Cort Piil-smauet

Cort Piil-smauet is a steep, cobbled lane in Bergen that has kept the same route since the sixteen hundreds. You can identify the path by the way the cobblestones are set slightly on edge in the center, a design detail intended to give horses better footing on slippery days. The street takes its name from Cort Piil, a Hanseatic merchant and city councilor who left his base at Bryggen to establish his life and business on this side of the water during the late sixteenth century.