Oslo Sights

  1. Akershus Castle & Fortress

    Strategically located on the eastern side of the harbour, dominating the Oslo harbour front, is the medieval Akershus Castle & Fortress ( slott and festning ; M03BF), arguably Oslo's architectural highlight.

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  2. Astrup Fearnley Museum

    With its often steamy content, the Astrup Fearnley Museum certainly begs the question, 'what is art?' Don't miss the gilded ceramic sculpture Michael Jackson and Bubbles, by Jeff Koons.

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  3. Botanical Garden

    Oslo's 15-acre Botanical Garden features over 7500 plants from around the world. There are also plants from the Oslo fjords, including four that are almost extinct in nature. Specimens in the aromatic garden are accompanied by text in both print and braille.

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  4. Bygdøy Peninsula

    The Bygdøy Peninsula ( M0368) holds some of Oslo's top attractions. You can rush around all the sights in half a day, but allotting a few extra hours will be more rewarding.

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  5. Children's Art Museum

    If you have a particular affinity for your friends' refrigerator art displays, visit the Children's Art Museum near the Frøen T-bane station.

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  7. Det Kongelige Slott

    King Harald V sleeps in Det Kongelige Slott, the royal palace, peering from a hill over the Karl Johans axis. Guided tours of 15 rooms are available in English, once daily at (late June to mid-August). Tickets are difficult to obtain - ask the tourist office for details. The rest of the grounds comprise Slottsparken, an inviting public park that's free to enter. If you happen to be around at , watch the changing of the guard.

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  8. Emanuel Vigeland Museum

    For a freakish sensory overload, enter the Emanuel Vigeland Museum, containing his life's work and mausoleum - a specially designed vaulted chamber where you duck under a low door (and thus pay tribute to his ashes, interned above) to enter an eerie nave with almost zero lighting.

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  9. Frognerparken

    Frognerparken, which has as its centrepiece Vigeland Park, is an extraordinary open-air showcase of work by Norway's best-loved sculptor, Gustav Vigeland. Vigeland Park is brimming with nearly 212 granite and bronze Vigeland works. His highly charged work ranges from entwined lovers and tranquil elderly couples to contempt-ridden beggars. His most renowned work, Sinataggen (the 'Little Hot-Head'), portrays a London child in particularly ill humour.

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  10. Gamle Aker Kirke

    This medieval stone church located north of the centre on Akersbakken, dates from 1080 and is Oslo's oldest building. Lutheran services are held at and on Sunday. Take bus No 37 from Jernbanetorget to Akersbakken then walk up past the churchyard.

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  11. Geological-Palaeontological Museum

    The Geological-Palaeontological Museum adjacent to the Zoological Museum, contains displays on the history of the solar system and Norwegian geology, as well as examples of myriad minerals, meteorites and moon rocks. The palaeontologic section includes a 10m-long iguanodon skeleton and a nest of dinosaur eggs.

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  13. Henie-Onstad Art Centre

    In Høvikodden, west of the centre, lies one of Norway's best private art collections, the Henie-Onstad Art Centre, founded in the 1960s by Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie and her husband Niels Onstad. The couple actively sought out collectible works of Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, as well as assorted impressionist, abstract, expressionist and modern Norwegian works.

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  14. Historical Museum

    The highly recommended Historical Museum is actually three museums under one roof. Most interesting is the ground floor National Antiquities Collection (Oldsaksamlingen), with displays of Viking-era coins, jewellery and ornaments. Look out for the 9th-century Hon treasure, the largest such find in Scandinavia (2.5kg). A section on medieval religious art includes the doors and richly painted ceiling of the Ål stave church (built around 1300).

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  15. Holmenkollen Ski Jump

    The Holmenkollen Ski Jump, perched on a hilltop overlooking Oslo, offers a panoramic view of the city and doubles as a concert venue. During Oslo's annual ski festival, held in March, it draws the world's best ski jumpers.

