THE SIGN HUNTERS

NORWAY: A black-metal-themed sign-hunting in Bergen

Written by Laszlo, 6 September 2018

I think about the Bergen adventure as one of the most emblematic and best thematic sign-hunting projects in the history of The Sign Hunters. Bergen is Norway's second largest city and even though the city centre is situated at the seaside and occupies a spacious peninsula, the city itself is quite spread-out and a great part of the urban area is locked among large mountains (seven to be exact, according to local sources).

I remember, we did not have a lot of time to carry out the sign project and I really did not want to risk not finding the sign, so previous to the trip in 2016, I had spent days on Google Earth just going through Bergen's periphery street by street, but I could not find it. As a last hope, I eventually got in touch with the Bergen council and (lucky me!) they were very helpful and provided me with the GPS coordinates to several signs' exact locations. The council were awesome; they also told me where the old stone sign was that marked the city limit until 1972.

Overall, that day was super-organised and super-successful as we carried out a black-metal-themed sign project with face paint, we found the old stone sign, we met an actual black metal cat, and then we went to check out the Fantoft Stave Church which is very famous as it was one of the old stave churches that fell victim to the church burnings by members of the early Norwegian black metal scene. It was originally built in 1150, burned down in 1992 by arson (possibly by Varg Vikernes of Burzum), and then the re-building was finished in 1997. This is what one can see there today.

One day we will need to return to Bergen though as we had no time to explore it and take actual photos of the place itself. I did not even have my photo camera with me, so these photos were taken with my phone - but I have turned them into greyscale, so they are more atmospheric, like Bergen itself.