Bryggens Museum - Bymuseet i Bergen — Attraction in Bergen

Bryggens Museum presents a history of Bergen through its on-site excavation, a wide variety of very historic artifacts, an interesting display of the city's development over the centuries, and (upstairs) a detailed look at the history of Norway's laws, charters, and procedures.

The artifacts were truly fascinating — shoes dating back almost 1,000 years, hats from the 1200s, woven fabric and weaving tools, plenty of pottery and cutlery, fighting instruments (from hatchets to mace heads), intricately bound wooden kegs (they look fairly recent), a large wooden spoon (1100s), and more. Also captivating is the visual display and animation. of Bergen's growth over the centuries and its history of destructive fires.

Another feature is the area with runes samples, their translations, and descriptions of the rune language. Not only do you learn more about the runic alphabet; these personal messages connect us to the lives of Bergen residents (Bergensar?) many centuries ago.

The upper floor celebrates Norway’s historic “Laws of the Land” statute (written 750 years ago). It also discusses the law’s earlier origins, subsequent revisions, taxation activities, citizen obligations (e.g., weapon assemblies), and various legal charters. Some samples and replications of original documents are shown, along with other interesting artifacts. The calendar stick (around 1600s) particularly caught our attention. This area of the museum probably relies too much on textual displays, but what I read was quite illuminating.

The cafe was an excellent place to enjoy a light meal in a pleasantly quiet location. Staff in the gift shop and cafe were wonderful.

We visited in...

Interesting museum with lovely friendly staff and had an enjoyable visit to cafe for coffee and cake. The museum itself was well laid out and full of very interesting artifacts but unfortunately many of the exhibits were poorly lit with descriptions placed in difficult areas which made them hard to read. It was very warm inside possibly due to high numbers of visitors arriving on tour buses, so a bit claustrophobic. There were a few tours inside the museum on the go and the person showing around sounded very knowledgeable but we weren't sure whether ok to stand and listen at same time. As there was only one toilet on the entry floor prior to people entering after purchasing tickets there was a large queue. The museum is also quite expensive, so I would recommend maybe visiting on a quieter day when not so many cruises...

This museum explained the history of Bryggen (how fire distroied the city and how it was rebuilt), together with archeology items. It's very impressive that the museum is located on an archeology site of burned down wooden buildings. When we visited there, we participated in a guide of "Runes" (ancient alphabet). The guide kindly introduced the whole museum before we arrived the exhibition of Runes. From his explanations, we understood the history of this city, why people here took the risk of fire to build wooden buildings, and how important the city was for the international trading history in medieval period. The guide explained Runes clearly. Thus we know how people use these alphabet in ancient times. The nice carved ships on a piece of wood are also introduced by him. Thanks for the guide, we learned a...