Things to see and do Oslo

A beautiful botanical garden belonging to the university's natural history museum and created in 1814. It is home to no less than 7,500 different species and is one of Oslo's favourite places to walk. Several different areas are dedicated to specific themes:

The Herb Garden: it houses medicinal and poisonous plants, spices and a section dedicated to kitchen herbs where you can find edible plants, seeds and berries.

The Systematic Garden: the main interest is to study the relationship between flowers and their evolution.

The Arboretum: here are grouped Scandinavian trees, tropical species and very rare ones such as the gingko and the tulip tree.

The Greenhouses: several 19th century glasshouses with different themes: the Amazon, Evolution, the Mediterranean, the Desert. As one can imagine, tropical plants are found here, including magnificent water lilies.

The Viking Garden: here we discover what the Vikings ate.

The Great-Granny's Garden: translated as "the garden of the great-granny", it is not surprising to find here very old species of flowers or even non-existent elsewhere. A true museum of flowers.

The Rock Garden: a design of rocks and waterfalls to present mountainous plants from different regions of the world.

The Aromatic Garden: designed for the visually impaired, the nose is used as a guide here thanks to the many plants and flowers very fragrant.

There are only 3 boats in this very sober museum, but what wonders! They were found in Tune, Gokstad and Oseberg in the excavations of Tune, Gokstad and Oseberg. They transported Vikings banned in Iceland and Greenland, crossed the North Sea to America for a failed settlement attempt, entering the Mediterranean to Istanbul to trade or to carry out bloody raids. The Bateau boat, the largest and best preserved, was the tomb of a Viking queen. The objects exhumed are entirely unique, such as these terrifying heads of stylised dragon dragon, this astonishing seal adorned by a Buddha attesting to trade with Asian peoples and this richly carved trolley with a Gunnar representation in the snake pit, which is no other than Wagner's «Günther du Ring» (inspired by ancient Nordic legends).

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) was a Norwegian sculptor known for his immense contribution to Oslo's artistic life. He was the creator of Frogner Park, or Parc Vigeland, where many of his sculptures are displayed. He remains a unique sculptor, and an eminent symbol of Norwegian art on the international scene. Vigeland Park is one of the country's most visited attractions, welcoming almost a million visitors a year. In summer, it's not uncommon to see city dwellers sunbathing in their bathing suits on one of the many lawns, wireless headphones in their ears. Since 1924, Vigeland Park has been collecting and exhibiting the granite and wrought-iron works of the Norwegian artist whose name it bears. 214 of the 650 statues and drawings the artist created for the park are on display today, and they are among Oslo's strongest symbols. It is the world's largest sculpture park dedicated to a single artist. The park is considered Vigeland's life's work: in fact, he devoted almost 20 years of his life to its creation! It's a must-see place that reflects the Norwegian philosophy of giving nature pride of place. The park is the result of a dispute between Vigeland and the city of Oslo: Vigeland was evicted from his home in 1921, but relocated by the city to the building that is now the Vigeland Museum. In exchange for his new premises, home and studio, he promised to donate all his works to the City of Oslo. These massive sculptures come in all sizes, according to several main themes: death, daily life, men and women, children. It's also a very pleasant, clean place to stroll, whatever the season. Local residents go jogging here. Among the most famous statues are the Angry Boy(Sinnataggen) and the Monolith(Monolitten), which dominates the park at a height of 17 metres, and the imposing bronze fountain which, with its 20 statues, represents the circle of life, the Wheel of Life(Livshjulet). The first section to be opened to the public, in 1940, was the famous bridge: 100 metres long and 15 metres wide, with almost 60 statues on display. A fun walk for the whole family, to feel a little at home in the middle of the city! All year round.

The Fram is the polar ship built in 1892 and which continues the main part of the museum. It's the strongest ship in the world, and the one that has gone the furthest north and the furthest south! It was used on the three great polar expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen in 1893-1896, Otto Sverdrup in 1898-1902 and Roald Amundsen in 1910-1912. The ship is surrounded by a number of exhibits on polar history, revealing a fascinating part of the country's history.

