The Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene - Museum Vest

About

Hanseatic merchants from Northern Germany sailed into Bergen in the 13th century to exchange grain for stockfish from Northern Norway. Their trading activities made Bryggen and Bergen one of Northern Europe’s most important trading hubs for centuries. Today, the Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene belong to the World Heritage Site Bryggen, inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979.

The museum illustrates how the Hanseatic merchants lived, worked and made their mark on Bergen over the course of 400 years. If you wander through Bryggen and explore the beautiful Schøtstuene today, you will get a sense of what Bergen was like during the Hanseatic era. Walking through the narrow alleyways is like travelling back in time. If you listen carefully, maybe you’ll hear young men speaking Low German, rolling barrels and creaking cart wheels carrying stockfish.

Our exhibitions at the Schøtstuene museum and the guided tours enable you to explore all aspects of the Hanseatic merchants’ lives – from their unique trading network to everyday life at Bryggen. Today, Bryggen is Bergen’s greatest cultural gem, and a symbol of the Hanseatic era’s cultural and economic significance. A whole block of wooden buildings dating back to the Hanseatic era, comprising no less than 62 buildings, has been preserved.  

Experience Schøtstuene – the last Hanseatic assembly rooms in the world. 

The beautiful Schøtstuene are unique in a global context and a reminder of a bygone age. The Hanseatic merchants met in these premises to share meals and hold meetings and important discussions. You can visit the new exhibitions, impressive buildings and admire the up to 300-year-old paintings of vines. Sound installations and smell boxes take you back to the Bergen of the Middle Ages and give you a sense of the atmosphere of the Hanseatic era. 

The historical surroundings provide an insight into the everyday life of the merchants at Schøtstuene, their impressive trading network and the history of the buildings themselves. You will also find Bergen’s perhaps best kept secret under a glass floor – a Medieval ruin dating from around 1280, which was discovered when the museum was founded 148 years ago.  

The Schøtstuene assembly rooms are situated right beside the Hanseatic merchants’ main church, St. Mary’s Church, and are set in a charming garden. The museum has a universal design. 

Guided tours of Schøtstuene

You can learn more about Bergen as a trading city by taking the museum’s guided tour. Why did the Hanseatic merchants set up an office here? What was everyday life like at Bryggen? What was their significance for Bergen as a European trading hub? A historical walk in the footsteps of the Hanseatic merchants together with our guides will make your visit to the museum even more memorable. You can read more about the guided tours at Schøtstuene here.

Restoration of the museum’s largest object – the Finnegården museum building

After almost 150 years’ operation as a museum, Finnegården 1a is now undergoing extensive renovation to preserve the building for the future. Finnegården is one of Bryggen’s oldest and best preserved buildings, and the exhibition ‘Bevar meg vel’ at Schøtstuene provides an insight into the extensive work that takes place during the restoration of a museum on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. You will find information about the Hanseatic era and the extensive restoration process on the fence in front of Finnegården.