Art Museums and Composer Homes

KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes is one of the largest cultural institutions in the Nordic region dedicated to art, craft, design, and music. Located in and around the city of Bergen, Norway, the institution comprises four art museums in the city center—Lysverket, Rasmus Meyer, Stenersen, and Permanenten—and three composer homes situated in the surrounding landscape: Troldhaugen (Edvard Grieg), Siljustøl (Harald Sæverud), and Lysøen (Ole Bull). The museum stewards over 50,000 objects, including paintings, sculptures, musical instruments, furniture, and works of fine craft, offering a unique combination of visual arts and musical heritage.

The institution's origins trace back to 1825 with the establishment of Bergens Museum by Wilhelm F. K. Christie, which aimed to collect natural and cultural history. In 1878, the Bergen Visual Arts Museum was established as a separate municipal institution, followed by the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art in 1887. These entities, along with the composer homes, were administratively merged over the 20th century, culminating in the formal unification of the Bergen Art Museum, the West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, and the three composer homes into the single entity known as KODE in 2006.