantastic fun-filled days for the family, such as Midsummer Night, summerschool etc. With prior notice, it is possible to arrange tours outside of standard opening hours.

The Museum opened in 1946 and was built around the summerhouse "Elsesro" which shipbuilder Rasmus Rolfsen built for his wife Elsebe. The property was owned by the Rolfsen family from 1784 until 1903. Here, the family built a shipyard and a summerhouse, and later a park in the style of a formal English garden. Old Bergen foundation succeeded in establishing the museum as a safe haven for Bergen’s old buildings, which were threatened with being torn down. The houses which now stand in the museum arrived between 1945 and 1981. The open air Museum has today 55 wooden houses, most of which originally stood in the centre of Bergen.

Museumshop and a small cafè where you can buy the famous "bergensk skillingsbolle".

7 minutes by bus from the center or 30 minutes walk. Plan your trip, check bus route on www.skyss.no/en/

Advance bookings for groups only outside ordinary opening hours:
E-mail: gamlebergen@bymuseet.no
Emails are only answered during office hours Monday – Friday. 25% group discount for 10 people or more. Additional costs for guide.

It is free to enter the Bergenhus Festning historic area. Recommended for walking and recreation.

A walk in the surrounding park is ideal for a sense of peace and quiet and can be visited for free.