In this open-air museum, one of the largest in Europe, you will find information on all aspects of Norwegian and Saami folklore. We discover their very colorful costumes, their language, which is not at all related to Norwegian but to Finnish, and their shamanic sorcerers who remind us of the Amerindians. In the vast park, 140 old houses originating from different regions of Norway and rebuilt here. A museum to discover absolutely.

With a total surface area of 54,600^m2, the new national gallery will, from June 2022, house around 5,000 works, from classical paintings to modern art, architecture to contemporary art, design and objects from Antiquity to the present day. The^2nd floor is devoted to the visual arts from the ^15th century to the present day. Temporary exhibitions in the Light Hall, a 2,400^m2 space that will host artists not already exhibited in the museum. In this hall, a 7 m-high ceiling is provided for special installations, and the outer walls are made of a marble panel between two glass panels to give a particular and lasting effect. The museum's exhibits include Gustav Vigeland's bas-relief Helvetet(Hell), which shows Rodin's influence, P.-N. Arbo's romantic-kitsch paintings Åsgårdsreien (The Knights of the Apocalypse), the Romantic period (1820-1870) with J.-C. Dahl's Stalheim Landscape , more beautiful than life itself. Dahl's larger-than-life Stalheim landscape, the accuracy of which you can verify by following the route from Bergen to Flåm. Portrait painter Adolphe Tidemand and landscape artist Hans Gude sometimes combined their talents to paint landscapes with figures. Curiously avant-garde for his time, Peder Balke's dark, sepia-toned northern seascapes narrowly missed out on a fresco commission at the Château de Versailles. Erik Werenskiold's Peasant Burial is painted in the realist tradition of the 1880s. The neo-romanticism of the 1890s in the astonishing Vinternatt i Rondane, Winter Night in Rondane, which took Harald Solberg some fifteen years to complete in these icy mountains. In an impressionist mood, Kitty Kielland's Sommernatt fra Jaeren, Summer Night at Jaeren, expresses the exceptional light of this part of the south coast. And above all, a room devoted to some twenty paintings by Edvard Munch, including The Scream, Madonna and The Sick Child.

Take your time to visit this superb new gigantic museum (architects Kleihues + Schuwerk), and return several times rather than saturate! Also outdoor restaurant, café, wifi, events and workshops for all ages. Magnificent views over Oslo from the terrace at the top of this museum. A winning bet for the city of Oslo, which now boasts the largest art museum in Scandinavia. It's also an opportunity to see works that have never been shown before, due to lack of space.

Akershus is home to a medieval castle dating back to the ^13th century, remodeled in the Renaissance style in the first half of the ^17th century. People come to Akershus mainly for its lawns. The fortress occupies a special place as a national monument because of its position in the capital and its history, which is closely linked to royal and state power. Numerous events have left their mark on the site, which today houses a military academy, offices and a number of cultural sites and events. The site also houses the Resistance Museum, which documents the course of the Second World War in Norway, and the Defense Museum. A stroll through the castle gardens will reveal an exhibition of modern art sculptures, and you can also enjoy the magnificent view of the fjord on one side and the town hall square on the other.

Castle and church. A visit to Akershus Castle is a journey through Norwegian history, from the ^14th century to the present day. Few buildings in Norwegian history have played such a central role. From the remains of its medieval roots to the chambers of the Danish-Norwegian kings, the scenery is striking. Obviously, there has always been a church or chapel on the site of the fortress, ever since it was built in the time of Håkon V. But it was after a fire in 1527 that the second floor was partly converted into a church, and completely refurbished by Christian IV around 1630.

Information center. This offers a one-hour guided tour of the fortress, as well as two permanent exhibitions. The first traces the history of prisoners from the Middle Ages to the prison's closure in 1950. The second explains the Swedish army's siege of the Akershus fortress.

