The world’s largest Gingerbread Town

The Gingerbread Town is the worlds largest, with approximately 2000 houses. The first Gingerbread Town in Bergen was made in 1991. Every year since, kindergartens, schools, private persons, offices, organizations are all contributing with their gingerbread houses.

Entering the Gingerbread Town, I immediately feel the sweet and spicy smell. The dimmed blue light mixed with the warm lights inside the houses and the white cotton snow, brings me right in the setting of a cozy dark winter night – lit up by the bright snow.

Christmas carols are playing in the background, only interrupted by the enthusiastic voices of happy children (and adults) exploring the gingerbread installations.

The colorful decorations on the houses are charmingly uneven dotted on by hundreds of children all over town. It makes me wonder how many kilos of chocolate and other candy there is in total in this fantasy town… It brings me back to my childhood, remembering when I too used to decorate the gingerbread house we had at home. For every piece of candy I put on the house, another one quickly ended up in my mouth. I can almost taste the colorful chocolate “non-stop” (kind of the Norwegian version of M&M’s) just by thinking of it…

The Gingerbread Town is built as a miniature of the city of Bergen, and you can easily recognize the well-known landmarks, such as Mount Fløyen with the Fløibanen Funicular, Bryggen, St. Mary’s church and the Rosenkrantz tower. In addition there are some internationally known landmarks, the Eiffel Tower being one that usually is present every year.

Start by visiting the Gingerbread Town to get the Christmas spirit, and plan the rest of your stay in Bergen from there.

Opening hours 19 November-31 December: 
Weekdays: 9-21
Saturday: 9-20
Sunday: 10-19
24 December: 9-13
25 December: Closed
26 December: 13-18
New Year’s Eve: 11-15