The famous Bryggen historic wharf is in Bergen, Norway.
Bryggen is a row of colorful wooden buildings along Bergen’s harbor. It represents the city’s role as a major trading center of the Hanseatic League, the powerful network of merchant communities that dominated commerce across northern Europe during the Middle Ages.
The buildings visible today reflect repeated rebuilding after fires, because Bergen’s wooden architecture was highly vulnerable to flames. Their narrow forms, gabled fronts, and passageways preserve the character of the medieval trading district.
UNESCO added Bryggen to the World Heritage List in 1979. Visitors sometimes identify the site simply as “the Bergen wharf,” but Bryggen is the specific historic district’s name. It is not a separate town or a fjord.