Defense Museum. Two exhibitions trace Norwegian military history from Viking times to the present day. Emphasis is placed on several decisive periods in Norwegian history, such as the union with Denmark until 1814, the union with Sweden from 1814 to 1905, the attack on Norway by Germany on April 9, 1940 and the naval warfare of the Second World War.

Museum of the Resistance. Through several exhibitions of photos, original documents and objects, the Musée de la Résistance aims to explain the country's situation during the Second World War.

The Opera House, the famous one! Inaugurated in 2008, this huge building that seems to emerge from the depths, in the heart of the bay of Bjørvika, is now on all postcards. If it is pleasant to walk on the roof of this giant, thought to be the terrace of Osloïtes and which offers a 360° view on the city and the fjord, it is also very interesting to visit the backstage! The Opera is actually composed of the Norwegian National Opera, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Norwegian National Orchestra, and the Norwegian National Opera Choir! So many people are busy in the corridors of the huge structure, whose backstage is partly open to visitors through large windows on the first floor: rehearsal rooms, costume and set design, etc. The Opera offers a rich program and is divided into three stages: the Main Chamber, the Second Chamber, and the Studio. The roof also serves as a stage for some concerts! In addition to the areas accessible to the public, rooms and adapted equipment allow the conception of performances from beginning to end within the building. The guided tour will take you behind the scenes of the fascinating world of the Oslo Opera House. If you were to see only a few places in Oslo, this is one of them. Its architecture, so cold, of marble, but so warm with its cylinders covered with honey-colored wood overlooking the fjord, manages to make us dream and takes us to another place...

Green walk along the Akerselva river with newly developed walking and cycling paths. You can walk to the Maridalen lake which is 10 km away along 20 waterfalls. The walking route can be combined with the bus. You first pass under the Anker bridge, flanked by its 4 bronzes inspired by Norwegian legends. We then walk along old factories, sawmills and other disused mills to finally arrive at the large lake of Maridal.

Oslo's Natural History Museum is the most comprehensive in the country. Animal, plant and mineral specimens have been studied here for over 200 years. The Zoogeographic Hall shows animals in their natural habitats around the world. The Norwegian Hall takes us from the oceans to the country's highest mountains. The Systematic Hall traces Norwegian vertebrates, and finally, the last hall hosts temporary exhibitions.

Holmenkollen, a neighborhood on the edge of the Marka Forest, a beautiful natural wooded area. The forest is visited by locals and tourists alike in summer and winter and offers skiing, sledding, hiking, fishing and tree climbing There is also the Ski Museum, the Ski Jump, the Ski Simulator and even a zip line!

Very easy access by metro from downtown. The view on the city and the fjord of Oslo is great and the place is mythical!

Ski museum and ski jump. The Ski Museum in Holmenkollen, located below the famous ski jump, is the oldest of its kind! It tells more than 4,000 years of skiing history and there are two exhibitions, one on skiing and snowboarding, and the most recent one, "Be prepared", on the theme of climate change. The ski jump is also accessible, and from the top of this tower you will have the pleasure of discovering a 360° view on the city, its fjord and the Marka forest. For the most courageous, a zip line allows you to descend from the ski jump in record time, and at the bottom, a ski jumping and slalom simulator offers you the chance to take the place of great athletes!

Oslo winterpark/summerpark. To the delight of visitors, Oslo's summer park in Tryvann has one of the largest and most beautiful climbing parks in Scandinavia. In winter, the park becomes the largest ski resort in the city's surroundings, making it possible to go skiing by subway, only 30 minutes from the city center!

The Kon-Tiki is the balsa raft used in 1947 by Thor Heyerdahl on one of his scientific expeditions to Easter Island in the Pacific. An expedition that made him famous the world over. The Ra II is also on display. This is a papyrus raft that enabled the explorer to cross the Atlantic from Morocco to Barbados in 1970. This small but interesting museum retraces the explorer's travels through photos, texts and films.

