Fantoft Stave Church and Gamlehaugen Royal Residence by Light Rail

Two of Bergen's most photogenic landmarks sit in the green southern suburbs of Fana and Paradis, only fifteen to twenty minutes from Byparken on Bybanen Light Rail Line 1 (towards Bergen Lufthavn) using a standard Zone A Skyss ticket. Pairing them with nearby Troldhaugen (Edvard Grieg's home) makes an easy half-day architectural loop.

1. Fantoft Stave Church (Fantoft stavkirke, open May to September)

Originally built around 1170 AD in Fortun at the inner head of the Sognefjord, this medieval wooden stave church was threatened with demolition in 1883 when a new parish church was built. Bergen consul Fredrik Georg Gade bought the timber structure piece by piece and moved it by boat and horse cart to his wooded hillside estate at Fantoft, restoring its tiered shingle roofs and projecting dragon heads (dragehoder) modelled on Borgund Stave Church. After an arson attack burned the church down in June 1992, master carpenters spent five years rebuilding it by hand to exact medieval measurements using 350 to 400-year-old pine logs from Kaupanger, preserving the original medieval stone cross outside the wall and the wish-stone embedded in the nave:

• How to walk there from Fantoft Bybanen station (10 to 15 minutes): exit Fantoft light rail station, turn right along Birkelundsbakken past the grocery store, and follow the signposted gravel woodland path winding gently uphill under tall beech trees into the forest clearing where the dark tar-scented stave church stands.
• Visiting hours: the interior is open daily from mid-May to mid-September (free entry with the Bergen Card); outside those months, the surrounding forest park remains open 24/7 for free so you can walk right around the carved wooden exterior and portals year-round.

2. Gamlehaugen Royal Residence and Lakeside Park (Paradis / Hop stop)

One stop further south at Paradis or Hop station (a 12-minute walk west toward the fjord inlet of Nordåsvannet) stands gleaming white Gamlehaugen, built in 1900 by shipping magnate and Prime Minister Christian Michelsen (the architect of Norway's peaceful independence from Sweden in 1905) in the style of a Scottish-French chateau, and serving since 1925 as the official Bergen residence of the Norwegian King. While the royal state rooms inside open for guided tours in summer, the lush English landscape park, rose gardens and sandy swimming beach on Lake Nordåsvannet are open to the public for free all year round.