About the building

Upon completion in 1896, ‘The Permanent Exhibition Building’ became Bergen’s new cultural centre.

Architect Henry Bucher gave the building a neo renaissance façade and included Norwegian natural stone in the details.

This and other nationalistically resonant building practices were significant in the years immediately prior to 1905, when Norway’s union with Sweden was dissolved.

The façade
On the façade there are reliefs symbolising different crafts and art forms. In the central part of the façade is a niche with a bronze sculpture of the painter J.C. Dahl, by the sculptor Ambrosia Tønnesen. A large granite stairway leads up to the main doors and inside to the main vestibule of the museum.

The West Norway Museum of Decorative Art
Permanenten was initially shared by The West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, the Trade- and Industry Association, Bergen Picture Gallery, Bergen Art Association and the Norwegian Fisheries Museum. Today The West Norway Museum of Decorative Art has the privilege of using the whole building. Since 1987 it has undergone extensive rehabilitation and now a new main entrance is open on the street level.

Permanenten is today a modern museum building with large exhibition spaces and climate-controlled storage halls. The building is owned by the municipality of Bergen.

Trond Indahl

By: Kari Skarprud Pettersen
6-11 2007