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  16. Hovedøya

    Ferries running to the half a dozen islands in Oslofjord leave from Vippetangen quay, southeast of Akershus Festning. Hovedøya, the closest island, has a rocky coastline, but its southwestern side is a popular sunbathing area. There are walking paths around the perimeter, some old cannons and the ruins of a 12th-century monastery. Boats to Hovedøya leave from Vippetangen once or twice hourly from late May to mid-August, less the rest of the year.

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  17. Huk

    The Bygdøy peninsula has two popular beaches, Huk and Paradisbukta, which can be reached by taking bus No 30 from Jernbanetorget to its last stop. While there are some sandy patches, most of Huk comprises grassy lawns and large, smooth rocks ideal for sunbathing.

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  19. Ibsen Museum

    Housed in the last residence of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, the Ibsen Museum is a must-see for Ibsen fans along with his birthplace of Skien or Grimstad, where the eminent playwright spent his formative years. The study remains exactly as he left it and other rooms have been restored in the style and colours popular in Ibsen's day. Visitors can even glance into the bedroom where he uttered his famously enigmatic last words 'Tvert imot!' ('To the contrary!'), before dying on 23 May 1906.

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  20. Ice Skating Museum

    The Ice Skating Museum is dedicated to speed and figure skating in Norway. Featured are historical skating apparatus and information on such Norwegian champions as speed skater Johann Olav Koss - 'Koss the Boss' - and figure skater Sonja Henie. It makes a nice complement to the Olympic sites in Lillehammer and Hamar .

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  21. Kon-Tiki Museum

    A favourite among children, the worthwhile Kon-Tiki Museum is dedicated to the balsa raft Kon-Tiki, which Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 1947. The museum also displays the totora reed boat Ra II, built by Aymara people on the Bolivian island of Suriqui in Lake Titicaca. Heyerdahl used it to cross the Atlantic in 1970.

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  22. Langøyene

    Further south, the undeveloped island of Langøyene offers good swimming. It has both sandy and rocky beaches, including one designated for nude bathing. Boats to Langøyene depart late May to mid-August.

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  23. Mini Bottle Gallery

    Want to see the ridiculous and enormous collection of a wealthy brewer? Check out the Mini Bottle Gallery. This 'gallery' crosses architectural elegance and haunted-house gadgetry with the crass overtures of a puerile club. As you admire tens of thousands of tiny bottles of booze set in an environment whose expensive design surpasses many museums, you're bound to wonder if the place is a joke. The answer comes readily in the bathroom.

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  25. Munch Museum

    Dedicated to the life work of Norway's most renowned artist, the Munchmuseet contains 5000 drawings and paintings that Munch bequeathed to the city of Oslo. Ten years after The Scream was stolen from Nasjonalgalleriet, masked gunmen pulled a similar caper on another version of the famous painting here in 2004. It too was recovered, in 2006.

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  26. National Gallery

    One of Oslo's major highlights is the National Gallery. It houses the nation's largest collection of Norwegian art, including works from the Romantic era and more-modern works from 1800 to WWII. Some of Edvard Munch's best-known creations are on display, including his most renowned work, The Scream . There's also an impressive collection of European art with works by Gauguin, Picasso, El Greco and many of the impressionists: Manet, Degas, Renoir, Matisse, Cézanne and Monet.

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  27. National Museum of Contemporary Art

    Featuring the National Gallery's collections of post-WWII Scandinavian and international art is the National Museum of Contemporary Art. Some of the 3000-piece collection is definitely an acquired taste, but it does provide a timely reminder that Norwegian art didn't cease with Edvard Munch.

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  28. Nobel Peace Center

    Norwegians take pride in their role as international peacemakers, which explains the central location of the new Nobel Peace Center in Aker Brygge. Opened in 2005, the centre is Oslo's most technically advanced museum, with an array of digital displays that are intended to offer as much or as little information as the visitor desires. Don't miss the Nobel Book on the 2nd floor or the movie theatre streaming films on the history of the prize and its winners.

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  29. Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum

    The author Roald Dahl once said that in Norway, everyone seems to have a boat, and there is no better place to explore that theory than at the Norske Sjøfartsmuseum. The museum depicts Norway's relationship with the sea, including the fishing and whaling industry, the seismic fleet (which searches for oil and gas), ship building and wreck salvaging.

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