Ålesund is a coastal city in Møre og Romsdal, Norway, with around 60,000 people in the municipality. The city grew through fishing, shipping and maritime trade, but its present appearance was largely shaped by the catastrophic Ålesund Fire of 1904, which destroyed most of the wooden town centre and left more than 10,000 people homeless. Ålesund was subsequently rebuilt in a remarkably unified Art Nouveau style, known in Norway as Jugendstil, making its centre one of the country’s most distinctive architectural areas. The compact downtown spreads across several islands, with colourful buildings lining the harbour and the 418 steps to the Aksla viewpoint providing panoramic views over the city, surrounding islands and Sunnmøre Alps. Other attractions include the Jugendstilsenteret, the fisheries museum and the Atlantic Sea-Park aquarium. Ålesund remains one of Norway’s most important fishing and maritime centres and is a natural gateway to the fjords and mountain landscapes of Sunnmøre. The city also produced melodic doom/death metal band Paradigma, formed in 1991 and part of Norway’s early 1990s extreme metal underground.

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