What They Say
Bergen Børs Hotel is one of the most exclusive hotels in Bergen’s centre. The hotel has several suites with views of the fjord, as well as spacious twin or single rooms for those travelling alone. The hotel is located a stone’s throw from the historic Bryggen wharf, with the harbour on one side and Torgallmenningen square on the other. One of Bergen’s most popular attractions, Bryggen, was the city’s first settlement and is on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. Bergen Børs Hotel is home to award-winning Frescohallen, which has been named the world’s best restaurant in the category of historic buildings. Frescohallen is the hotel’s breakfast hall and is also open for lunch and dinner every day. The hotel also has two new restaurants: the tapas bar Fresquito and the exclusive BARE Wine bar and Restaurant.
Sleep
Our Superior Double room was generously scaled, elegantly pared-back and immaculately kept. A vase of freshly cut flowers and four delicate truffles awaited us, while a deep bath and grand windows gazing out over Torgallmenningen Square added a softer kind of decadence. The wallpaper, inspired by old stock exchange bills, and coin-shaped mirrors whispered of the building’s past life. But for me, the storytelling stopped short. The room, while beautifully appointed, felt too restrained to fully carry the atmosphere that hums so triumphantly throughout the rest of the hotel.
Elsewhere though, the story does deepen. A glance into the Junior Suite – a converted banker’s office with its original oak-panelling and vault door (complete with circular wheel lock) – and I realise that is where the building’s soul really settles above the ground floor.
One thread that holds firm throughout the hotel is its quiet championing of the region. In the rooms, this translates to a curated range of Fitjar Islands products – soaps, soaks, lotions and bath bombs – made on the salt-lashed islands of western Norway.
Dine
There are three places to dine at Bergen Børs, each distinct in mood and genre. Fresquito, a lively tapas bar on the ground floor, brings Basque to Bergen with small plates that punch above their size. Frescohallen, set within the city’s former stock exchange, now stages what might be the most captivating stage for a breakfast buffet in Norway. And then there is BARE, the hotel’s fine-dining jewel and the first in Bergen to be awarded a Michelin star.
For me, the showstopper of this hotel is undoubtedly the Frescohallen. Originally built in 1862, this monumental hall still bears the architectural giveaways of its past: groin-vaulted ceilings, vast arched windows and ten enormous murals, painted by Axel Revold (a student of Matisse) in the early 1920s, paying vivid homage to Norway’s trade and industry.
By evening, the Frescohallen shifts gently, but completely. The space darkens. Soft amber pools bleed over marble. Yet the formality never hardens. The service is warm, the atmosphere relaxed, and the ceilings feel even higher than before. (Admittedly, that might be the after-effect of a few Bareksten G&Ts.)
Upstairs, BARE is modern Norwegian cuisine at its most refined. Chefs Øystein Ellingsen and Morten Tungesvik work with forensic attention to terroir, building each dish around Norway’s coastlines, forests and farms, always shifting the menu with the seasons.
Set in the former chamber of commerce, now a riotously glamorous bar and restaurant, the original coffered ceiling remains, though the wooden wall panels are now dressed in mosaic-like mirrored panels that multiply the textures and lines of the space.
This is what I love most about the reimagining of these storied spaces as restaurants: the humble restraint. It never feels as though they’re trying to outshine the past, but instead, bend to it. The same is true downstairs, where the Frescohallen bar is crowned by a sweeping mirrored hood that allows you to see the frescoes refracted, not replaced. It’s as if the designers understood something essential: these rooms didn’t need their history overwritten, only multiplied.
Out & About
From the hotel, you’re perfectly placed to wander to Bryggen, a wooden wharf (and UNESCO World Heritage Site) that speaks to the city’s Hanseatic roots, or to catch the fjord cruise boat (offering either four-hour or day trips).
The Unicorn Fish Restaurant and Bryggeloftet are top culinary contenders, with everything from whale carpaccio to reindeer fillets, while Bergenhus Fortress and Håkon’s Hall will educate you on Bergen’s earliest days.
Feeling brave? Follow the locals to Heit Bergen Saunas, where you’ll sweat in 70-degree heat before plunging (optional: headfirst) into the icy fjords.
And if you’re lucky, as we were, the wettest city in Europe might just forget to rain.
The Best Thing
Frescohallen. It is not just a bar or an elaborate place to have scrambled eggs; there’s a real theatre of art and architecture to it, of local produce and historic preservation. It’s simply spectacular.
The Worst Thing
Being shamefully sentimental, I missed the overwhelming sense of history and glamour in my own room. While beautifully designed, the grandeur of the public spaces sets an extraordinary tone that the standard rooms simply don’t match. (Note to self: next time, plump for the Junior Suite.)
The Details
Rooms start from £157 per night, for a Standard Double with breakfast included.
Bergen Børs Hotel, Vågsallmenningen 1, 5014 Bergen, Norway.
