Sights in Oslo
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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 14:00 (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 13:30, watch the changing of the guard.
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Norwegian Folk Museum
Norway’s largest open-air museum and one of Oslo’s premier attractions is the Norwegian Folk Museum. The museum includes more than 140 buildings, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, gathered from around the country, rebuilt and organised according to region of origin. Paths wind past old barns, ele-vated stabbur (raised storehouses) and rough-timbered farmhouses with sod roofs sprouting wildflowers. The Gamlebyen (Old Town) section is a reproduction of an early-20th-century Norwegian town and includes a village shop and old petrol station; in summer (daily except Saturday) you can see weaving and pottery-making demonstrations. Another highlight is the restored st…
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Vikingskipshuset
Even in repose, there is something intimidating about the sleek, dark hulls of the Viking ships Oseberg and Gokstad, which is why visitors to this unforgettable Vikingskipshuset often find themselves whispering. Only a few boards and fragments remain of a third ship, the Tune, built around the same time as the Gokstad and excavated in 1867 from the Oslofjord region. All were built of oak in the 9th century; the ships were pulled ashore and used as tombs for nobility, who were buried with all they expected to need in the hereafter: jewels, furniture, food, servants, intricately carved carriages and sleighs, tapestries and fierce-looking figures.
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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. For a full rundown on the life of this extraordinary explorer who achieved a lot in his lifetime, see the boxed text, p132.
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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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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.
Although only minutes from central Oslo, Bygdøy maintains its rural character. The royal family has a summer home here, as do many of Oslo's well-to-do residents. Ferry No 91 operates from early April to early October, making the 15-minute run to Bygdøy every 30 to 40 minutes from 08:45 with the last crossing returning from Bygdøy at around 18:30 in April and September, 21:15 in summer, with earlier final departures the rest of the year. Keep an eye out for the king's ship KS Norge on the ride over, …
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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.
It's a great place to visit in the evening after other sights have closed.
Near the southern entrance to the park lies Oslo City Museum (Oslo Bymuseum) housed in the 18th-century Frogner Manor (built on the site of a Viking-era …
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Norske 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), shipbuilding and wreck salvaging. Outside the museum there’s a seamen’s mem-orial commemorating the 4700 Norwegian sailors killed in WWII, and alongside is Roald Amundsen’s ship Gjøa, the first ship to completely transit the Northwest Passage (from 1903 to 1906). Other features of the museum include Norway’s largest collection of maritime art, a dried…
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Storedal Cultural Centre
This cultural centre is 11km northeast of Fredrikstad. King Magnus the Blind was born here in 1117; he took the throne at 13 years of age and earned his nickname at 18 when he was blinded by an enemy in Bergen. A later owner of the farm, Erling Stordahl, who was also blind, developed a monument to King Magnus, as well as a centre dedicated to blind and other disabled people. The most intriguing feature is the Ode til Lyset (Ode to the Light), a ‘sound sculpture’ by Arnold Haukeland and Arne Nordheim which, using photo cells and a computer in the farmhouse, transmutes the slightest fluctuations in natural light into haunting, ever-changing music. To get there, follow Rv110…
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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). The 2nd level has an Arctic exhibit and the Myntkabinettet, a collection of the earliest Norwegian coins from as early as AD 995. The 2nd level and top floor hold the Ethnographic Museum, with changing exhibitions on Asia, Africa and…
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Munch Museum
Edvard Munch (1863–1944) fans won’t want to miss the Munch Museum, which is dedicated to his life’s work and has most of the pieces not contained in the National Gallery. Security is high in the museum since the 2004 theft of The Scream and The Madonna, though both paintings were recovered in 2006. The museum provides a comprehensive look at the artist’s work, from dark (The Sick Child) to light (Spring Ploughing). With over 11,000 paintings, 4500 watercolours and 18,000 prints and sketching books bequeathed to the city by Munch himself, this is a landmark collection. To get there, take the T-bane to Tøyen, followed by a five-minute signposted walk.
