Bakklandet: The Wooden Quarter That Refused to Disappear

Across the Old Town Bridge from central Trondheim lies Bakklandet, a tight grid of crooked wooden houses painted ochre, red and grey. The district grew up in the 17th and 18th centuries as a settlement for craftsmen, sailors and dockworkers who could not afford to live inside the city walls. By the 19th century, Bakklandet was overcrowded, fire-prone and poor — so poor, in fact, that the city began to consider clearing it altogether.

In the 1960s and 70s, Trondheim's planners proposed a four-lane motorway directly through the neighbourhood. Houses were condemned, tenants evicted, and the area began to slide toward demolition. What saved Bakklandet was a long, stubborn citizens' campaign that refused to accept the plan. Activists occupied buildings, organised protests, and eventually persuaded the city council to abandon the road in 1989. The houses were restored, and Bakklandet became a model for Norwegian urban conservation.

Today the lanes are full of cafés, bicycle shops, second-hand bookstores and bakeries. Yet the neighbourhood is still largely residential, and most of the buildings are still privately owned wooden homes — many of them more than 250 years old. Walking here is a lesson in how a city can choose memory over convenience and end up richer for it.