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- What it is: Trondheim's postcard old town, a cobbled riverbank of protected wooden houses and cafés under Kristiansten fortress.
- Who it suits: people who want to live in the prettiest part of the city, walk everywhere, and do not mind visitors and small old flats.
- What it costs: a heritage premium over the city; no separate figure is published, so we show the Trondheim average of about 56,000 kr per m².
- What people complain about: summer crowds, and cobbles and stairs that make daily life fiddly.
First impressions
Bakklandet is the picture Trondheim puts on its postcards. It is a run of protected wooden houses along the east bank of the Nidelva, between the Bakke bridge and the red-portalled Old Town Bridge, its cobbled lanes lined with cafés, bakeries and small boutiques, and the Kristiansten fortress on the hill above. On a sunny day half the city seems to be walking it.
It is historic, central and by the water, charming and much-visited in equal measure, a short cross of the bridge from the city centre.
This is one of the loveliest streets in Norway to live on, and it knows exactly what it is.
Who lives here, and what the streets look like
Bakklandet was a working-class artisan suburb that gentrified into one of the city's most desirable addresses. Today it draws young professionals and a broad age mix, with students on the doorstep in Møllenberg and up the hill by the university.
The streetscape is the draw and the constraint: low wooden houses, cobbled and largely pedestrian, ground floors given to cafés and shops, the river on one side and the climb to Kristiansten on the other. It is beautiful to walk and busy with visitors.
Getting around
Bakklandet is a walking district. It is flat, cobbled and largely pedestrian along the river, with the Trampe bike lift to help you up the hill, and the city centre is an eight to ten minute walk across the Gamle Bybro. Buses run the Innherredsveien corridor on its northern edge, including the high-frequency Metrobuss line 1, and Trondheim Central Station is about fifteen minutes away.
Typical weekday minutes from Bakke bru, with the icon showing how. Times via Google Routes API for a typical weekday around 08:00, measured from the neighborhood centre; the icon shows the fastest sensible way (walk, bike, transit or car)., 2026-08.
Daily life
Day to day, Bakklandet is café-country. On the lanes themselves the shopping is small-format and independent, cafés, bakeries and antique and design boutiques rather than chains, with a convenience grocer on the strip, and the full supermarkets sit just across Bakke bru at Solsiden and along Innherredsveien. For food delivery, Foodora and Wolt both cover Trondheim.
Local Places Worth Knowing
Independent and close by, chosen on merit. Nobody pays to appear here. Links are being confirmed.
A café in one of Bakklandet's best-preserved 1700s wooden houses, a former coaching station, with homemade food and a bar of over 350 aquavits.
View on Google MapsThe cobbled-lane branch of the Trondheim roaster that opened the city's first modern coffee bar in 1997.
View on Google MapsA riverside pub and eatery on the waterfront, 'your good neighbour on Bakklandet', more than thirty years in business.
View on Google MapsThe red-portalled Old Town Bridge over the Nidelva, one of Trondheim's signature landmarks, known as 'Lykkens portal'.
Checked August 2026. Places close and change, so tell us if something here is out of date.
Schools and families
Bakklandet is a small, central quarter rather than a family suburb, but the schools are close, up the hill. The nearest lower-secondary is Rosenborg skole, and the nearest primary is Singsaker skole on the hill above, with kindergartens in the wider Østbyen area. Norway publishes school results through Udir, but not at a per-district grain, so we do not rate schools here. Trondheim has free school choice, so it is worth checking admission before you sign a lease or purchase.
Kids Restricted. Scenic and very walkable, with green and city views up at Kristiansten, but the largely unfenced riverbank and the narrow cobbles are hard going with a pram, and the vibe is café-and-tourist rather than playground-dense.
Pet Friendly. Riverside promenades along the Nidelva and quiet cobbled lanes make for easy dog-walking, with the grassy Kristiansten ramparts a short climb up; the cobbles and the climb are hard on paws, and the lanes get crowded in summer.
Green space, leisure and eating out
Bakklandet's green is the river and the fortress. The Nidelva riverside carries walking and cycling paths past the historic wharves, and a short climb, or the bike lift, brings you to the grassy ramparts of Kristiansten and the best panorama in the city. Solsiden's waterfront dining is across Bakke bru, and eating out here is café-country, from Baklandet Skydsstation to Dromedar and the riverside Den Gode Nabo.
What it costs
Bakklandet carries a heritage premium over the city. No Bakklandet-specific sale price is published, so we show the Trondheim city average of about 55 722 NOK / m² (about €5,100 / m²) ≈ $540 / sq ft, and this protected old town runs above it in practice. Rent is set by the market rather than any first-hand system, so no local figure exists; the wider Trondheim two-room market runs around 11 850 NOK / mo (about €1,100 / mo) (SSB, 2025). The stock is old, protected and small.
Weather and climate
Seasonal averages for Trondheim, one representative month per season. MET Norway 1991-2020 normals (Trondheim-Voll) via Wikipedia climate box.
The honest downsides
Touristy and pricey in season. As one of the city's top attractions, the narrow lanes get crowded in summer and eating out carries a premium; it can feel like a postcard set as much as a lived-in street.
Old-town frictions. Protected wooden houses mean small dwellings, little parking and tight limits on renovation, and the cobbles and the steep climb to Kristiansten are hard on prams, wheelchairs and bikes.
Crime and safety
Bakklandet is a busy, well-used tourist quarter in a very safe city, and Norway does not publish neighborhood-level crime figures, so there is no local number. The few friction points are weekend late-night noise from the Bakklandet and Solsiden bars and the ordinary petty theft of a busy visitor area. Any street begging in central Trondheim is limited and concentrated around the main square rather than the Bakklandet lanes. The fuller Trondheim picture is on the city safety page.
Is this you?
If you want to live in the prettiest, most walkable part of Trondheim, on a cobbled street with a café downstairs and the river at the end of it, and you take the visitors and the cobbles as part of the deal, Bakklandet is hard to beat. If you want space, easy parking and quiet, a residential district up the hill or out on Byåsen will suit you better.
Want to know what homes here are actually worth?
Join the waitlistHow we source this
How we put this together. Gathered on the ground by our local field team and written up by the Apraiz research team. Every figure above carries its own source and date. The scores are not computed by the build; walking and transport will use open map and transit data first, then Apraiz's own model. We update prices quarterly, transport and amenities twice a year, and school data when the source publishes.
Sources: Krogsveen prisstatistikk, Statistics Norway (SSB), Leiemarkedsundersøkelsen, Wikipedia, Statistics Norway (SSB), table 08487.
Safety and crime in Trondheim →Nearby: Møllenberg · Singsaker · Byåsen