Den Nationale Scene

Founded in 1850 through the efforts of violinist Ole Bull — with Henrik Ibsen among its first resident playwrights — Den Nationale Scene moved into its current Art Nouveau building at Engen in 1909, designed by Einar Oscar Schou after he won an open competition against established Bergen architect Henrik Bull in 1904. King Haakon VII and Queen Maud attended the opening night on 19 February 1909, a performance of Ludvig Holberg's Erasmus Montanus. Schou was knighted in the Order of St. Olav the same year and won the Houen Foundation's architecture prize in 1912 for the building.