6 best museums in Bergen

Museums in Bergen

Gallery · Sentrum

1.KODE art museums

KODE is one of Scandinavia's largest museums of art, design and music, spread across buildings on the shore of Lille Lungegårdsvann lake.

Time needed

2–3 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• Art
• Rainy day
• Iconic

Museum · Bryggen

2.Bryggens Museum

Built over the excavated remains of Bergen's earliest buildings, the museum displays the foundations of 12th-century wharf houses and finds from the medieval city, including runic inscriptions carved on wooden sticks that record everyday messages, trade deals and love notes.

Time needed

1–1.5 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• History
• Rainy day

Museum · Paradis

3.Troldhaugen

Edvard Grieg's Victorian villa above Lake Nordås, about 8 km south of the centre, where the composer lived for 22 years.

Time needed

2–3 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• History
• Art
• Couples
• Outdoors

Museum · Sandviken

4.Old Bergen Museum

An open-air museum of about 50 wooden houses from the 18th to 20th centuries, moved here from central Bergen to form a reconstructed small town with a square, shops, a dentist's surgery and a bakery.

Time needed

1.5–2 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• History
• Kids
• Outdoors

Museum · Møhlenpris

5.VilVite Science Centre

Bergen's hands-on science centre has interactive exhibits on energy, the body, weather and the ocean, including a section on oil and gas off the Norwegian coast, a 360-degree bicycle loop and experiments that children can try themselves.

Time needed

2–3 hours

Cost

Mid-priced

• Kids
• Rainy day

Museum · Nygårdshøyden

6.University Museum of Bergen

The university's natural history museum reopened in 2019 after a long renovation, with whale skeletons, Norwegian wildlife dioramas, geology and an exhibition on the history of life.

Time needed

1.5 hours

Cost

Low cost

• Kids
• Rainy day
• Nature

Grouped by area

Booking and timing

Of these 6, 1 low cost, 5 mid-priced. None needs booking far in advance. The longest visit is KODE art museums; group the rest by area to save travel time.

How to fit them into 3 half-days

Grouped by area and kept to about four hours each, so you walk more than you ride.

• Half-day 1 (Sentrum and Bryggen): KODE art museums → Bryggens Museum, at least 3 hours.
• Half-day 2 (Paradis and Sandviken): Troldhaugen → Old Bergen Museum, at least 4 hours.
• Half-day 3 (Møhlenpris and Nygårdshøyden): VilVite Science Centre → University Museum of Bergen, at least 4 hours.

The quietest months for queues

• February: highs of 4°C (39°F), about 16 rainy days, very quiet crowds. Still dark and damp, with occasional snow that rarely lasts in the city.
• January: highs of 4°C (39°F), about 19 rainy days, very quiet crowds. Dark, wet and windy, with daylight of about six hours; quiet and good for museums and cosy cafés.
• April: highs of 10°C (50°F), about 15 rainy days, quiet crowds. Spring arrives with blossom and some of the drier spells of the year; Easter is quiet as many Norwegians head to the mountains.

The neighbourhoods they are in

• Sentrum — Torgallmenningen, shopping streets and the KODE museums by the lake
• Sandviken — Old warehouses and wooden houses along the fjord north of Bryggen
• Nygårdshøyden and Møhlenpris — The university hill, museums, students and cafés

More of Bergen

All things to do in Bergen · Where to stay · When to go.

Questions travellers ask