Ålesund

Ålesund is spread over a string of islands where the Sunnmøre fjords meet the sea, with the old centre on Aspøya and Nørve, either side of a narrow channel. The first thing you notice is the houses: street after street of stone and brick in pale yellow, green and orange, with towers, turrets and curved gables. Most of it went up between 1904 and 1907. Behind the centre rises Aksla, the town mountain.

The town grew on fish and still lives from the sea, with one of Norway's biggest ocean fishing fleets, fish plants on Hessa and a long list of firms making equipment for ships. The name comes from Old Norse Álasund, probably the sound of the eels, after the good eel fishing in the channel through town.

Local knowledge: In 1904 Ålesund, a kjøpstad since 1848, was a wooden town with houses packed tight. Around two in the night of 23 January a fire broke out in a factory on Nedre Strandgate. A south-westerly gale blew so hard that people could barely stand, and sparks flew from roof to roof faster than the firemen could move. It burned for 15 hours. About 850 houses were lost and more than 10.000 people were homeless. Only one died, Ane Heen, 76, who went back inside for something she had forgotten. Within days Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had often spent his summers in Sunnmøre, sent ships from Germany with food, clothes and building materials. The new town had to be brick and stone, and about 30 Norwegian architects rebuilt it in Jugendstil, the Art Nouveau of the time. A street in the centre carries the Kaiser's name.

Born here: Joachim Rønneberg (1919–2018) escaped to Shetland on a fishing boat in 1941 and later led the Gunnerside team that blew up the heavy water plant at Vemork. Brain researcher Edvard Moser (born 1962) shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in medicine for finding the grid cells, part of the brain's own positioning system.

Visiting: the pin points to the tourist information on Skateflukaia, open all year, where you can book fjord cruises. From Byparken, 418 steps lead up Aksla to the Fjellstua viewpoint, with islands and open sea on one side and the Sunnmøre Alps on the other. On a rainy day, go to Jugendstilsenteret in the old Swan Pharmacy by Brosundet. The pharmacy's interior is now the entrance, and a multimedia show takes you back to the night of the fire. Or swim at Bybadet. The centre is cramped for a camper. Hjelsetgården motorhome parking on Sorenskriver Bulls gate, five minutes from the centre, is open all year.

Fact sheet

• People: 56.763 in Ålesund, 59.663 in Ålesund municipality
• County: Møre og Romsdal
• Town since: 1848 (as a trading town)
• Typical industries: machinery and ship equipment, banking and finance, fish processing and food

Population on 1 January 2026, from Statistics Norway. Typical industries are the ones with a much bigger share of the jobs here than in Norway as a whole (Statistics Norway, 2025).