Norway's oil capital — Preikestolen hike, old wooden quarter, and the Lysefjord
Stavanger is Norway's fourth largest city and its oil capital — the North Sea oil bonanza that began in 1969 made it one of the wealthiest cities per capita in Europe, but the old wooden quarter (Gamle Stavanger) of 18th-century white-painted timber houses is also the best-preserved wooden townscape in northern Europe. The real draw is the landscape outside the city: the Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) hike above the Lysefjord — a flat granite slab 604 metres above the fjord floor — is one of Norway's most popular walks, and the Lysefjord cruise below it is one of the most dramatic boat trips in E…
Stavanger was a significant Viking-era trading town and became a bishopric in 1125. Its 12th-century cathedral (Stavanger Domkirke) is the best-preserved Romanesque cathedral in Norway. The city's herring industry in the 19th century made it briefly one of the world's leading canning centres — the Norwegian Canning Museum occupies a preserved sardine factory from 1912. Everything changed on December 23, 1969, when the Ekofisk oil field was discovered 300km offshore — the subsequent oil boom transformed Stavanger into an international energy hub with one of the highest average incomes in Europ…