Bryggen
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Transcript
Bryggen — roughly BRIG-en — is a row of timber buildings whose narrow passages preserve the organisation of a medieval and early modern trading quarter.
German Hanseatic merchants established their kontor in Bergen in the fourteenth century. They specialised especially in exporting stockfish from northern Norway and importing grain, cloth, beer and other goods.
A kontor was not an embassy and not simply a branch office. It was a privileged merchant community with rules, internal hierarchy and connections to home cities in the Hanseatic network.
The present buildings are not all medieval originals. Bryggen suffered major fires, especially in 1702, and was repeatedly rebuilt on older patterns. UNESCO values that continuity of urban structure as well as individual fabric.
Wooden cities have an odd relationship with authenticity: they survive by replacing themselves.