Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor

A view of the city below from one of Alesund's most popular restaurants. - Contributed photos

Last week, we showed you parts of Norway that were completely blanketed by snow. After all, it is winter now. Just yesterday, in a telephone conversation with Ove Godo, managing director of Atlantic exporting company, The Gleaner learnt that it was snowing so heavily, he had to abort his Easter vacation in the mountains and return home. It was too much snow, even for skiing!

Today we look at the beautiful city of Alesund.

Alesund Fire

On the night of January 23, 1904, the town was the scene of the Alesund Fire, one of the most terrible of the many conflagrations to which Norwegian towns, once built largely of wood, have been subjected. Practically the entire town was destroyed during the night, a gale aiding the flames, and the population had to leave the town in the middle of the night with only a few minutes' notice. Only one person died in the fire, but more than 10,000 people were left without shelter.

Kaiser Wilhelm (king of Prussia who became the first Kaiser emperor of a united Germany) had often gone on vacation to Sunnmore in Alesund. After the fire, he sent four ships with materials to build temporary shelters and barracks. After a period of planning, the town was rebuilt in stone, brick and mortar in Jugendstil (art nouveau), the architectural style of the time. The structures were designed by approximately 20 master builders and 30 Norwegian architects, most of them educated in Trondheim and Charlottenburg, Berlin, drawing inspiration from all over Europe.

Consistent architecture

The town has an unusually consistent architecture, most of the buildings having been built between 1904 and 1907. Alesund is a partner city of the art nouveau network, a European group of cooperation created in 1999 for the study, safeguard and development of art nouveau.

The Gleaner visited Norway from March 1-8 at the invitation of the Norwegian Seafood Export Council, marketers of salted cod, saithe and clipfish to Jamaica, Brazil, Greece, Portugat and other parts of the world. On the final day, host Svein Wara showed us the town of Alesund.

On Thursday, our Food section will present part two of the saltfish story with reference to Atlantic, a company that exports its salted saithe mainly to Jamaica.

(Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Left: Boats for fishing and pleasure are everywhere and many buildings outline the fjords that populate the city. Right: Alesund's wooden structures that were destroyed in the fire of January 1904 were replaced by these brick and mortar buildings that stand today. German architectural influences are evident.

Alesund Lighthouse in Alnes

It is typical to see buildings along the water's edge in Alesund, Norway.