TOURING TRONDHEIM


The Stead of Blessing carries many names. Trondheim, Trondhjem, Drontheim, and Nidaros are the most known. Lets take small walk through the city, following the pictures various people have laid out as a path for us on the net. These are all images someone else have wanted to show of their homestead.




[A pictorial walk of the newly reshined docklands area, which is now my occupation, can be found here]

The town square is dominated by a large idol statue of the founder of this city, king Olav Trygvasson. Peculiar then, that the only picture of this phallic town symbol on the net is very small. A Swedish art historian once commented this statue as fascist relic which ought to be destroyed at once. Without hesitation, the city council decided to employ that guy. The king has a nice bloody sword and beheaded slave beside him. Now this is of course not the true founder of Trondheim. The king only stopped to eat in a nice little village and then decided to turn that ensemble of shacks into a great city called Nidaros. The locals had of course known that this was the heart of Norway for centuries. This small decision is somewhat modestly celebrated during the 1000-year anniversary in 1997.

This picture of an average side street city house, is on the other side quite large. This is from Jomfrugata ("Virgin Street"). The owner also publishes details on the innings of their adorable home.


The small wooden houses are typical of the city. They used to be cheap housing for the poor, but now they are luxurious apartments for the nouveaux riches — or simply poorly rehabilitated student rooms.

The tram! This is the most controversial part of Trondheim politics. Currently there is a kind of truce between the anti-tram party (led by the local newspaper and the bus company), and the pro-tram party (led by those who use the tram, the environmentalists and born-again communists gripping their only chance to be elected). I am a true supporter of the tram. Buses stink.

The church of Our Holy Mother. This is the most haunted place in Mid-Norway, according to highly renown parapsychologists. Don't ask me why, but maybe because there's a statue of Tordenskiold ("thundershield") outside it -- the city's answer to Francis Drake and lord Nelson. He killed a lot of people and stole the whole Swedish fleet in a daring manoeuvrer in 1775. Afterwards he got killed in cowardly manner by a mean German aristocrat. He cheated in a duel over some petty insult or whatever.

The promenade street, Nordre. In the old days, before night clubs, city boys walked on one side and city girls on the other. Then the boys whistled, and the girls whined, and suddenly they had three children and a furious mother-in-law. Today people walk all over the street, the cool ones are sitting in the sun while the uncool ones are shopping. Home of a famous cafe and patisserie, offering the probably best chocolate you'll get north of Denmark, plus some local specialties like marzipan-potatoes. Dove-ridden.

Stiftsgården was build by a megalomaniac widow about two hundred years ago. At those times, the rich (and we speak money here) widows had some kind of a competition, which was won by the one who built the largest and most useless house. Too many of these wooden mansions were, well, terminated, to make space for cosy concrete business buildings for the Social Democratic Capitalists Boys' Club which silently controls the doings of this town. This one survived, probably only because it's the king's local residence. It could be that the fact that it is the largest wooden building in Northern Europe had some influence, as well.

The seafarer's museum. Yes, that is an undetonated bomb behind the chain fence. Well, a mine, then, to be totally correct.

The old city hall, for a time a fire station, but now a part of the library. The library is really something special, one of the thing I missed most when I moved to the capital. In the capital, there is no real library, only a pompous storage room for a small selection of popular books.

The portal of happiness. The town song deals a lot about missing your girl friend and the beauty of the river beneath this bridge. The river is actually quite gray and dull, except for the occasional rainbow surfaces caused by diesel from the train garage further up. Still, there's plenty of salmon, also in the parts running through the town center.

Bryggene, the old harbour. They used to be busy trade houses 2-300 years ago -- their main functions today are beer serving, expensive lodgings. and being a general object for pyromaniacs. And of course, they are models for the new wave of Norwegian architecture -- the one which mainly constitutes in using as much glass as technically possible, with marble or grey concrete stuck in between, according to the builder's economy. The finest harbour houses are gone, sadly, the buildings are characteristic and beautiful.

Bakklandet and the cathedral -- overview from the old worker's city, Bakklandet When you walk out of the inner city through the portal of Happiness, you enter Bakklandet. The place was once a classical lower east side working class shantytown, but now is a classical east side rehabilitated-into-the-unimaginable-expensive posh area. This happened when the government decided to refurnish the old buildings as a social measure, and they did it all too well. Accordingly, this is the students' favourite part of town. They rent all the unrefurnished houses.

The strange fortress Kristiansten, still a military show off place, mostly used to fire off noisy salutes whenever the king comes to town -- but most of all it is a beautiful outdoors area for picnicking, football playing, summer parties and outdoor concerts. Military speaking, it is one big bummer. The only shot ever fired never reached its target, and before they got to a second, they city was already overtaken. Never build a stronghold which only fires in one direction.

The Tyholt Tower and Royal Electric Garden, upper east side. The tower was built when somebody figured that a tower with a rotating restaurant on top would be a great idea to promote the town. Unfortunately, the food is only average while the prices are extreme, so nobody really cares much for it of the locals. It looks good, though.
The glass and concrete building in front is called Royal Electric Garden, and is part of the University. The name is a pun on the hotel Royal Garden, due to the probably-more-than-coincidental similarity in architecture. Both buildings are slightly inspired by the old harbour buildings. Naturally, the building is home of the Electrics students.

The cathedral and the archbishops palace, unfortunately the palace is somewhat flamed, half of it burnt down a few years ago. It will be rebuilt though, and probably burnt down again. We do have a slight bit of problems with the anti-clerical movements here in Norway, They have a tendency to set fire to churches without consent. The small white building is a disputed local inn, due to its liberal alcohol practices (they are actually selling it) on holy territory.

Winter view over the cathedral's riverside, taken from the Student's Society, This is where all the young people get drunk during the celebration of the national day. Nasty thing.

The western wall of the Cathedral, with the rose window. That window made it all the way into the town flag, and a discrete silver rose is still used in patriot jewellery.

A box of Snuff. Snuff is a typical thing local people use. This is a box of General, a Swedish brand. Snuff is (very correctly) regarded as a narcotic in all of Europe except Norway and Sweden. It is distasteful, ugly, ruins your teeth, your breath and your chances of getting a cute date -- but who cares. It's good. People here prefers to enjoy life, not ruling it out. Besides, it's tradition.

[A pictorial walk of the newly reshined docklands area, which is now my occupation, can be found here]