History
The tram hall from 1913 today houses Bergen's Technical Museum and the Museumstrikken – a living monument to the city's technological breakthroughs and volunteer involvement, where history, architecture and urban development meet.
Tram Hall at Møhlenpris – a technological and urban historical powerhouse
The tram hall at Møhlenpris today houses the Bergen Technical Museum and the Bergen Electric Tramway, which operates the Museum Tramway. This magnificent building was completed in 1913. The architect was Schak August Steenberg Bull (1858-1956). He was born in Årstad and studied architecture at the Eidsgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, Switzerland. Schak Bull also designed Troldhaugen and the Seafarers' Home. The tramway was located here until the tram in Bergen was closed down in 1965. The interest organization Bergen Technical Museum, which was founded in 1974, moved into the hall in 1990.
The hall at Møhlenpris replaced the tram hall in Lyder Sagens gate from 1897, the year Bergen's Electric Tramway was opened. Bergen was then the second city in the Nordic region to get a tram. Kristiania (Oslo) was the first in 1894. The tram and other uses of electric power were high technology at the time.
Bergen was historically a dense city where most things were within walking distance. The first early public transport was by flottmen, often old sailors, who rowed people across Vågen and elsewhere. Towards the end of the 19th century, the city gained a steamship connection between Kaigaten and Fløen, from Vågen to Sandviken and the legendary Laksevågsfergen. In 1894, "Beffen", Bergen's Electric Ferry Company, started battery ferries across Vågen. In 1883, the Vossebanen line opened where Solheimsviken station connected this industrial suburb to Bergen. The first attempt at public transport on city streets came in 1893 with the horse-drawn omnibus.
In 1895, the city council granted a concession for the construction and operation of an electric tramway in Bergen. Problems raising capital in Norway led to the concession for construction and operation being sold to the German UEG (Union Elektricitäts Gesellschaft). The company Bergens Elektriske Sporvei was therefore founded in Berlin. The construction in Bergen began on 26 November 1896 and the official opening took place on 29 June 1897.
The tram lines were gradually rearranged and expanded. The network reached its greatest extent with four tram lines around 1930. In 1917, the shares in the company were purchased from Germany by the shipowner Wallem and they were taken over by the municipality of Bergen the same year.
The tram hall that opened in 1913 was added to Møhlenpris which was incorporated into Bergen in 1877. At the end of the 17th century, Jørgen Thormøhlen ran some early industrial businesses here. After his bankruptcy in 1696, most of this was discontinued and Møhlenpris was, with the exception of the military facility on Marineholmen, largely undeveloped when it was incorporated into Bergen.
In the Bergen area, extensive industrialization began in the second half of the 19th century. The large mechanical workshops in particular were space-intensive, and several of them were located on the outskirts of the city, such as Møhlenpris and at Laksevåg and in Solheimsviken, in the then surrounding municipalities of Askøy and Årstad.
The development of Møhlenpris accelerated after Olaf Ryes vei was completed in the early 1880s. The district was regulated with buildings in square footage. In 1894, the Mjellem and Karlsen Shipyard was established and there was a great need for apartment buildings in the area. Apartment buildings of a higher standard were built near Nygårdsparken. In 1899, Bergen's first sports arena, the so-called Lekeplassen, was completed at Møhlenpris and in 1912, Møhlenpris School opened.
In 1911, tram line 3 opened over Nygårdshøyden to Møhlenpris and two years later Sporveiens established itself with a carriage shed, workshop and administration in the tram hall. In the autumn of 1918, the tram hall received a track connection through Thormøhlensgate to line 1 at Florida.
Today, an old tramway environment has been preserved in Møhlenpris. On one side of the tram hall where many people worked is Trikkebyen, a housing complex for Sporveien employees that was started in 1912. On the other side of the carriage hall, the tramway employees' children went to Møhlenpris school. Further down the street, the tramway employees' families could play sports in their free time at the Møhlenpris sports field.