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and fish-canning industries, Stavanger's economy was rescued by the oil industry; today most of the major oil companies have invested in the region. Petroleum-based industries are therefore dominant, with Stavanger being a center for coordinating offshore drilling, although the town still has shipyards and textile factories.
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The city is an exciting combination of old and new. Stavanger has grown and changed rapidly in recent years, but has managed to preserve some of the beautiful, original, old wooden architecture. You will find all the advantages and charm of a small town; small wooden houses lining narrow streets and alleys, cobblestone streets in the heart of the town, the flower- and vegetable market, the fish pier with live catches and small boats along the harbor offering freshly caught shrimps, crabs and lobsters.
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This old fishing port which used to rely on sardines and herring has been transformed into a cosmopolitan boomtown by the offshore oil industry. It was sometimes called the city of Bjelland and Kielland, and Stavanger indeed owes a lot to those two worthy citizens: Christian Bjelland who founded its fish-canning industry, and novelist Alexander Kielland who launched it on the literary stage. The sardine can with a key was invented here; the key is still the city's symbol.
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In the 1970s, Stavanger became Norway's center for its exploitation, the headquarters of survey, drilling and supply companies and the base for ships and helicopters serving the offshore rigs and platforms.
Now North Sea oil is shaping its future, but the old cathedral city manages to remain faithful to its traditions.
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Stavanger is also the center of higher education in Rogaland county. It has a number of cultural institutions including international, British and French schools because of the great influx of foreigners connected to the oil industry and to the "Emigration Center for Genealogical Studies and Contact Between Norway and North America". The Canning Museum is the only one of its kind in the world and testifies to what has been an important industry for Stavanger.
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Contrast characterizes this city, the people who live there, and the surrounding landscape. From downtown Stavanger, you are only a short distance away from the most spectacular sceneries. The fjords are just outside your front door, and if you board a boat in the center of the town, you can reach lovely islands of Kvitsøy, where the fjord meets the open sea, and the incomparable Lysefjorden, with the famous Pulpit Rock is only an hour away.
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Utstein monastery outside of Stavanger is Norway's best preserved. Magnus Lagabøter built it in the year 1200. Originally a royal residence, it was later a Danish style manor.
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