Gamle Stavanger

Gamle Stavanger occupies the slope on the western side of the harbour and holds about 170 small white-painted timber houses, mostly built between the late 1700s and the 1860s for workers in the fishing and canning trades, along cobbled lanes with flowers and window boxes. The quarter was scheduled for demolition in the 1950s as slum housing and was saved by a conservation campaign led by the architect Einar Hedén, which became a model for similar rescues elsewhere in Norway. The Norwegian Canning Museum, in a former sardine factory in the quarter, covers the industry that employed most of the residents, with occasional demonstrations of smoking and packing fish.

What you actually see

• The white timber houses - around 170 preserved workers' homes.
• The cobbled lanes - narrow streets with flowers along the fronts.
• The Canning Museum - a former sardine factory with working demonstrations.
• The harbour setting - the quarter climbing from the Vagen waterfront.

When to go

May to September, when the gardens are in flower and the museum runs demonstrations; the quarter is walkable year-round. Cruise calls at Stavanger fill the lanes on some days.

Honest expectations

The houses are lived in, so this is a residential street rather than a museum quarter, and photographing into windows is unwelcome. The walk takes an hour. Cruise passengers can crowd the narrow lanes in season.

Nearby

Stavanger cathedral and the harbour are across the water; Sverd i Fjell and the Lysefjord boats lie south.