Håkonshallen 750 Years: Royal residence and national monument – International Conference

Foreign and Norwegian researchers will be gathering to talk about Håkonshallen’s architecture and historical significance. The hall was the principal residency of the Norwegian king in the 13th Century.

But not only was Håkonshallen the king’s castle, it was also the seat of government, Norway’s administrative centre and a banquet hall. The hall is a testament to the Norwegian Royal Family in the middle Ages. It shows the connections between Norway and the rest of Europe, highlighting the cultural influence Europe had on Norway. At the conference there will also be a focus on Håkonshallen’s role in recent years. In particular the way the hall has been used as a national symbol in the last two centuries.

The conference is a partnership between the Jubilee Committee for Håkonshallen's 750^th anniversary and the University of Bergen, and is open to the general public.

                                           PROGRAMME

The conference will take place at Bryggens Museum, situated on Bergen’s old wharf Bryggen, which has been designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Each lecture will last around 40 minutes, with 20 minutes for discussion.

                                   Thursday 8 September

14.45-15.00: Opening of the Conference by the Rector of the University of Bergen, Professor Sigmund Grønmo.

15.00-15.15: Anne Ågotnes: An Introduction to King Håkon's Hall - managing our cultural heritage building.

15.15-16.15: Zoe Opacic: Fit for a King: Håkonshallen  and contemporary royal residences.

16.15-17.15: Alf Tore Hommedal: Archaelogical investigations at King Håkon's Hall.

17.15-17.30: Break

17.30-18.30: Derek Keene: Capital cities in Earlier Medieval Europe

                                    Friday 9 September

10.00-11.00: Knut Helle: The political centre of the high medieval Norwegian kingdom.

11.00-12.00: C. Stephen Jaeger: Civility, courtesy and treachery: the double life of royal courtiers.

12.00-13.30: Break

13.30-14.30: Sverre Bagge: The royal court in Norway in the therteenth century.

14.30-15.30: Geir Atle Ersland: The castle as a military stronghold 1100 - 1700.

15.30-15.45: Break

15.45-16.45: Sir David Wilson: Norwegian national romanitcism, an outsider's weiw

16.45-17.45: Marco Trebbi: Some aspects of the 19th and 20th century restoration ideas and practices

                                          THE SPEAKERS

Dr Zoe Opacic is Lecturer in History and Theory of Architecture at Birkbeck College, University of London. She specialises in the field of late medieval art, architecture and urbanism, particularly in Central Europe. Her publications include: Diamond Vaults: Innovation and Geometry in Medieval Architecture (London, Architectural Association, 2005) and Prague and Bohemia: Medieval Art, Architecture and Cultural Exchange in Central Europe (The British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, 32; Leeds, 2009). She is currently working on a book on medieval Prague.

Alf Tore Hommedal is Associate Professor in Medieval Archaeology at Bergen Museum, University of Bergen. He has specialised in building archaeology and mostly worked with ecclesiastical buildings in Medieval Norway.

Derek Keene is Honorary Fellow and Professor (Metropolitan History) at the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, where he was the founding Director of the Centre for Metropolitan History and, subsequently, Leverhulme Professor of Comparative Metropolitan History. He has published extensively on the history and archaeology of European cities during the Middle Ages and later, including detailed and comprehensive studies of London and Winchester and their regions. Recent publications relevant to the theme of the colloquium include: Metropolitan comparisons: London as a city-state (2004);  Text, visualisation and politics: London, 1150-1250 (2008) and Ideas of the metropolis (2009) [covering the period from Strabo to Berlusconi] (2009). He is the general editor of a new series of volumes on the history of London, for which he is writing a study covering the period c.500-1300.

Knut Helle is Professor Emeritus of History at The University of Bergen. He is a specialist in medieval history and two of his main fields of research are related to the Norwegian kingdom in the high medieval period and urban history.

C. Stephen Jaeger is Professor Emeritus in the departments of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Comparative Literature University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he is an associate of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA. Recent work includes a collection of essays on the Sublime style in medieval art, architecture, music and literature (editor), and a monograph on Enchantment: charisma and the sublime in the arts of the west (due to appear at University of Pennsylvania Press, Feb. 2012).

Sverre Bagge is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Bergen and director of the Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS). He has published on medieval political thought, political culture and Old Norse and European historiography. His most recent book is From Viking Stronghold to Christian Kingdom. State Formation in Norway c. 900-1350 (Copenhagen 2010). 

Geir Atle Ersland is dr. art and Senior Researcher at the Centre of Medieval Studies, University of Bergen His research includes urban history, the history of the Hanseatic League and medieval military history.

Sir David Wilson is a former Director of the British Museum and a professor of medieval archaeology. A specialist in the art and archaeology of the Viking Age, he has a special interest in the historical aspects of the subject and has written and lectured on neo-Gothicism in northern Europe.

Marco Trebbi is an art historian from the University of Bergen. He has also studied at Centre d'études supérieures de civilisation médiévale, Université de Poitiers. He led the repairs of the Romanesque church of Nærøy on behalf of The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren). He is the former director of The Hanseatic Museum in Bergen where he also has led several restoration projects.