Photo: Bjoertvedt (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Bergen from the cathedral quarter across the town centre to the tip of the Nordnes peninsula. It starts at the tower of Nonneseter, a Cistercian convent of nuns first named in 1262 and probably founded around 1150, and St Jørgen's Hospital, a home for people with leprosy, and goes up to Stadsporten, the only town gate Bergen ever built, its foundation stone laid in 1628. By the cathedral come the Latin School rebuilt after the fire of 1702, the medieval street line of Lille Øvregaten and Christi Krybbe School, founded for the poorest children of the parish. In the centre are Ludvig Holberg's statue of 1884, the old courthouse of 1864, the Seamen's Monument on Torgallmenningen, Muren, built after the fire of 1561 beside the open street cut to stop fires spreading, the Gestapo House at Veiten 3 and Den Nationale Scene, the theatre that began on Ole Bull's initiative in 1850. On Nordnes the walk visits the watchmen's Corps de Garde of 1794, Klosteret, where King Øystein founded the monastery of Munkeliv around 1110, Fredriksberg, built after the Battle of Vågen in 1665, Tollboden, the Aquarium of 1960 and Nordnesparken, and ends at Heksesteinen, the memorial to those burned as witches. It starts about twenty-five minutes' walk from the Skolten cruise quay and about twenty from Jekteviken, so keep an eye on the time to get back to the ship.
19 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 206 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 103 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Nonneseter Abbey Tower, St Jørgen's Hospital, Stadsporten, The Old Latin School, Lille Øvregaten, Christi Krybbe School, Holberg Statue, Det gamle tinghuset, Sjømannsmonumentet.
Muren, Gestapo House at Veiten 3, Den Nationale Scene.
Corps de Garde, Klosteret and the Munkeliv site, Fredriksberg Fort, Tollboden, Bergen Aquarium, Nordnesparken, Heksesteinen.
The base of the west tower of Nonneseter, once the richest convent of women in Norway, dated by its style to around the 1120s or 1130.
Bergen's only town gate, its foundation stone laid on 6 August 1628 to control the road coming in from Kalfaret.
One of the oldest stone houses on this side of the harbour, built after the fire of 1561 beside the broad street cut to stop fire spreading.
The square named after the Benedictine monastery of Munkeliv, founded by King Øystein around 1110, whose remains lie underground.
The fort on the highest point of Nordnes, built as a lesson from the battle of 2 August 1665 between an English squadron and a Dutch fleet.
The Witch Stone at the old place of execution, remembering the 350 people its inscription says were burned at the stake between 1550 and 1700.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 19 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 19 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Bergen — Nordnes, Klosteret and the Cathedral Quarter, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
19 narration points, including Tollboden, Bergen Aquarium, Nordnesparken, Nonneseter Abbey Tower and St Jørgen's Hospital. That is about 18 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 19 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.