Bergen Art and Music: KODE Museums and Edvard Grieg's Troldhaugen

Around the octagonal city lake of Lille Lungegårdsvannet right between the railway station and Byparken stand the four monumental exhibition buildings of KODE (Art Museums and Composer Homes), forming one of the largest art and design complexes in Scandinavia. A single KODE ticket covers all open galleries along the lakeside plus historic composer residences on the outskirts of the city.

The KODE Art Museums along Rasmus Meyers allé

Focus your time on the flagship painting galleries in Rasmus Meyer's Collection (KODE 3) and neighboring Stenersen (KODE 2) / Lysverket (KODE 4) (note that the older Permanenten building, KODE 1, is currently undergoing refurbishment):

• The Rasmus Meyer Collection (KODE 3): housed in a 1924 palace with gilded Rococo interiors, this building holds the third-largest Edvard Munch collection in the world, assembled directly from the artist during his lifetime by Bergen grain merchant Rasmus Meyer. In a single dedicated hall you can trace Munch's entire career through major canvases from his Frieze of Life series, including Evening on Karl Johan (Aften på Karl Johan), Jealousy, Melancholy, Woman in Three Stages and Summer Night by the Beach.
• Nikolai Astrup and J.C. Dahl: upstairs and in the adjacent galleries hang the lush, mystical Western Norwegian midsummer bonfire paintings and colour woodcuts of Nikolai Astrup alongside the dramatic fjord and mountain landscapes of Bergen-born Romantic pioneer Johan Christian Dahl, Harriet Backer and Christian Krohg.

Edvard Grieg's Home at Troldhaugen (Easy by Bybanen Light Rail)

Ten kilometres south of the centre on a wooded promontory overlooking Lake Nordåsvannet stands Troldhaugen ("Troll Hill"), the Victorian timber villa built in 1885 where Norway's greatest composer, Edvard Grieg (1843 to 1907), and his wife, singer Nina Hagerup, lived for 22 summers. Inside the villa sits Grieg's original 1892 Steinway grand piano; follow the forest path down to the water's edge to see the tiny red-painted wooden Composing Hut (Komponisthytten) where he wrote his Lyric Pieces, the concert hall Troldsalen (which has a glass wall behind the stage framing the hut and lake, and hosts daily 30-minute lunchtime piano recitals in summer), and the cliffside rock tomb where Edvard and Nina's ashes are sealed inside the granite facing the water. To get there, ride Bybanen Light Rail Line 1 from Byparken for 18 minutes to Hop station and follow the signposted 15-minute walk.