This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Bergen, Hordaland (Norway)

Last modified: 2018-09-29 by zoltán horváth

Keywords: bergen | castle |

Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors



image by Tomislav Šipek, 15 February 2017

Granted on 15 August 1924

See also:

Bergen is a town of 220.000 inhabitants on the west coast of Norway. The flag of Bergen has a red bordered (on the upper and lower sides and at the fly end) white field with the town's seal/arms in the centre. In its present form the flag was established by a Royal Order in Council of 15th of August, 1924. The proportions are 9 to 12. The red border equals 1 part. The arms/seal is placed two parts from the outer Edges, and is 5 parts high and 4.5 parts wide.

The seal of Bergen is first mentioned in a text from 1293, but the oldest surviving one is on a document from 1298 (kept in a collection in Copenhagen). It shows a castle on a cliff. Presently, the castle is grey, the cliffs are yellow or brownish, all on a red background. The design (and colours) has varied over the years. Today the castle has three towers and is placed on seven cliffs, representing the seven summits or mountains encircling the town. Around the seal is the text SIGILLVM COMMVNITATIS DE CIVITATE BERGENSI. On the flag this is replaced by a plain yellow border. The origin of the design with the white field and the red borders is probably a Norwegian flag signaling system from the 1800s, and the flag of Bergen only dates from the first part of the 19th century.

A flag for Bergen, a Danish flag with the Norwegian lion on a white field in the middle, is known from foreign flag charts as early as 1695 (with repetitions in other charts and books up to 1848), but this flag is not found in any local sources. [See a description of a flag reported for Bergen in 1799, which probably is erroneous]

From the early 1800s until 1924 the design of the flag varied, with the present design created in reaction against a flag with a blue field and the castle and cliffs without a shield (or circle). This unappealing flag was strongly criticised, and the flag was redesigned and approved in 1924.

Jan Oskar Engene

The flag of Bergen is already presented here, but there is better image of flag. No photo.

Tomislav Šipek, 15 October 2015

According to FOTW page, as well as it seems to be hinted by [c2j87], the flag is not depicting the Bergen seal, buth rather the coat of arms - the difference being that the former includes the inscription, while the latter has only a golden circular border (not as thick as it is when it includes the inscription).

The artwork of the coat of arms shown by [s3j87] is not so elaborate as in the above drawing (and not like the one current on FOTW either, exactly like the one here), but these details are not deemed important by Norwegian heraldry (i.e. as long as it is heraldically correct...)

Anyway, the flag (and the seal and the coat of arms) was formally adopted by royal resolution of 15 August 1924.

I remember vividly I once got from Jan Oskar a postcard with an excellent photo of the Bergen city flag - I can't find it right now, but as soon as I get it, I hope to send a scan - there seems to be no flag photo around the web (judging by a quick search with Google, probably making this claim highly incorrect :)

Also, Norwegian flags are not supposed to use metals, so the gold should rather be the usual yellow. The red should be also the usual Norwegian red...

Željko Heimer, 15 October 2015

image by Tomislav Šipek, 15 February 2017

On https://www.bergen.kommune.no/bk/multimedia/archive/00259/V_pen_flagg_segl_lo_259838a.pdf, the central seal is smaller.

Tomislav Šipek, 15 February 2017



Coat of Arms

image by Tomislav Šipek, 19 October 2015



Seal

image by Tomislav Šipek, 19 October 2015

Here is flag, coat of arms and seal of Bergen.

Tomislav Šipek, 19 October 2015