The Bahá’í Community of Bergen, Norway, is a small, international religious community with about forty members of all ages. Meetings are organized in private homes or at rented venues. Everyone is welcome to all our activities.
Contact: e-mail bergen@bahai.no or telephone +47 400 44 681.
For more information about the Bahá’í Faith, see bahai.org (intentional, in English) or bahai.no (Norwegian).
History of the Bahá’í Faith in Bergen
The first known visit of a bahá’í to Bergen was Martha Root, in 1919. Amalie Bowman pioneered from the United States to Bergen in 1948 and soon Ester Salomon Nielsen was the first local to declare. By 1955 there were nine bahá’ís, which allowed for the establishment the Local Spiritual Assemblies for the Bahá’ís of Bergen. This was the second local assembly in the country, founded seven years after Oslo, and the first incorporation of a non-Christian religious community in the city.
Norwegian authorities recognized the Bahá’í Faith in 1971. The first summer school in Bergen was organized at Fana Folk High School in 1982. There have been two Bahá’í centers in the city. The first opened in 1991 and was located in Møhlenpris. The second, in Syndes, opened in 1999 and was closed in 2013.