Strandgaten, Bergen

Strandgaten is a street in the city centre of Bergen, Norway, west of the bay of Vågen.

[2] After one of the many great fires that throughout the centuries have ravaged Bergen destroyed the easternmost part of Strandgaten in 1561, Erik Rosenkrantz, governor of Bergenhus len, ordered the creation of a broad street (an "allmenning") which would prevent future fires from spreading.

Torgallmenningen (formerly Vågsallmenningen), Vetrlidsallmenningen, Korskirkeallmenningen, and many other streets in the old part of Bergen were created for the same reason.

The reconstruction plans included a new street layout, which better conformed to the ideals of the era, rather than those of 1756, when the area had last burned.

[1][5][6] The Jewish community in Bergen consisted of around 60 persons in the years before World War II, who in total owned six retail stores in Strandgaten.

On 20 April 1944, the German steam trawler Voorbode, loaded with dynamite, exploded in Vågen, and destroyed the area around Tollboden and Nykirken, as well as a large number of houses in the surrounding neighbourhoods and on the other side of the bay.

The western half of Strandgaten, west of Holbergsallmenningen, was rebuilt after World War II.

The home of Edvard Grieg's family, where he grew up, was located in this part of Strandgaten, but it was destroyed when the steam trawler Voorbode exploded in 1944.