Crown Princess Mette-Marit in Bergen

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On June 6th, 2012, Crown Princess Mette-Marit visited the city of Bergen.

First, she visited the Centre for Crisis Psychology. The centre has extensive experience with people who have experienced deep crisis in their lives. The centre has been working since 1988 particularly with people suffering from post traumatic stress disorders, chronic or delayed grief. Crown Princess Mette-Marit took part in a meeting at the center. Atle Dyregrov, the head of the centre gave an orientation about the work and held a lecture about children in grief and the network support.

“There has been a wonderful meeting with the Crown Princess at the centre. She is interested in the topic, and comes with good questions,” said Dyregrov.

Later Crown Princess Mette-Marit presented the Holberg International Memorial Prize to the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells in Haakon’s Hall. The Prize is named after Ludvig Holberg, who was born in Bergen in 1684 and held the Chairs of Metaphysics and Logic, Latin Rhetoric and History at the University of Copenhagen. It is awarded for outstanding work in the humanities, social sciences, law or theology.

Between the two engagements, Crown Princess Mette-Marit was supposed to visit the exhibition “Gavebordet” (Gift Table) in Bergen, which is the second of five exhibitions of the exhibition “Kongelige reiser”. However, due to a strike in the public service sector, the museum is closed.

The museum wanted to give the Crown Princess special treatment by opening just for her and the press, but the Palace didn’t want to accept that. “It is not appropriate for the Crown Princess to see the exhibition when the museum is closed due to strike,” said the palace’s communications director, Marianne Hagen.