January
2, 2008 European Cultural
Capital Stavanger
Looks Beyond Oil
Stavanger (Norway)
Norway, as Norwegians see it, has four capitals: Oslo, the seat of
the country's government; Bergen, a focal point of art and culture
that belonged to the medieval trade association known as the
Hanseatic League; the historic city of Trondheim; and Stavanger.
Home to some 120,000 people, Stavanger is known as Norway's oil
capital. It is the centre of activities connected with the
extraction of the North Seas "black gold", which has made Norway one
of the world's richest countries. Stavanger has gained another title
too: It and Liverpool have been named "European Capitals of Culture"
for 2008.
A likely reason that Stavanger received the honour is its successful
balancing act. The city has managed to meld its cultural legacy with
modern economic life. You can see this as soon as you enter the
harbour: Historic warehouses and boathouses line both banks, and
then suddenly an enormous steel oil platform appears.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the state-controlled oil
company StatoilHydro, and representatives of international oil
companies reside at the end of the bay.
Foreigners make up eight percent of Stavanger's population - a high
proportion by Norwegian standards - and they have put their stamp on
the city's cuisine. Traditional fish restaurants are less common in
the narrow streets of the old city centre than eateries offering
international dishes.
Stavanger is therefore likely to be well prepared for the surge of
cultural-capital visitors. The fat years of high oil revenues have
lent the city a spruced-up look, and it can use the special funds
provided by the European Union for cultural arrangements in addition
to infrastructure expansion.
The Stavanger 2008 organising team, comprising some 60 people, has
created a programme that includes exhibitions, concerts, music
festivals, shows, theatre, children's events, technology workshops,
and nature excursions.
The programme's title is Open Port. Stavanger and the surrounding
region are aiming to open up to the world, make lasting contacts and
explore new opportunities.
Municipal authorities want to rid Stavanger of its one-dimensional
image as an oil and gas town - whose days are likely numbered
because the opening of the Snohvit oil field near Hammerfest, and
further fossil-fuel deposits under the Barents Sea, mean that the
petroleum business is poised to shift further north.
Founded in 1125, Stavanger is accustomed to change, however. It has
survived several devastating fires, and its economy has always had
to reorient itself.
The city's inhabitants once made their living from maritime trade
and fishing. When the schools of herring dwindled in the second half
of the 19th century, they switched to canning sprats and, later,
other goods. At one time there were more than 50 canning factories
in Stavanger, making it the world's biggest canning centre.
After that era ended came the offshore oil industry, and with it
shipyards, ancillary industries and development laboratories.
You can get a quick feel for Stavanger's history on a tour of the
city that takes in the cathedral, which dates from the time the city
was founded, the Stavanger Maritime Museum, the Norwegian Canning
Museum, and the Norwegian Petroleum Museum, which is in the harbour.
And if you look closely at the city's programme for 2008 you will
see signs of where Stavanger is headed, namely toward a future
marked by culture, and not oil and gas.
More information is available on the Internet at www.visitnorway.com,
www.regionstavanger.no, and www.stavanger2008.no.
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