Sights and museums in Tromsø

According to Visit Tromsø, Tromsø is the northernmost town that survived the bombing and burning of the Second World War. That is why the centre still has a good collection of wooden houses, the oldest from 1789. Most of the museums lie within a short walk of each other on the island, and they make good use of a dark afternoon or a day when the wind closes the cable car.

Two landmarks across the bridge

The two sights most visitors know are on the mainland side, in Tromsdalen. The Arctic Cathedral (Ishavskatedralen) from 1965 is built from eleven concrete panels that form a triangle, and in winter 2026 it is open 10:00–17:00, with shorter hours on Wednesdays and Sundays. About 15 minutes further on foot, the Fjellheisen cable car goes up to Storsteinen at 421 metres and runs every day from 09:00 until midnight. Both have their own pages with directions.

Polaria and polar history

Polaria calls itself the world’s northernmost aquarium and the largest indoor attraction in northern Norway. The building from 1998 was designed by JAF arkitektkontor to look like ice floes pushed onto land. Inside you meet bearded seals, a purely Arctic species: Bella and Mai San came from Svalbard in 2003, Vlad from a French aquarium in 2024. There are also harbour seals, a ringed seal and a panorama cinema with a 21-metre screen. Seal training takes place several times a day according to the daily programme. Polaria is open every day from 10:00 to 17:00 and suggests about two hours for a visit.

The Polar Museum was founded in 1978, fifty years after Roald Amundsen left Tromsø on his last journey in the seaplane Latham. It is housed in the old customs buildings on Skansen, all of them listed, and its permanent exhibitions cover Arctic trapping and overwintering, Norwegian polar expeditions and the history of Svalbard. Its website gives daily hours without naming a season, so check the official site before you go.

Next to Polaria lies MS Polstjerna, a sealing vessel from 1949 that went on 33 hunting seasons. It is closed in winter and the museum plans to reopen it in June 2027. You can still look at the ship from the quay.

The University Museum and the Sámi exhibitions

The Arctic University Museum of Norway was founded as Tromsø Museum in 1872 and has stood in Folkeparken, at the southern end of the island, since 1961. It holds the largest collection of Sámi objects in Norway, shown in the permanent exhibitions “Samekulturen” and “Sápmi – en nasjon blir til”. From September 2026 to May 2027 there is a guided tour of the Sámi exhibitions in English every Friday at 13:00. Another permanent exhibition, “Under lyset”, is about northern lights research.

The museum is about 2.5 kilometres from the centre. Bus 40 stops right outside at “Tromsø Museum”, and bus 33 goes to Telegrafbukta, about 300 metres away. Our page on Sámi culture has more on the collections and Sámi Week in February.

Art and photography

Perspektivet Museum is in Storgata 95, in the Mackgården, a listed wooden house built in 1838 for the Mack merchant family. It later served as the Folkets Hus from 1911 to 2001, and the writer Cora Sandel lived in a flat here as a young woman. The museum shows changing exhibitions and owns roughly 500,000 historical photographs.

The Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, the art museum for northern Norway, has been in Sjøgata 1 since 2002, in a building from 1915 by Søren Wiese Opsahl. Its collection holds 2,225 works from the 17th century to today, and it was named Museum of the Year in 2017. Entry is not free for adults: you need a ticket, while visitors under 18 get in free.

Churches in the centre

Tromsø Cathedral (Tromsø domkirke) in Kirkegata 7 is a neo-Gothic wooden church completed in 1861 to a design by Christian Heinrich Grosch. It is the only cathedral of the Church of Norway built of wood. It has two organs, one by Claus Jensen from 1863 and a second installed in 2017. The late-evening concerts in the tour list below take place here. We found no official visiting hours, so check with the parish.

The Catholic Vår Frue kirke was also finished in 1861, in the same neo-Gothic style and also of timber, with around 150 seats. It survived the town fire of 1969 with only water damage, and Pope John Paul II stayed in the bishop’s house on Stortorget during his visit in June 1989.

Skansen and the old wooden houses

Skansen, at the northern end of the centre, is a fortification probably built between 1000 and 1200. Visit Tromsø calls its rampart the best preserved of its kind in Norway, and the oldest house there, built 1789–1793, is the oldest documented building in the centre. Next to the museum buildings lies Tollbufjæra, the last natural shoreline left in the town. For the wider old town, walk along Sjøgata and Skippergata, where the merchant mansions date from around 1820.

Mack and Ølhallen

Ludwig Markus Mack founded his brewery in Tromsø in 1877, and the company is still family-owned. It calls itself the world’s northernmost brewery, but production moved out of town in 2012, and the beer is now brewed in Nordkjosbotn, about 70 kilometres away. What stays in Storgata 4 is Ølhallen, open since 1928 and the oldest pub in Tromsø, with 72 taps. Brewery tours go through the old cellars from 1877 and include a tasting; dates are on the official site.

The library and the planetarium

The main library in Grønnegata 94 is the former Fokus cinema from 1965, a shell roof in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid by the architect Gunnar Haugen. It is open every day, so you can go in to get warm and look at the building from the inside.

The Nordnorsk vitensenter on the university campus runs Norway’s largest planetarium, with a 12.2-metre dome and 95 seats. From 1 October 2026 until spring 2027 it shows “Extreme Auroras” every day, with shows in English and German, and the planetarium ticket also covers the exhibition on the same day. The campus is about 40 minutes on foot from the centre, and there are good bus connections.

Opening hours in winter

A plan for a stormy day

If wind or heavy snow cancels your tour, stay in the centre. Start at Polaria when it opens at 10:00, then walk to Skansen and the Polar Museum at the northern end of the centre, and stop at Ølhallen in Storgata for a drink. In the afternoon, Perspektivet and the art museum are both in the centre, but closed on Mondays. If you prefer something under a dome, the planetarium’s aurora film shows the northern lights even on a cloudy day.