The Hanseatic League had a foreign office at Bryggen for nearly four centuries, from about 1360 to 1754. Today, visitors staying in hotels in Bergen can visit the Hanseatic Museum, which is located in one fo the old trade houses at Bryggen. At the time that the office was in use, merchants would trade stockfish from northern Norway and grain from the Baltics, and only Germans lived here in those days.
Neither light nor heating was allowed in this era for fear of fire, and the Hanseatics were unmarried and had to remain celibate while living in the offices. The Hanseatic Museum has old interiors from the 18th and 19th centuries and is housed in the only building with interiors that were preserved after the fires of 1702. Situated in the center of Bergen, the museum is within walking distance of the Fisketorget, or Fish Market, so you can stop and try some raw oysters while you are in the area.