World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Oslo  - Key Attractions
Key Attractions

Akershus Slott and Festning (Akerhus Castle and Fortress)
King Haakon V Magnusson ordered the building of Akershus Slott on a commanding headland in 1300. Although damaged, repaired, fortified and renovated over the centuries, the ancient walls and central mediaeval tower of this imposing castle still dominate the sea front. Originally separate from Oslo, the town was rebuilt within the fortress walls after the great fire of 1624. The seventeenth-century renovations of the castle, with magnificent banqueting halls and reception rooms, lie above dank medieval dungeons and underground passageways.

During World War II, the castle was used as a prison for resistance fighters captured by the Nazis. It now houses Norges Hjemmefront Museet (Resistance Museum), with poignant displays related to the Nazi occupation of Norway. In front of the museum is a memorial to the Norwegian Resistance, located at the place where 42 of its members were executed.

Tel: 2309 3917 or 3138 (Norges Hjemmefront Museet).
Website: www.virtualoslo.com/html/i15.htm
Transport: T Bane Stortinget.
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 1000-1600, Sun 1230-1600 (May-mid-Sep); Sun 1230-1600 only (late Apr, late Sep and Oct).
Admission: Free (Festning); NOK20 (Slott/Museum).

Oslo Rådhus (Oslo City Hall)
On the waterfront overlooking the fjord, this modern twin-towered building, opened in 1950 to celebrate the city's 900th anniversary, dominates but does not particularly enhance the landscape. However, the colourful frescos and murals of the interior, designed by Norwegian artists, redeem the solid exterior. Themes of Norwegian history and culture predominate, depicting daily life and Viking mythology, but references to the war are inescapable in a building long delayed but finally built in the aftermath of the Second World War. The huge oil painting Administration and Festivity by Henrik Sørensens in the vast Central Hall is typical of the determination to establish a worthy location for Oslo's political administration. This is where the Nobel Peace Price is presented each December.

Rådhusplassen
Tel: 2286 1600.
Website: www.virtualoslo.com/raadhuset
Transport: T Bane Stortinget.
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 0900-1700, Sun 1200-1700 (May-Aug); Mon-Sat 0900-1600, Sun 1200-1600 (Sep-Apr).
Admission: Free.

Nasjonalgalleriet (National Gallery)
Norway's National Gallery houses a respectable international art collection, including Gauguin, Picasso, Cezanne and El Greco but the Norwegian collection is undoubtedly the main object of interest. Several rooms are given over to the work of the great Edvard Munch. There can be few people who view his most famous painting The Scream, without a shiver of recognition at the portrayal of deep twentieth-century angst. Powerful as Munch's work is, it does not eclipse other Norwegian artists displayed here. The nineteenth-century Romantic paintings of Dahl, Tidemand and Gude, such as Bridal Voyage in the Hardanger Fjord, depict the spectacular Norwegian landscapes of forest and fjord, while the museum continues to collect modern Norwegian artists.

Universitetsgata 13
Tel: 2220 0404.
Website: www.museumsnett.no/nasjonalgalleriet
Transport: Tram 10, 11 or 17 to Tullinløkka; T Bane Nationaltheatret.
Opening hours: Mon, Wed, Fri 1000-1800, Thur 1000-2000, Sat 1000-1600, Sun 1100-1600
Admission: Free

Bygdøy
The short ferry trip from central Oslo to the peninsular of Bygdøy transports visitors into Norway's varied maritime past. All the attractions on Bygdøy are within ten or 15 minutes' walking distance of one another.

Transport: Ferry 91 from Pier 3 outside the City Hall (Apr-Sep); or bus 30 from Jerbanetorvet to the Folk Museum.

Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Folk Museum)
This museum is a walk through Norway's geography and history, featuring a variety of period buildings that have been transported from all over Norway. Turf-roofed farms and barns in one section give way to the streets of the Old Town, complete with shop, houses and early petrol station.

Museumsveien 10
Tel: 2212 3700.
Website: www.norskfolke.museum.no
Opening hours: Daily 1000-1800 (May-Sep); daily 1100-1600 (Oct-Apr).
Admission: NOK70 (May-Sep); NOK50 (Oct- Apr).

Vikinkskipshuset (Viking Ship Museum)
Five minutes' walk away, the elegant Oseberg, excavated in 1904, dating from about 850, is the finest of the ships at the Viking Ship Museum. It contains a rich burial chamber, where two skeletons once lay amid their riches and jewels. The biggest of the ships, the Gokstad, is the best preserved but the burial chamber had been looted. The intricate patterns, which scroll and twist all over the ships, the jewellery and the artefacts testify to the links with the Celtic nations where the Vikings traded and raided.

Huk Aveny 35
Tel: 2212 3700.
Website: www.ukm.uio.no/vikingskiphuset
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1800 May to Aug, 1100-1500 Sep to Apr Admission: NOK30

Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum (Norwegian Maritime Museum)
The Norwegian Martime Museum brings home the central part that the sea has played in Norway's economy from Vikings to fishing to oil tankers, with magnificent model boats, film footage, artefacts and views of the sea. Outside, a war memorial recalls the Norwegian sailors who perished in World War II, beside a replica of the Gjøa, the first ship to sail through the North West Passage.

Bygdøynesveien 37
Tel: 2243 8240.
Website: www.museumsnett.no/nsm/htmldok/generell/velkomn/index_gb.html
Opening hours: Daily 1000-1900 (mid-May-Sep); daily 1000-1600 (Oct-mid-May).
Admission: NOK60.

Polarskip Fram
Nearby, is the polar vessel Fram, which Fridtjof Nansen sailed toward the North Pole, and Roald Amundsen to the South Pole.

Bygdøynesveien
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1845 (mid-Jun-Aug); shorter hours the rest of the year.
Admission: NOK25.

Kon-Tiki Museum
The Kon-Tiki Museum houses Thor Heyerdahl's famous balsa raft, Kon-Tiki, and reed raft, Ra, in which he proved that it would have been possible for the ancient Egyptians to have sailed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Bygdøynesveien 36
Tel: 2243 8050.
Website: www.media.uio.no/kon-tiki/museum
Opening hours: Daily 0930-1745 (Jun-Aug); daily 1030-1600 (Oct-Mar); 1030-1700 (Sep and May).
Admission: NOK30.



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