Rockheim, Pirbadet and the Brattøra Waterfront

North of the railway tracks and canal that border Midtbyen lies Brattøra, a harbour peninsula facing the open Trondheimsfjord that was completely submerged in the Middle Ages before post-glacial rebound and 19th-century dredging raised it above the tide. Between 1878 and 1887, following a plan by city engineer Carl Adolf Dahl, the seabed was dredged and filled to create a combined port and rail hub for Trondheim Central Station. Since 2000, Brattøra and neighbouring Nedre Elvehavn (Solsiden) have transformed from industrial docks into Trondheim's modern cultural and fjordfront promenade.

Rockheim: Norway's National Museum of Popular Music

Anchoring Brattørkaia is Rockheim (Det nasjonale museet for populærmusikk), Norway's national museum for popular music from the 1950s to the present, which opened officially on 5 August 2010 and merged organizationally with Ringve Music Museum on 1 January 2021. Architects Pir II converted a 1919 concrete-and-brick grain warehouse (mellageret) by adding a cantilevered sixth-floor top box clad in glass panels printed with album cover art and backlit by 13,000 individually controllable LEDs, winning the City of Trondheim's 2010 building award. Built across 3,400 square metres of net floor area, the museum houses a 1,320-square-metre permanent exhibition inside the top box designed by Canadian artistic director Stacey Spiegel.

Decade Rooms, Interactive Studios, and the Hall of Fame

Visitors begin at a laser-activated map of Norwegian music cities before moving chronologically through immersive decade rooms: a 1950s garage housing a Ford Thunderbird, a sensor-controlled 1960s living room, a 1970s tour bus with window video screens, a 1980s space driven by an SSL 4000+ mixing console, two 1990s rooms (a café and a dedicated Norwegian black metal room), and a mirrored 2000s gallery. In the discovery rooms, guests can try electric guitar lessons with virtual guidance from Ronni Le Tekrø or experiment with DJ turntables and breakdancing in the Hiphop Room. Since 5 September 2011, when a-ha, Åge Aleksandersen, Jokke & Valentinerne, Wenche Myhre, and Alf Prøysen were inducted, the museum has also hosted the Rockheim Hall of Fame for artists at least 25 years past their debut. Check the official site for exhibition and concert schedules.

Pirbadet and the Solsiden Shipyard District

A short walk northwest along the Brattøra seawall stands Pirbadet, Norway's largest indoor swimming and water park complex, opened on 15 June 2001 with glass walls looking directly across the Trondheimsfjord toward Munkholmen; its pools include a wave pool, sports lanes, health bath, current channel, and a 100-metre sound-and-light waterslide. From the southeastern corner of Brattøra beside the 349-room waterfront hotel at Havnegata, the pedestrian bridge Verftsbrua (popularly called Blomsterbrua, the Flower Bridge) crosses the mouth of the Nidelva to Nedre Elvehavn and Solsiden. Opened in October 2000 inside the red-brick halls of the former Trondhjems Mekaniske Værksted (TMV) shipyard, Solsiden combines 60 shops with 13 sunny riverside restaurants and cafés facing the marina basin.

Warehouse Architecture, Seawall Walks, and the Solsiden Basins

Rockheim's physical design captures the contrast between Brattøra's industrial railway-port past and its contemporary cultural role. The lower five storeys preserve the heavy reinforced-concrete and brick walls of the 1919 grain warehouse (Mellageret), which stored imported flour and grain arriving by cargo steamer and freight train for nearly a century. Projecting over the old roofline toward the harbour canal and Midtbyen, the sixth-floor cantilevered box is wrapped in printed glass panels depicting subtle collages of Norwegian record sleeves. After dusk, especially during the long winter evenings between October and March (see our seasonal daylight guide), the 13,000 computer-controlled LED fixtures behind the glass transform the rooftop into a shifting canopy of colour visible across the canal from Ravnkloa and the central station footbridges.

On the fifth floor just below the permanent decade galleries, a panoramic restaurant terrace looks straight across the open waters of the Trondheimsfjord toward Munkholmen island and the Fosen hills, while temporary exhibition halls on the lower levels spotlight individual instruments, subcultures, and visual art tied to Norwegian music history since the 1950s.

Linking Rockheim, Pirbadet, and Nedre Elvehavn (Solsiden) on foot makes an easy flat waterfront stroll that contrasts sharply with the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century timber streets of the inner peninsula:

• The Brattørkaia Boardwalk: Stretching west from the central station pedestrian bridge past Rockheim and the waterfront conference hotels to the glass fjord wall of Pirbadet, with outdoor benches facing the shipping lane, coastal cruise berths, and Munkholmen.
• Verftsbrua (Blomsterbrua): Crossing the mouth of the Nidelva river where freshwater meets the tidal fjord, offering views south toward Bakke bru and north toward the coastal steamer quays.
• The TMV Dry Docks and Slipways at Solsiden: Preserving the red-brick machine halls, cranes, and slipway basins of Trondhjems Mekaniske Værksted, where steamships and coastal vessels were built and repaired from the nineteenth century until the yard closed in the late twentieth century.
• Solsiden Outdoor Terraces: Facing south and west along the river basin to catch afternoon and evening sun, making the boardwalk a lively spot for casual dining and local craft beer before walking south into Bakklandet.

Because Rockheim and Ringve Music Museum operate together under the same museum division, music enthusiasts can trace the complete arc from eighteenth-century harpsichords, Hardanger fiddles, and Romantic pianos on the Lade peninsula to 1980s studio mixing consoles, synth-pop, and 1990s Norwegian black metal on Brattørkaia. Travellers staying near the rail hub can also review the waterfront hotel options in our Trondheim accommodation guide.

For families or visitors looking to unwind after a day of walking on cobbled streets or hiking in Bymarka, Pirbadet's fjord-side setting provides a memorable contrast in any weather. Floating in the warm indoor-outdoor pools while watching Hurtigruten ships, express catamarans, and fishing boats pass between Brattøra and Munkholmen connects the modern recreational waterfront directly with the working maritime life of the fjord. You can slot Brattøra and Solsiden into Day 2 of our three-day Trondheim itinerary. Because both attractions sit immediately north of the central station concourse and bus terminal, they also work well as a wet-weather backup or a final afternoon stop before boarding an evening train or airport express coach, with luggage storage and pedestrian walkways linking the museum doors directly to the railway platforms.