Here are some random photos of notable buildings in Tromsø, taken on my walks during my solstice holidays there. The photos are not in chronological order.

Alfheim, our swimming pool. It was built in 1965, by the same architect as made Ishavskatedralen.

position: geo:69.647537,18.938741 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 10:44:24 localtime - full quality

Ishavskatedralen and Alfheim are sort of looking at each other - as intended by the architect.

position: geo:69.647308,18.930002 (geohack) - 2018-12-26 23:33:34 localtime - full quality

A boat house, probably a part of Tromsø Folkemuseum. This is nearby Telegrafbukta.

position: geo:69.637176,18.904848 (geohack) - 2018-12-26 22:22:20 localtime - full quality

position: geo:69.636802,18.903667 (geohack) - 2018-12-26 22:22:27 localtime - full quality

I grew up under the cold war, there were bomb shelters to be found "everywhere". After the 90s they have mostly fallen into disuse.

position: geo:69.640045,18.931161 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 12:51:16 localtime - full quality

Bjerkaker skole

position: geo:69.637741,18.930007 (geohack) - 2018-12-29 13:05:52 localtime - full quality

To the right, the old diary building. I think it's still used by Tine for storage purposes.

position: geo:69.639183,18.940025 (geohack) - 2018-12-29 12:42:18 localtime - full quality

The hospital used to be here - it was moved to the north side of the island, probably in the 90s. Some of the buildings here were torn down after they moved it.

position: geo:69.644836,18.940782 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 11:47:56 localtime - full quality

Framsenteret, a quite new building, doing environmental sciences. (Source: Norwegian wikipedia)

position: geo:69.643997,18.946321 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 11:50:14 localtime - full quality

Behind is Polarmiljøsenteret, I believe the building is a decade older than Framsenteret, now it's a part of Framsenteret.

position: geo:69.644882,18.947721 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 11:51:31 localtime - full quality

The building that seems to be tilted is Polaria, our new aquarium from 1998 (source: Norwegian wikipedia). I've heard that we by now have one even newer aquarium, but I haven't been there yet. First time I saw the building from the distance, I believed there had been some major accident while they were constructing it. It's actually not meant to look like a construction accident, but like ice floes being tiled up towards land by the wind.

position: geo:69.645004,18.948265 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 11:52:11 localtime - full quality

The big building to the right and the building to the left used to be our local brewery, Mack. The building to the left has been renovated so much it looks very differently now than earlier ... so I decided to leave it more or less out of the photo. The brewery was founded in 1877, the building to the right was completed in 1969, and the production was moved to new factory buildings outside town in 2012. (source: Lokalhistoriewiki). Back in 1877 this was at the very outskirts of town, so it was a nice location, close enough for employees to come there by feet, and far enough out that property was cheap. Now in modern times it doesn't make much sense to have a brewery downtown - less employers are needed, the employers can travel to work by car (and will need a big parking place), it's best to locate it nearby the main roads and not have all the heavy transport going through town ... but perhaps most importantly, as far as I've understood, in modern breweries it's best to have everything on the same level, it's allows for cheaper operations than to make beer in a multi-story building. I don't know, but the market for mainstream beer is very price sensitive, they needed to move to keep up with the competition.

position: geo:69.645355,18.949352 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 11:52:58 localtime - full quality

"Storgaten Camping" - never seen that before. It's a part of the old brewery house. Apparently it's not a place for putting up tents or a parking place for caravans, but an indoor minigolf playground and pub.

position: geo:69.645805,18.948543 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 10:44:25 localtime - full quality

Storgata, relatively far south (but north of the previous photo). The house on the right side where there is no heating in the pavement - Storgata 43 (lokalhistoriewiki) - is owned by my mother, my great-grandmother Hilda Jacobsen bought the house in 1919 and established a women clothing shop in the first floor. The shop, with the name "Hilda Jacobsen", was alive until the late 80s. My granddad Vilhelm lived there until his death in 1998. I should probably ask my mother why there is no heating in the pavement - it was definitively working in the 80s!

position: geo:69.647163,18.953048 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 11:55:28 localtime - full quality

And here is our best supermarket from the 70s ... Matservice A/S. Or ... wait a bit ... it's gone! Well, to be honest that brand name has been gone for some decades already, but "Spar" or "Eurospar" had a pretty decent supermarket there until recently. Probably the supermarket will be back again after they build something new here ... or so I hope.

position: geo:69.646514,18.952903 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 10:46:36 localtime - full quality

View from the main church towards the sea, with the telegraph building on the left and Saga hotel on the right. The land all the way to the sea ("Prostneset") sort of belonged to the church, and before the telegraph building was built, there were a churchyard and the priests mansion there (source: lokalhistoriewiki). The building of the new telegraph house caused quite some political stir. It was considered important that people coming with boat to join the service should be able to see the church, hence some compromise was made - the buildings are angled so that the church can be clearly seen from quite an angle at the sea. (I have no idea about the building in the middle there, I think it should not be there - probably approved by some politicians or bureaucrats that don't know the architectical history).

position: geo:69.64846,18.95767 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 11:15:56 localtime - full quality

View of the main street Storgata from the church towards south. The small supermarket to the left (by now "Joker") is also one of the old supermarkets in town, Knudsen (old photos at lokalhistoriewiki. There is still some car traffic on this part of Storgata.

position: geo:69.648773,18.955087 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 11:17:12 localtime - full quality

Storgata towards the north - this is pedestrian zone, with some passing bus traffic in the first street.

