Bergen receives rain on roughly 240 days a year, among the wettest cities in Europe, a climate shaped by its position on Norway’s western coast, where moist Atlantic air collides with the surrounding mountains and is forced upward, cooling and releasing near-constant precipitation. Rather than resent it, Bergen has largely built its identity around that weather, locals often joke that Bergen doesn’t have bad weather, only bad clothing choices, and the city’s famously colourful wooden buildings seem almost deliberately designed to brighten an otherwise grey, damp climate.
Bryggen, Bergen’s iconic wharf district, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its rows of tilted, brightly coloured wooden buildings dating back to the Hanseatic League era, when German merchants dominated Bergen’s trade in dried fish, a commercial relationship that shaped the city’s architecture, language, and economy for centuries.
A Gateway Between Mountains and Fjords
Bergen is often called the gateway to Norway’s fjords, its position makes it a natural starting point for reaching some of the country’s most dramatic scenery, including the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest and deepest fjord, just a short journey away. Mount Floyen, reachable by a funicular railway that has operated since 1918, rises directly above the city centre, offering panoramic views across Bergen’s harbour and the seven mountains surrounding it, a natural amphitheatre shaping the city’s compact, walkable layout.
Despite the near-constant rain, Bergen’s harbour rarely freezes, kept ice-free by the Gulf Stream’s moderating influence, allowing the city’s fishing and trading port to remain active essentially year-round, a climatic quirk that made it commercially valuable enough to attract Hanseatic merchants in the first place.
Painting Wood and Water in Grey Light
Bergen’s tilted, colourful wharf buildings against its harbour and surrounding mountains give a watercolourist rich texture and reflective light to work with. We’ve captured that character in our own Bergen Watercolor Print, painted first by hand and printed to order on archival paper, a small piece of Norway for a wall at home.
Built by merchants chasing dried fish through near-constant rain, Bergen remains a city that turned an unforgiving climate into one of Europe’s more distinctive urban personalities.