Trondheim History

History

In 997, the Christian King Olav Tryggvason selected a broad sandbank at the River Nid estuary to moor his longboat. The natural harbour and strategic position made Nidaros (meaning ‘mouth of the River Nid’), as the settlement was then called, especially useful for defence against the warlike pagan chiefs of Lade, who were a threat to Christianity and to the region’s stability. One plausible theory has it that Leifur Eiríksson (or Leif Ericson as he’s usually transcribed in English) visited the king’s farm two years later and was converted to Christianity before setting sail for Iceland and Greenland and possibly becoming the first European to set foot in North America. (If you’re from the USA, the Viking staring out to sea near the Hurtigruten quay may seem familiar. That’s because he’s an exact replica of the Ericson statue in Seattle that commemorates the tens of thousands of Norwegian emigrants to the New World.)

In 1030 another, now more famous, King Olav (Haraldsson) was martyred in battle at Stiklestad, about 90km to the northeast, and canonised. Nidaros became a centre for pilgrims from all over Europe, its bishopric embracing Norway, Orkney, the Isle of Man, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. It served as the capital of Norway until 1217, ruling an empire that extended from what is now western Russia to, possibly, the shores of Newfoundland. The cult of St Olav continued until the Reformation in 1537, when Norway was placed under the Lutheran bishopric of Denmark.

After a fire razed most of the city in 1681, Trondheim was redesigned with wide streets and Renaissance flair. The city’s location became key once again in WWII, when German naval forces made it their base for northern Norway, although fortunately the city avoided major damage.