Historically, trade usually took place in town squares or inside bazaars. In the countryside markets were held at regular times during certain seasons. The exchange of goods became a common form of trade all over Europe, but people also understood that a positive trading balance would lead to a surplus of cash. One result of the expanded trade was that more foreign ships sailed to Norwegian harbors.

The Norwegian word “borger” (citizen) originally meant someone who belonged to a fortress, or a “borg”, but also a town. Later, it started to indicate a member of a specific class, the bourgeoisie. Legally, the bourgeoisie consisted of townspeople who had obtained a Certificate of Citizenship, that granted them the right to conduct trade in a town.

Over time, there was no longer room for those with limited capital to invest in trade. Competition became fiercer, and the merchant bourgeoisie expanded significantly. Craftsmen, civil servants and farmers were pushed out of trading business. Trough the market town privileges of 1662, the bourgeoisie were given almost exclusive rights to all domestic and international trade. The reason for these privileges was the enormous growth of the timber industry that led to great prosperity to a smaller group of people.

In Trondheim, most of the merchants were immigrants, many from Flensburg in Germany. The main exports were fish and timber, and later also copper. Import consisted of foreign goods such as wine, beer and liquor, spices and sugar, coffee, tea, and chocolate. Other imports included East Indian porcelain, faience, English stoneware, and silks from China, France and England.

The foreign merchants settled in Trondheim solely because of trade, and from 1700 to around 1850, this group dominated the social, economic and cultural life of the city. This is a period that later came to be known as Trondheim’s “golden age,” and the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie in Trondheim was said to rival that of merchant communities elsewhere in Europe during this time. By the mid-19^th century, a new trading dynasty started to take over, shaped in part by ideas rooted in the modern society of industrialism.

At the Hans Nissen house, housemaids played a central role – not only in running the household itself, but also in preserving its interior. The maids Maren Næbell (1770–1845), Karen Christina Christophersen (1806–) and Birgitte Lie (1822–1912) all went from being housemaids to gain full responsibility for the house, through will and testament. They helped preserve the house and all its contents through generations, until it was given to the museum in 1912.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, domestic service was a common occupation for young, unmarried men and women. In Trondheim, servants made up around 20 per cent of the adult population. Eight out of ten servants in Trondheim were women, because men had more opportunities for work in other trades, such as fishing, timber and mining.

In the 18th century, servants usually carried out farm work and tended to livestock. In the towns, however, this changed during the 19th century, as new ideals emerged concerning the role of bourgeois women. There was more than enough work to do within the household – carrying water, doing laundry, cleaning, cooking, childcare, tending paraffin lamps, carrying coal and firewood, polishing stoves, beating carpets and serving. Mistresses and young ladies went from doing much of the cooking and household work themselves to instead managing it more from a distance.

Servants were paid a wage in cash, in addition to board and lodging, and often also clothing. Reprimands and punishments were not uncommon, but they also had certain rights. A servant could lodge a complaint and bring a case against their employer, and court records show that they were even able to win.

Being a domestic servant was often the beginning of a long working life. Men might later become day labourers, soldiers or tenant farmers. Women typically left service when they married, but those who remained unmarried often continued as housemaids for life.

Ragout of Hare or Birds
«Take a hare or bird and cut it into small pieces. If it is raw, cook it first, then let it brown in a pot. Add water or wine, cloves, and pepper, and let it simmer evenly. Then thicken it with browned butter and flour, and let it cook. Add a little vinegar once it is cooked. Serve the dish, and sprinkle with cloves on top. »

(Recipe from Trondheim, 18^th-19^th century).

 

Today we can buy food whenever and wherever we like. In the 18th century things were quite different. In towns, some food could be purchased from merchants, who sold both local and imported goods, but much was also made at home. All food prepared in the household had to last through winter. Even in well-off households, careful records of supplies were kept.

In the Hans Nissen house, inventories of the kitchen and the brewhouse provide insight into the food traditions at the time. Beer was brewed in the large, round, brick-built oven in the storeroom, while sourdough bread and other baked goods were made in the baking oven. If brewing and baking took place at the same time, the yeast from the beer was used in the bread.

Everyday food among the bourgeoisie could consist of porridge made with water, herring and rye bread. It may seem modest that a wealthy man such as Hans Nissen ate such simple food, but he was known to be a frugal man.