position: geo:69.648773,18.955087 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 11:17:25 localtime - full quality

The old bank building. Tromsø Sparebank was established in 1836, the building was made in 1912 ... more about that on lokalhistoriewiki. There were a lot of mergers in the 1960s-1980s. The bank was merged together with the last competing savings bank in town - Sparebanken Nord - in 1989 - and they became Sparebanken Nord-Norge - now it's a part of the Sparebank1 banking group. I believe the building is far too big for the bank today, so probably it's used for other purposes as well. Except, right now it's not in use at all, even the bank has temporarily moved due to building maintenance.

position: geo:69.649665,18.955331 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 11:18:14 localtime - full quality

Storgata, view towards the north, from Tromsø Sparebank. The areas without snow/ice is due to heating in the pavement. Note the absence of old wooden houses - we've had several big fires up through the history, though as far as I can understand from Lokalhistoriewiki (Storgata 70, Storgata 69, Storgata 67) the old buildings were demolished to give space for new developments in the 60s. There used to be two shopping centres on both sides of the street, KV-bygget and Tempogården. Nowadays most of the commerce has moved to a new commercial center at the other side of the island - I'll probably get back to that in another post.

position: geo:69.649139,18.955385 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 12:30:14 localtime - full quality

I'm surprised to see that many tourist shops there are in town. I believe the building itself is from the 80s, the tourist shop has moved in there during the last few years. I briefly visited the tourist shop - I thought maybe I could buy some t-shirt with some Northern-Norwegian or Saami motive as a gifts for my children - but I could almost only find Norwegian souvenirs. That's not much interesting.

position: geo:69.651115,18.957487 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 11:20:39 localtime - full quality

Further north, but looking south. The tourist shop at the right hand.

position: geo:69.65113,18.957603 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 12:39:02 localtime - full quality

This is the main square ... probably food products were traded here decades ago, nowadays most of the trading at the square is towards tourists. In my childhood one could buy fresh shrimps and fish from the boats on the quay down there. I'm not sure, but I believe nowadays old fishing boats are mostly used for transporting turists. The guest harbour is behind the corner to the right.

position: geo:69.651405,18.957683 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 12:39:21 localtime - full quality

Kongsbakken Gymnas - earlier Tromsø Gymnas, nowadays Kongsbakken Videregående Skole - is located right nearby. It's a stepping stone from the children school and into the university. The building was opened for business in 1924 (source: lokalhistoriewiki).

position: geo:69.650489,18.946701 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 16:09:11 localtime - full quality

Kongsbakken

position: geo:69.650054,18.951726 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 12:48:03 localtime - full quality

The little girl running towards our former king with flowers. Kong Olav was also called the "peoples king", he was very popular. During the oil crisis back in the 70s, he would be seen taking the metro up to Frognerseteren for skiing. Though, I'm not sure if that was a one-time-thing or a recurring thing, neither if it was his own idea, or something invented by marketing consultants.

position: geo:69.650054,18.951726 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 12:48:23 localtime - full quality

Kongsbakken. There used to be a small, one-floor shabby building to the left for doing sports, now it has been replaced by that bigger building.

position: geo:69.650558,18.950326 (geohack) - 2018-12-24 12:50:05 localtime - full quality

The most central children school, Gyllenborg. Both me and my mother has been going there - probably my grandparents too, I have forgotten ... it was built in 1900 (source: lokalhistoriewiki. I was the only pupil in the class that actually lived downtown (we moved up into the residential areas just as I finished at this school). The tower in the background is from another school, Kongsbakken.

position: geo:69.65232,18.952667 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 11:31:28 localtime - full quality

Gyllenborg. The artwork was added just some few years ago.

position: geo:69.651405,18.94943 (geohack) - 2018-12-22 16:07:33 localtime - full quality

Elverhøy kirke. It used to be the main church downtown, from 1803 to 1861 - and it was without tower in this period. It was moved just south of town in 1863 and the tower was added, then moved to the current position in 1975. (Source: lokalhistoriewiki)

position: geo:69.648742,18.922147 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 13:16:21 localtime - full quality

Tromsø Radio - the highest radio tower on the southern part of the island.

position: geo:69.646812,18.92489 (geohack) - 2018-12-26 12:32:08 localtime - full quality

position: geo:69.646392,18.924608 (geohack) - 2018-12-26 12:32:40 localtime - full quality

The amateur radio club

position: geo:69.649871,18.926012 (geohack) - 2018-12-26 21:53:43 localtime - full quality

This is a monastery

position: geo:69.652168,18.920595 (geohack) - 2018-12-25 16:39:27 localtime - full quality

Selected photos available in original quality on IPFS Qme4CuoyWVQvkro9wEhurtD8rwsuxVAJG6fQdUD3DVMurC. All photos taken available in original quality on IPFS QmSWxLyhkbjh7EiGPA9n4KfQvE8p3jk3K7oioK5GiP1M5n. The CC BY-SA 4.0 license applies on both my photos and the article

This was a hotel ... Scandic hotel Langnes. It's a huge building. I was very much surprised to see it like this, particularly considering how many tourists and souvenir shops there were downtown. It will probably be redone into an apartment building. Some of the reason why it's like this is probably due to airbnb and probably due to the location ... it's sort of a good location as it's right by the new commercial center of Tromsø, but the tourists rather want to go to the old town center.

position: geo:69.673652,18.932353 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 12:13:02 localtime - full quality

position: geo:69.673851,18.931587 (geohack) - 2018-12-21 12:13:38 localtime - full quality

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