Bergen is a municipality and city in the county of Hordaland, Norway.
Bergen was founded as a city by Olaf Kyrre in AD 1070, and considered to be Norway's capital until 1299, Toward the end of the thirteenth century, Bergen became one of the Hanseatic League's four most important bureaus. The reason for its importance was the trade in dried cod from the northern Norwegian coast, starting up around 1100. The German hanseatic merchants lived in their own separate quarter of town, where low German was spoken, enjoying exclusive rights to trade with the northern fishermen that each summer sailed to Bergen. Today, one still gets a feel of this at the quayside of Bergen called Bryggen, today on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.