A guided city walk is a brilliant way to explore Stavanger’s many hidden treasures. In the company of local experts, we’ll listen intently and let ourselves be surprised by the stories lurking in the city’s streets.
Discover Stavanger’s highlights with a guide
Discover Old Stavanger, comprising 173 wooden houses from the late 1700s and early 1800s. This is actually Europe’s largest collection of wooden houses, and Stavanger has received several awards for the preservation of Old Stavanger. This residential area is characterised by residents who are proud of their houses and gardens – here, most houses are adorned in summer with a beautiful sea of flowers and well-tended gardens – most of the houses are small and painted white.
We pass the modern Øvre Holmegate, popularly known as Fargegaten – the street where all the houses are painted in vibrant colours. Here you’ll find unique niche shops, cafés and art galleries. Further on, we pass Valbergtårnet – a former watchtower for the city’s night watchmen, built between 1850 and 1853 – and Stavanger Cathedral – the only Norwegian cathedral from the Middle Ages to have retained its original architecture, and the only one that has been in continuous use since the 14th century. Nearby stands the famous statue of Alexander Kielland, one of the great authors of Norwegian literature.
We hear useful and useless anecdotes about Stavanger’s stagnation and progress. From the city’s founding, through the industrial eras of herring and tinned goods, right up to today’s modern oil city – this is the tour that showcases the breadth of the past and present.
