Trondheim was named Kaupangen (English: market place or trading place) by Viking King Olav Tryggvason in 997. Fairly soon, it came to be called Nidaros. In the beginning it was frequently used as a military retainer (Old Norse: "hird"-man) of King Olav. It was frequently used as the seat of the king, and was the capital of Norway until 1217.
People have been living in the region for thousands of years as evidenced by the rock carvings in central Norway, the N�stvet and Lihult cultures and the Corded Ware culture. In ancient times, the Kings of Norway were hailed at �retinget in Trondheim, the place for the assembly of all free men by the mouth of the river Nidelva. Harald Fairhair (865�933) was hailed as the king here, as was his son, Haakon I � called 'the Good'. The battle of Kalvskinnet took place in Trondheim in 1179: King Sverre Sigurdsson and his Birkebeiner warriors were victorious against Erling Skakke (a rival to the throne). Some scholars believe that the famous Lewis chessmen, 12th century chess pieces carved from walrus ivory found in the Hebrides and now at the British Museum, may have been made in Trondheim.
Trondheim was the seat of the (Catholic) Archdiocese of Nidaros for Norway from 1152. Due to the introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in 1537, the last Archbishop,Olav Engelbrektsson, had to flee from the city to the Netherlands, where he died in present-day Lier, Belgium.
The city has experienced several major fires. Since it was a city of log buildings, made out of wood, most fires caused severe damage. Great fires ravaged the city in 1598, 1651, 1681, 1708, twice in 1717, 1742, 1788, 1841 and 1842; these were only the worst cases. The 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits. The fire in 1681 (the "Horneman Fire") led to an almost total reconstruction of the city, overseen by General Johan Caspar von Cicignon, originally from Luxembourg. Broad avenues like Munkegaten were created, with no regard for
