Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town‘s impor­tance as part of the Hanseat­ic League‘s trad­ing empire from the 14th to the mid-16th cen­tu­ry. Many fires, the last in 1955, have rav­aged the char­ac­ter­is­tic wood­en hous­es of Bryggen. Its rebuild­ing has tra­di­tion­al­ly fol­lowed old pat­terns and meth­ods, thus leav­ing its main struc­ture pre­served, which is a rel­ic of an ancient wood­en urban struc­ture once com­mon in North­ern Europe. Today, some 62 build­ings remain of this for­mer town­scape.