Inside Trondheim, One of Europe’s Northernmost Creative Hubs

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NORWAY IS PROBABLY best known for its fjords, which often cut between steep cliffs and peaks that, even in summertime, retain white collars of snow. Here, nature exists right alongside cities: All of the country’s major urban centers are on the coast. While Oslo offers a big-city feel and Bergen charms with old wooden houses and a funicular up to the summit of Mount Fløyen, it’s Trondheim — the country’s third-largest city, with a population of more than 210,000 — that has emerged as a hub for young creative types looking to evade high rents.

Among them is a growing group of chefs who have turned Trondheim into the latest destination for new Nordic cuisine. “There’s a real sense of community here,” says Jonas Nåvik, who was one of the pioneers of Trondheim’s avant-garde food scene when he opened Fagn after returning home from a stint at Alinea in Chicago. Nåvik has since moved on, but Fagn still holds a Michelin star for dishes like reindeer lichen with pork blood and raw shrimp tartlets. The kitchen at Fagn isn’t the only one to rely on the local waters for shellfish and other ingredients — the city sits at the mouth of a 78-mile-long fjord that has sustained residents for more than a millennium.

A former mercantile city whose Old Norse moniker of Þróndheimr means “home of the strong and fertile,” Trondheim was founded by the Viking king Olav Tryggvason in A.D. 997. Later, for some 200 years, it was the country’s first capital and sometimes royal seat. A compact and eco-friendly university town, it encourages walking: Travelers can wander the 18th-century wharves; the stalls of Market Square, which is anchored by a monument to Tryggvason that also serves as a sundial; and the galleries of Trondheim Art Museum, home to impressive contemporary collections. And between late September and March, an evening hike along the hilly Lade trail, which starts just outside of the city center and runs northeast along the coast, gives visitors a chance to take in the entrancing glow of the northern lights.

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