Photo: Arve Kjersheim, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage
Inscribed on World Heritage List in 1979
The properties on Bryggen were composed of one or two long rows of houses with a common passageway. They were combined dwelling and storage houses. Each property had a dock area of its own with a storehouse and a luffing-jib crane. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did the traditional use of the Bryggen area come to an end. With the changes in commercial relations and new means of communication, a 700-800 year long tradition was broken.
Bryggen in Bergen was protected under the Cultural Heritage Act in 1927. 64 buildings, 61 of them are protected under the Cultural Heritage Act, are preserved after slum clearance, war damage and several fires, the latest in 1955 and 1958.