Explorer Trondheim

Rockheim is Norway's national museum of popular music, covering Norwegian pop and rock from the 1950s to today. It opened in 2010 in a 1919 grain warehouse on the Brattørkaia waterfront, topped by a cantilevered glass box decorated with album covers. Its interactive exhibitions include a hall of fame and a sound lab for making electronic music.

Stiftsgården is a large wooden palace on Munkegata, built in 1774–1778 for the widow Cecilie Christine Schøller and the royal residence in Trondheim since 1906. Its long yellow Baroque façade, with about 140 rooms behind it, can be seen from the street; in summer parts of the interior open for guided tours, the only way to go inside.

The Old Town Bridge crosses the Nidelva river from the south end of Kjøpmannsgata to the Bakklandet district. First built in 1681–1685 together with Kristiansten Fortress, it was rebuilt in 1861; its carved red wooden portals, which once held up a lifting span, give it the nickname Lykkens portal (Gate of Happiness).

Nidaros Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral in Trondheim, built from about 1070 to 1300 over the grave of King Olav II, later Saint Olav. After a reconstruction that ran from 1869 to 2001, its west front carries rows of stone sculptures around a large rose window. Norwegian monarchs are consecrated here, and pilgrims still come to the site.

Munkholmen is a small island in the Trondheimsfjord, about 1.3 km off the centre of Trondheim. Over the centuries it has been an execution site, a Benedictine monastery, a fortress and state prison from 1658, and a German anti-aircraft position in the Second World War. From May to September shuttle boats run from Ravnkloa; the island has guided tours and a café.

Kristiansten Fortress stands on a hill east of Trondheim's centre and was built in 1682–1685, after the city fire of 1681, to protect the town from the east. It helped hold off a Swedish siege in 1718 and was decommissioned in 1816. The white cannon tower, the Donjon, holds a small museum open in summer, and the ramparts look out over the city and the fjord.

The Archbishop's Palace beside Nidaros Cathedral was the seat of the archbishops of Nidaros until the Reformation; its oldest stone walls date from the 13th century. Its wings now hold the Archbishop's Palace Museum with original sculptures from the cathedral and finds from excavations, the Norwegian Crown Regalia and a military museum.

Sverresborg Trøndelag Folk Museum is an open-air museum in Trondheim, founded in 1913 and laid out from 1914 around the ruins of King Sverre's castle from the 1180s. About 60 rebuilt buildings from across Trøndelag stand on the site, among them farmsteads, Sami turf huts, an old town quarter and the Haltdalen stave church from the 1170s.