"Ålesund, a beautiful town with a dramatic history" Top 5 Page for this destination Ålesund by Hildeal

Ålesund Travel Guide: 170 reviews and 544 photos

Ålesund

ålesund is a beautiful city with quite a dramatic history to tell. During a night in 1903, the whole town burned down. It was winter and thousands of people were homeless. Luckily only one person died during the fire. The ironical things was that she was the nearest neighbor to the fire station and was already in safety but wanted to go back to get some more of her belongings.

Many other Towns and countries were willing to help Ålesund to rebuild the town. The biggest help came from Germany. Keiser Wilhelm sent most of the supplies that were meant for some other countries to Ålesund.

During Two years the town was rebuild in the jugend stile. Architects from Norway who most of them had their education from Germany and France participated in this process. The architecture is a mixture of all these ideas, and is quite interesting to look at

Ålesund & Sunnmøre is the perfect place to explore some of Norway's most famous natural and cultural attractions. Ålesund's beautiful Art Nouveau architecture is known far and wide. The myriad of turrets, spires and beautiful ornamentation that give the town its distinctive character are like something from a fairytale

seeing the town from the mountain Aksla

You have to take the trip up here, and watch all the islands .

At the top of Ålesund's Town Mountain, Aksla, you'll be able to enjoy a fantastic view of the archipelago, Ålesund's town centre, and the majestic Sunnmøre Alps. Walk the 418 steps up from the Town Park, or go by car.

the jugend style

Ålesund is famous for its jugend style After the town was burned down in 1904 architects from Norway who where educated from all over Europe had a mission to rebuild the Town. With so many different builders with so many ideas it had to lead to a very special result.

The town even has it own jugend style museum that takes you back to the big fire and you'll see how the town was rebuild

famous people from Ålesund

Bjørn Johan Muri, singer

John Arne Riise, football player

Bjørn Helge Riise, football player

Pros and Cons

Pros:a town for arts and culture
Cons:it's small
In a nutshell:a small town with culture

Last visit to Ålesund: Jul 2007
Intro Updated Jan 16, 2012
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Reviews (26)

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Comments (8)

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globetrott Oct 1, 2011 at 9:41 PM

I enjoyed Alesund as well with its great Art Nouveau buildings and its great scenery between the mountains and islands !
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Manara Sep 23, 2011 at 5:31 AM

I spent only a few hours in this town but I was fascinated! BTW I arrived (and left) on a ship.
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hej-ansson Jul 28, 2009 at 5:49 AM

Great pages of Ålesund. Your photos are also great. HEJ :-)
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y2ketan2007 Aug 4, 2007 at 11:43 AM

Alesund is beautiful.Thanks for the information and the wonderful pictures.
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hundwalder May 25, 2006 at 7:10 PM

Very good tips and excellent photographs Hilde. Thanks for sharing.
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whitecliff62 Nov 19, 2005 at 11:23 AM

Great page Hilde, the sceenery looks spectacular and everything looks so fresh.
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sprdak11 Sep 27, 2005 at 1:00 PM

Great travel page! Thanks for all your interesting pages about Norway! Greetings!
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BluBluBlu Aug 30, 2005 at 6:45 AM

Looks a great little place! Happy travels, Blu