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Vigeland Museum
For an in-depth look at Gustav Vigeland’s work, visit the Vigeland Museum, opposite the southern entrance to Frognerparken. It was built by the city in the 1920s as a home and workshop for the sculptor, in exchange for the donation of a significant proportion of his life’s work, and it contains his early collection of statuary and monuments to public figures, as well as plaster moulds, woodblock prints and sketches. When he died in 1943, his ashes were deposited in the tower and the museum was opened to the public four years later. Visiting the artist’s private apartments on the 3rd floor is possible, but must be arranged in advance (tours per group cost Nkr700 on top o…
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Town Hall
This twin-towered town hall, completed in 1950 to commemorate the city’s 900th anniversary, houses the city’s political administration. Something of an Oslo landmark, its red brick functionalist exterior is unusual, if not particularly imag-inative. The entrance is lined with wooden reliefs from Norse mythology and the interior halls and chambers are decorated with splashy and impressive frescoes and paintings by some of Norway’s most prominent artists. It’s here that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on 10 December each year. You can view the main hall for free from the front corridor. Guided tours (in English) are available at 10am, noon and 2pm Monday to Friday and on w…
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Roald Amundsen Centre
The renowned and noted polar explorer Roald Amundsen, who in 1911 was the first man to reach the South Pole, was born in 1872 at Hvidsten, midway between Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg. Although the family moved to Oslo when Roald was still a small child, the family home in Hvidsten, which was the base for a small shipbuilding and shipping business, is now the Roald Amundsen Centre, which is dedicated to the man’s life and expeditions. Standing surrounded by these quiet fields of southern Norway, it seems perhaps not so surprising that Amundsen set off to seek adventure so far from home. The centre is signposted about 11km east of Fredrikstad, along the Rv111 towards Sarpsborg…
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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. When you’ve seen enough art you can head downstairs for a look at Sonja’s various skating medals and trophies. From Jernbanetorget, take any bus heading towards Sandvika and get off at Høvikodden.
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Polarship Fram
Nature is often the best architect. Which is why, when the well-known shipbuilder Colin Archer was asked to design a ship whose hull could withstand the crush of the polar ice, he looked no further than an egg for inspiration. Launched in 1982, the Polarship Fram, captained by both Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, spent much of its life trapped in the polar ice. From 1893 to 1896 Nansen’s North Pole expedition took the 39m schooner to Russia’s New Siberian Islands, passing within a few degrees of the North Pole on their return trip to Norway.
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Oslo Cathedral
Dating from 1697, the Oslo Cathedral is worth seeing for its elaborate stained glass by Emanuel Vigeland (brother of Gustav) and painted ceiling (completed between 1936 and 1950). The exceptional altarpiece, a 1748 model of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion by Michael Rasch, was an original feature of the church (from 1700), but it was moved all over the country before being returned from Prestnes church in Majorstue in 1950. The organ front and pulpit were both part of the original construction. Occasional concerts are held in the church (Nkr100).
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Norwegian Resistance Museum
Within the Akershus fortress complex, adjacent to a memorial for resistance fighters executed on the spot during WWII, is the Norwegian Resistance Museum. The small, but worthwhile museum covers the dark years of German occupation, as well as the jubilant day of 9 May 1945 when peace was declared. Artefacts include a set of dentures that belonged to a Norwegian Prisoner of War in Poland, and were wired to receive radio broadcasts, underground newspapers, numerous maps and photographs. The museum is a must see for WWII history enthusiasts.
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Borgarsyssel Museum
This excellent Østfold county museum lies in the town of Sarpsborg (14km northeast of Fredrikstad). The open-air display contains 30 period buildings from various parts of the country and includes a vast collection of cultural art and artefacts. There’s also a herb garden, a petting zoo and the ruins of King Øystein’s St Nikolas church, constructed in 1115 and destroyed by the Swedes in 1567. From Fredrikstad, trains and buses run frequently to Sarpsborg.
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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 and 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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Emanuel Vigeland Museum
Part gallery, part mausoleum, the spooky Emanuel Vigeland Museum is dedicated to the life work of Gustav Vigeland’s brother Emanuel (1875–1948). A pioneer in fresco painting, Emanuel is considered by many to have been the superior artist of the two brothers. The showpiece of the museum is the 800-sq-metre fresco Vita depicting human life from conception to death. To get there, take the T-bane (line 1) to Slemdal. For a taste of the artist’s work nearer the city centre, check out the stained glass in the Oslo Cathedral.
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Ski Museum
At the Holmenkollen ski jump, the Ski Museum leads you through the 4000-year history of Nordic and downhill skiing in Norway. There are exhibits featuring the Antarctic expeditions of Amundsen and Scott, as well as Fridtjof Nansen’s slog across the Greenland icecap (you’ll see the boat he constructed from his sled and canvas tent to row the final 100km to Nuuk). Recently redone exhibits on the 2nd floor cover the more modern aspects of skiing and include a glimpse of the royal family on skis.
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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.
It's separated into two beaches by a small cove; the beach on the northwestern side is open to nude bathing. If Huk seems too crowded, a 10-minute walk through the woods north of the bus stop leads to the more secluded Paradisbukta.
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Vigeland Park
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 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 a mood of particular ill humour.
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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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