Bergen

Bergen is a city in Norway. It sits by the sea, with hills and mountains all around.

Only Oslo has more people in Norway.

Bergen lies on the west coast of Norway, at the end of a fjord called the Byfjord, Universalis says. Like Rome, it is known as a city of seven hills: houses fill a narrow strip of flat land by the water and climb the slopes behind it. Its old name, Bjorgvin, means 'the meadow among the mountains'.

On 1 January 2026, 294,860 people lived in Bergen, according to Statistics Norway. Only Oslo, with 728,714, has more.

Statistics Norway (via City Population): Bergen municipality 207,922 (1 January 1986), 229,496 (2000), 267,950 (2013), 283,929 (2020) and 294,860 (1 January 2026), rank 2 after Oslo (728,714), ahead of Trondheim (218,460).

Universalis: as the etymology says (bjorgvin, the meadow in the middle of the mountains), Bergen, like Rome, is a city of seven hills; at the head of the Byfjord in a mountainous region of southwest Norway, it is packed onto a narrow platform surrounded by water and onto the hillsides that come down to the sea.

Look at the fountain splashing in the lake! Behind the buildings is a big green mountain with a tall mast on top.

This photo was taken on 31 May 2016, looking across a lake in the center of Bergen. A fountain sprays on the right. Along the shore are lawns, trees and buildings, from a building with a red roof to modern office blocks.

Behind them rises a green mountain with a tall mast on its top. Bergen's old harbor district, Bryggen, with its rows of wooden houses by the harbor, is about 0.6 kilometers north of the city's center point on Wikidata.

Commons: '00 4400 View over the store Lungegårdsvann - Bergen (Norway)', 31 May 2016, own work by W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the picture: a lake with a multi-jet fountain and gulls; a lawn and trees along the shore; a building with a red tiled roof; a glass-fronted tower block; a long white building at right; houses on a wooded slope at left with a yellow crane; a green mountain with a mast on its summit.

A composer, Edvard Grieg, was born in Bergen. A composer writes music. Many visitors come to see the old wooden houses.

Bergen has many kinds of work, Universalis says: its port, factories that build ships and make chemicals, machines, cloth and food, and its role as a center of culture and tourism.

Fires have burned parts of the city many times, but many old places survive, such as Bergenhus. Bergen is the birthplace of the writer Ludvig Holberg and the composer Edvard Grieg.

Universalis: activities are many: an important port for trade, fishing and passengers; varied industries (shipbuilding, chemicals, electromechanics, textiles, canneries, food); a cultural and tourist center. Despite the fires that devastated the city many times, many remains of its history survive (Bergenhus). Bergen is the birthplace of the writer Ludvig Holberg and the composer Edvard Grieg. In 2008 it was, with 240,000 inhabitants, the country's second urban area.