Puddefjorden, often anglicized as Pudde Fjord,Koop, Gerhard, Klaus-Peter Schmolke. 2014. ''German Light Cruisers of World War II: Warships of the Kriegsmarine''. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, p. 83. is an inlet or

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

in the central part of the city of

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. An arm off of the main Byfjorden, the Puddefjorden is long and stretches from the tip of the

Nordnes Nordnes is a peninsula and neighbourhood in the city centre of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. Vågen, Bergen, Vågen, Byfjorden (Hordaland), Byfjorden, and Puddefjorden surround the peninsula. The Akvariet i Bergen, Bergen Aquarium is locat ...

peninsula to the

Solheimsviken Solheimsviken is a bay and a neighbourhood in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. The bay is situated at the end of the Damsgårdssundet strait, near the large Store Lungegårdsvann bay. Located near the city centre of Bergen, Solheim ...

bay at the entrance to the Store Lungegårdsvannet bay. The fjord is at its widest, between Nordnes and the inner part of the borough of

Laksevåg Laksevåg is a borough of the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. The borough is located in the western part of the municipality. Historically, the area was called ''Laxevaag'', and it was a separate municipality until 1972 when it was m ...

. The innermost part of the fjord, known as Damsgårdssundet, is much narrower, scarcely wide at its narrowest. The fjord is located next to some of Bergen's most important industrial areas, and has played a significant part in the city's development and industrialisation.

History

Despite being situated in the central part of the present-day city of Bergen, the Puddefjorden did not play a major role in the city's early history. The fjord experiences strong currents and has numerous small

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

s, rendering boat passage dangerous. Furthermore, its innermost parts used to lightly freeze over during winters. Because of that, the nearby Vågen bay was the preferred entrance to the city for nearly all water-craft traffic. The ice, islets, and strong current caused the kings of Alrekstad (today known as Årstad) to avoid using Puddefjorden. The ice also stopped an invasion attempt by

Kristoffer Throndsen Kristoffer Throndsen (c. 1500–1565), posthumously also with the family name Rustung, was a squire, admiral, feudal overlord in Norway and Denmark, privateer captain and pirate. Kristoffer served Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson, the interregnum le ...

in 1536, when Puddefjorden went all the way in to what is now known as Lille Lungegårdsvann. Puddefjorden was originally not considered a part of the city of Bergen, but rather a nearby area. This view held until the mid-1800s. The fjord's northeastern side belonged to the city, however, and scattered habitations appeared there at the end of the 17th century, later becoming the neighbourhoods of

Møhlenpris Møhlenpris (formerly Vestre Sydnes) is a neighbourhood in the city of Bergen in Vestland county, Norway. It is next to the Puddefjorden in the borough of Bergenhus. The neighbourhood is named after Jørgen Thor Møhlen, who was a shipowner, slav ...

and Nøstet. The original Puddefjorden was both longer and broader than it is today, but after extensive industrialisation of the nearby areas in the 19th century, the fjord's form was altered. Formerly, the Puddefjord was wrapped around the city, ending only a few blocks away from Vågen. Following the final filling of the strait between Lille Lungegårdsvannet and Store Lungegårdsvannet in 1926, the fjord now stops in the Store Lungegårdsvannet bay. ;Changes to the fjord over the centuries Bergen-13ème.jpg, Map from the 13th century Bergen 1768-map.jpg, Map from 1768 Bergenskart 1877.jpg, Map from 1877 Bergen-1907.png, Map from 1907 Bergen OSM.JPG, Map from 2008

Bridges

The first bridge across Puddefjorden was the first Nygård Bridge, opened in 1851. Since that time, three additional bridges have been built across the fjord; the New Nygård Bridge (1978), the Second New Nygård Bridge (2008), and the

Puddefjord Bridge The Puddefjord Bridge ( no, Puddefjordsbroen) is an arch bridge in Bergen, Norway. The reinforced concrete bridge consists of two directly adjacent, near-identical bridges, the first of which was built in 1956 and the second in 1999. Norwegian ...

(1956). The former three cross the entrance to Store Lungegårdsvann, while the fourth spans the fjord between

and

Gyldenpris Gyldenpris is a neighborhood in Bergen, Norway in the borough of Årstad. Geography Gyldenpris lies on the border between the boroughs of Årstad and Laksevåg, with the Solheim neighborhood to the southeast, the Damsgård neighborhood to th ...

Environment

Industry has had an environmental effect on the fjord, and its

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

has become polluted with

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * ...

and

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. There has never been a thorough record of the poisons released into Puddefjorden, and both smaller businesses and locals have used Store Lungegårdsvann as a disposal area. As a result, Puddefjorden is now divided into five sub-areas and the rinsing process is estimated to cost around .Statens Forurensningstilsyn
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References

{{authority control Geography of Bergen Fjords of Vestland

History

Bridges

Environment

See also

References