Understand
The main village of Bergen has been known as an 'artists village' since 1900. In the 1920s and 1930s a 'Bergen School' of painters developed. It is located behind the North Sea dunes, just west of Alkmaar. The name is often written as Bergen NH, or Bergen-NH, which stands for North Holland, as there is also a Bergen in the Province of Limburg. Bergen developed into an upper-income suburb of Alkmaar. The village has two museums and an art center.
