00:00Gamlehaugen is a royal castle in Bergen, Norway, and the residence of the Norwegian royal family
00:08in the city.
00:10Gamlehaugen has a history that goes as far back as the Middle Ages.
00:14And the list of previous owners includes many of the wealthiest men in Bergen.
00:18Today owned by the Norwegian state, the most recent private owner was Christian Mikkelsen,
00:23a politician and shipping magnate who later became the first Prime Minister of Norway
00:27after the dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway.
00:32Mikkelsen commissioned the construction of the current main building at Gamlehaugen,
00:35where he would live for most of the rest of his life.
00:38When Mikkelsen died in 1925, his closest friends and colleagues started a national fundraising
00:43campaign that brought in enough money to allow the Norwegian state to purchase the property.
00:48The large English park was opened to the public the same year, and the ground floor of the
00:52house was opened as a museum two years later.
00:56Gamlehaugen has been the Norwegian royal family's residence in Bergen since 1927.
01:01Gamlehaugen Castle in Bergen, Norway Gamlehaugen was the site of a farm as early as the Middle
01:06Ages.
01:07But it was abandoned as a result of the Black Death.
01:10In 1665, it once again became farmland, as part of the larger Fiosanger Manor.
01:15In 1809, Gamlehaugen was separated from Fiosanger.
01:19Marie Krohn, the niece of Dankert Dankertsen Krohn, who had owned Fiosanger until his death
01:24in 1795, built a mansion at Gamlehaugen.
01:28A shack Stenberg purchased Gamlehaugen in 1838.
01:31In 1864, Alexander Boll, the son of the violinist Ole Boll bought the property, however, he
01:37sold it to coppersmith Ole Andreas Gundersen only two years later.
01:42The last owner who operated Gamlehaugen as a farm was the merchant Anton Mohr, who bought
01:46it in 1878.
01:48When he died in 1890, his widow, Alethe Mohr, sold the property to a pair of artisans from
01:53Bergen.
01:54However, she was allowed to continue using the property in the main building due to a
01:58closeal in the sale contract.
02:01In 1898, Christian Michelsen, a politician and shipping magnate, bought the property.
02:06He demolished the existing main building, a Swiss chalet-style mansion, and ordered
02:11the construction of a new building in the style of a Scottish baronial-style castle.
02:15The architect was Jens Zettlitz Monrad Kielland, who would later draw the Bergen railway station
02:20and the brick buildings at Breigen.
02:22The construction was finished in 1900, and Michelsen with family moved in the next year.
02:28He delegated the task of converting the farmlands surrounding the building into a park to gardener
02:32Olav Mohan, who designed it as an English park.
02:35Barring his years as prime minister of Norway from 1905 to 1907, Christian Michelsen lived
02:41at Gamlehaugen for the remainder of his life.
02:44The main building seen from the northwest Following Michelsen's death in 1925, his closest
02:49friends and colleagues initiated a national fundraising campaign that sought to collect
02:53the money needed for the state to purchase Gamlehaugen, as well as create a fund to pay
02:58for the costs of operation and maintenance.
03:01While the campaign did not raise the goal of one million nak, the state did nevertheless
03:05buy the property.
03:06The fund eventually ran dry, and the state has paid for the upkeep since 1965.
03:12Gamlehaugen was renovated between 1989 and 1991 in preparation for Harald V and Queen
03:17Sonja's first visit as king and queen consort.
03:21Crown Prince Haakon resided at the mansion while he attended the Royal Norwegian Naval
03:24Academy in the 1990s.
03:27That is all.
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