Utsnitt fra Scholeusstikket, fra ca 1580

Section of Scholeus’ engraving, from approx. 1580

Section of Scholeus’ engraving (H. Scholeus, approx. 1580, photo: Svein Skare, owner: Universitetsmuseet i Bergen (B 1332)).

Written by Per Jahn Lavik

Published 06.02.2024

The Rosenkrantz tower

In the Scholeus engraving (section on the right) from the 1850s the fortified king’s estate at the entrance to Vågen has become a modern Renaissance palace – Bergenhus palace. The church edifices have disappeared. The picture is now dominated by the tower “the small castle by the sea”, which had recently gone through a considerable enlargement.

It was the medieval tower from the 1200s that the castle commander Erik Rosenkrantz reconstructed in the 1560s, partly with stone from the demolished monastery at Lyse. The king, Fredrik II, had ordered Erik Rosenkrantz to pull down the old ramshackle tower and build a new one. Rich, gothic building details show that Mr. Erik must have viewed the medieval tower as a good model on which to continue building. The research made by Gerard Fischer following the war destruction in 1944 have confirmed that this must be “the little castle by the sea” which Magnus Håkonsson (Lagabøte) had constructed.

What Rosenkrantz did was to combine the little castle with castle officer Jørgen Hanssøn’s circular wall and ante-castle from the beginning of 1500, make it higher, and construct a new an contemporary façade facing south – facing Bryggen (the harbour) and the town. While the little castle and the hall had as their models English constructions, now they were Scottish. It has been documented that Rosenkrantz used Scottish bricklayers.

I Rosenkrantztårnets 2. etasje er avdekket et gotisk kapell med alter i vindusnisjen. Her har vi en nøyaktig skriftlig datering. Islandske annaler forteller at Magnus satt i Bergen vinteren 1273-74 og «da ble kongens kapell gjort ferdig i kastellet ved sjøen». Kongens private rom lå i etasjen over.

I 1275 begynte kong Magnus å bygge den tredje Apostelkirken, sør for ringmuren. Den var bygd som «skrin» om en kostelig relikvie kongen hadde fått av kong Filip III av Frankrike – en bit av Kristi tornekrone.

Apostelkirken ble innviet i 1302. Den gamle Apostelkirken og resten av trebygningene ble revet og erstattet av enda en steinbygning. Slik stod da kongsgården fullført etter Håkon Håkonssons intensjoner, markert som rikets politiske og administrative sentrum – fullført idet det politiske tyngdepunkt var ved å forskyve seg mot sørøst – det hele dominert av den mektige romanske katedralen Kristkirken ytterst på pynten.

Etter at Rosenkrantztårnet gjennom århundrene hadde hatt skiftende takløsninger, fikk det ved restaureringen etter siste krig tilbake sin skotske takform – slik Scholeusstikket viser (foto: Svein Nord).