Tromsø is the largest city and the regional center in Northern Norway. The town’s history started when Håkon Håkonsson built a church on Tromsøya in 1252 to mark the area as Norwegian land. Skansen, which was a medieval castle for protection against attacks from Karelia and Russia, also dates from this time. Tromsø became an ecclesiastical city that attracted people from all over the area to church services, and this brought trade and the need for accommodation, and this led to development of a town and community.

However, Tromsø remained a border town on the Norwegian outskirts, and that only changed when the border between Norway and Russia moved towards the Kola Peninsula. Centuries passed, and when Bergen’s trade monopoly ended in 1789, Tromsø’s trade flourished, but fewer than 100 people still lived in the city. In 1794, Christian VII granted Tromsø city rights, and at the beginning of the 19th century Tromsø became the regional episcopal seat, and a fishing boom started in the city, which was expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century, a development that continues to this day.

Today, the center of Tromsø is located on the southeast coast of Tromsøya, and it is a pleasant and well-arranged city center where you can enjoy some nice walks. In several places in the city, you can notice the many wooden houses that stand between Tromsø’s modern buildings. The city’s cathedral is also built of wood, and it is in the middle of Tromsø surrounded by Kirkeparken, which has been a burial ground since the Middle Ages. The cathedral was built in 1861 according to Christian Heinrich Grosch’s fine design. The interior is beautiful with stained glass windows and Christen Brun’s altar piece of Jesus’ resurrection as highlights.

A little north of Tromsø Cathedral you can see Church of Our Lady/Vår Frue Kirke, the city’s Catholic cathedral. Church of Our Lady is a small church that was built in wood in 1861 as the Protestant cathedral. In Tromsø you can also see the Arctic Cathedral, which lies to the east on the other side of the Tromsø Sound. The cathedral is formally called Tromsdalen Church, and it was constructed in beautiful modern architecture in 1965. It is known for the Return of Christ, which is a colossal glass mosaic that was put up the gable of the church.

In Tromsø you can take a walk along the harbor and enjoy the city’s maritime atmosphere and the view across the water to the northern Norwegian mountains. At Stortorget square you can walk west into the city, where Vår Frue Kirke is located. Opposite the church you can see Tromsø’s cultural center and the city’s town hall. Both are set in modern buildings, and behind the town hall is Tromsø’s library, which is housed in one of the city’s most characteristic buildings. The library opened in 2005 with a new building under the Fokus Kino cinema’s wavy roof structure from 1973.

The roof is designed as arches that form a hyperbolic paraboloid shape. Fokus Kino was built into the new town hall complex on the same occasion. On the parallel street Storgata you can see another beautiful cinema, the World Theatre, which is one of Northern Europe’s oldest cinemas in continuous operation. The theater was built in 1915, and the following year the World Theater opened its doors, and there are still film screenings in the atmospheric cinema. A detail in the cinema is the preserved orchestra pit, a relic from the time when silent movies were made, which were accompanied by live music.

In the northern part of the center, you can see the preserved parts of Skansen, which was Tromsø’s medieval castle. Today, only Skansen’s fortress walls have been preserved, while the buildings on Skansen are not the original ones from the time of the fortress. However, they are still the oldest preserved houses in Tromsø, dating back to 1789, and over time they have been used as, among other things, customs booth, hospital, school and city museum. Skansen is located like an island in the city, and it was originally built on a headland in the Tromsø Sound with water on three sides and a moat facing the city.

Today, Skansen is as a venue used for various cultural activities. There are several museums in Tromsø, where you can learn about the history of the city and the region. At the Polar Museum, Tromsø’s history as a center for Arctic fishing and as a starting point for several polar expeditions is depicted. You can also visit the Perspektivet Museum, located in a building from 1838, and Polaria, which is a modern Arctic experience center with an interesting aquarium, the Tromsø Museum with culture and natural science. You might also like a visit to the Tromsø Arctic-Alpine Botanical Garden, which due to the city’s northern location is particularly interesting.