In connection with the rehabilitation of Trondheim’s Market Square, NIKU has undertaken archaeological investigations in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The Market Square in Trondheim was laid down in 1681 after a fire left the city in ashes. The King gave Officer Johan Caspar de Cicignon the task of drawing up a new city plan, and his plan departed completely from the city’s old network of streets.

Under the market square, we have found traces of buildings and the activities that went on here before the city fire. Remains of a forge and a workshop for making bronze pots have been found. In addition, a mould for making church bells was hidden under the asphalt. We have also uncovered traces of agriculture dating from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, and a system of ditches that have divided up the area from the 900s until the 1400s. Thick layers of agricultural soil, found in the natural hollows of the original terrain, attest to long-term farming on Nidarneset. We have also found cooking pits from the Roman Iron Age (1-400 AD) preserved under the arable land.

In total, the excavation has revealed a slice of the entirety of Trondheim’s history, right from when Nidarneset became dry land to the city we know today.

Follow our archaeologists’ work on the project’s Facebook page.

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