As a merchant, however, Hans Nissen had access to more than most people. A man of his standing is also likely to have been drinking coffee or tea daily. The Chinese porcelain in the kitchen indicates that such drinks were being served.

A typical dinner with guests among the bourgeoisie can be found in the account of Thomas Malthus, who visited Trondheim in 1799 and was entertained at the residence of County Governor Moltke.

The dinner … consisting of soup, fowls, ham, fish and almost half a roasted calf, in addition to smaller dishes. For the desert we had a profusion of wild strawberries, and large bowls of cream.

In general, there are few concrete sources telling us what the oldest townhouses in Trondheim looked like through the centuries. This is partly because very few of today’s townhouses are very old, due to the many fires that have ravaged the city. Some of the townhouses may nevertheless contain cores of older rebuilt structures. Much of this may be well hidden from us today.

The residential house that we today refer to as the Hans Nissen house was built in 1723 and therefore belongs to the group of older townhouses in Trondheim. The tree-ring dating show that the timber was felled in 1719 and 1720, which fits well with the construction date. The main building originally had a gallery facing the backyard with an external staircase connecting the two floors. All the rooms on the second floor had doors leading directly out to the gallery with no internal connections between them.

Hans Nissen became the owner of the house in 1750, the same year he obtained trading rights as a merchant. He made major alterations to the house and converted it into a merchant’s house. Nissen tore down the older side building, and had a new wing constructed. This is the building that was later moved to the museum.

The main building’s floor plan was altered: The new entrance into the living room went through a newly established hallway. This hallway was directly connected to a small storefront with a serving hatch in the exterior wall facing the street. Both the entrance door and the shop hatch were protected by a newly constructed front porch with a lean-to roof. This is in keeping with how storefronts had been organized all the way back to the Middle Ages. The former doorway leading directly from the street into the living room was completely closed off. The older porch, with a roof shaped like an onion dome, was demolished. The clapboard siding on the street-facing facade today hides, among other things, the bricked-up doorway to the living room and the hewn timber joint that once supported the rafters of the onion-domed porch roof. Newly built partitions of tongue-and-groove boards created new lightweight partition walls facing the gateway in both the dining room and storefront.

The hallway, storefront and carriage entrance were newly added functions to the first floor of the house. This likely required alterations on the second floor as well, where the existing rooms were further subdivided.

Between 2016 and 2024, the Hans Nissen house underwent an extensive restoration to preserve the oldest surviving merchant’s house in Trondheim.

The main building was constructed in 1723 as a log structure, clad with wooden paneling on the exterior and partly on the interior. The side wing was added in 1754. The house remains largely unchanged with both original house elements and interior still intact. After nearly a century at Sverresborg, however, large parts of the building had suffered from rot. This made it necessary to dismantle and replace sections of the roof, gables and the wall. In total 18 wall logs, and one roof beam, were replaced with new timber, shaped in the traditional manner using period-appropriate techniques and equipment.

On the second floor of the main house, we find “Det rankemalte rommet – “The vine-painted room”. This was a guest chamber decorated with beautiful baroque vine motifs. The walls, door and ceiling are painted freehand with flowers and creeping plants. These paintings are extremely rare in ordinary townhouses and makes this room a true treasure in Trondheim’s history. In 2019, the paintings were restored and secured for preservation through extensive conservation work, performed by painting conservators at CICS University in Cologne, with support from the Hans Nissen and Wife foundation. To the left, you can see a replica of the decoration from “The Vine-painted room”. The original painted panels have been removed and are currently held in storage.

The windows and fittings were also carefully restored, including two cross-post windows in the courtyard and several two-pane windows on the second floor. Were necessary, old elements were replaced with true copies. Also, the beautiful leaded glass-windows and their shutters were likewise given new life.

The roof and chimney were repaired with new boards that replicated the originals, complete with water grooves, as used in the past. Much of the attic floor had to be dismantled and relaid, with six floorboards replaced by handmade replicas.

The side wing - comprising the living room, brewhouse, packing room, and barn - was completely dismantled and rebuilt, and restored inside. Around 500 meters of logwork were replaced with hand-picked timber, prepared using traditional techniques. Finally, a small shelter was constructed on the gable facing Sverresborg Allé.

Restoration is a painstaking work that takes time and clearly shows what it takes to preserve our cultural heritage for future generations. Thanks to generous donations from the Hans Nissen and Wife Foundation, the works could be carried out, and the house reopen for our visitors