Emanuel Vigeland Museum

Lonely Planet review

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.

As your eyes adjust to the dark, you'll begin to discern enormous frescoes reaching up to a distant ceiling. These depict human life from conception to death (sometimes erotically). Entirely surfaced with smooth stone, the bizarre chamber has such incredible acoustics that visitors are required to wear cloth booties to deaden the echoing thuds created by the slightest footstep. Overheard cell phone user: Sorry mom, I'm in a pornographic church museum. I can't talk now. Call you later, bye!