BACKGROUND: Stavanger: European Capital of Culture for 2008
By Matthias Huthmacher, dpa
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Stavanger, Norway (dpa) - 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 in Britain 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 8 per cent 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.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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