Red brick building flanked by two large towers visible from quite a distance. The architecture of the town hall is not a masterpiece of design as the Scandinavians know how to do, but at least it has the merit of facing the fjord. On its steps, bronze workers are lined up, more realistic than life, made by Per Palle Storm, one of the great Norwegian sculptors. The walls inside are covered with monumental frescoes from the 1930s-1960s.

Where Tjuvholmen meets the fjord, you'll find one of Oslo's main attractions: the privately-owned Astrup Fearnley Museum, designed by the great architect Renzo Piano, creator of the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Parco della Musica and the New York Times building, among others. The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Contemporary Art is certainly in one of the most advantageous positions, planted at the end of the new Tjuvholmen district with a view over the fjord and the feeling of being on a boat. This is the new district built as an extension to Aker Brygge. And what a district it is! Sleek, classy and grandiose. Tjuvholmen is nicknamed the arts district. The architecture of the peninsula and the Astrup Fearnley Museum, inspired by its maritime surroundings and composed of three pavilions under a glass roof in the shape of a sail, evokes the city's capacity for constant innovation. Inside the museum, one of Northern Europe's most important collections of modern and contemporary art complements the National Gallery. Today, it includes works by major American talents, as well as those from Europe, Brazil, Japan, China and India, with big names such as Bacon, Koons, Hirst and Kiefer. Permanent exhibitions are complemented by temporary exhibitions, workshops and the Tjuvholmen sculpture park outside the museum. The Astrup Fearnley Museum celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2023.

Since its construction began in 1824, the Royal Palace has been a symbol of Norwegian history and one of the country's most emblematic buildings. Although the original plans called for the palace to be H-shaped, financial problems led to a revision of the plans and the construction of a U-shaped palace. When Charles XIV John of Sweden died in 1844, the palace was clearly too small for the successor's family, so the wings were lengthened. Since 1849, when it was first occupied, the palace has undergone numerous transformations, particularly over the last century. It is now used primarily as a reception area and as the King's official office. This long yellow building, not very imposing in size, is beautifully situated on the Bellevue promontory at the end of the main avenue Karl Johans gate. Changing of the Royal Guard at 1:30 p.m. On June 7th square, a statue of the first king, Haakon, sculpted by Nils Aas, bears a striking resemblance to Giacometti's sculptures (the late king was very tall and skinny). Surrounding the palace is the Royal Park, one of the city's oldest and largest. It was designed in parallel with the construction of the castle, according to the ideal of the time. The guided tour takes in the palace's most beautiful and important rooms: the luxurious suite of King Haakon VII, the Bird Room painted in trompe-l'oeil by Johannes Flintoe, and the Ballroom.

New premises for the Munch Museum, now located in Bjørvika (near the Opera House) since October 2021.

A building much maligned for its architecture (not without reason... just look at the sad recycled aluminum sheet cladding), designed by Spanish architect Juan Herreros, the new Munch Museum has the advantage of being able to present, in addition to the works in the old museum, some lesser-known pieces, such as photographs and sculptures, as well as a film and monumental paintings(The Sun, The Searchers). For the record, they are so large that they had to be brought in through a special opening provided for the purpose during the construction work, which was subsequently closed again. The new museum is five times larger than the old one, and now houses over 26,000 works, including 18,000 prints by the Norwegian artist. An entire room features versions of the famous Scream, but the painting is housed in the Nasjonal Galleriet.

It should be remembered that the famous Scream, as well as La Madonna, disappeared in a surprising manner in August 2004 (a theft in broad daylight) and were found in "fairly good condition" two years later. Countless other equally powerful and impressive paintings make a visit to this museum an invaluable experience. Edvard Munch (1863-1944), one of the pioneers of Expressionism, was born in Løten, but the following year his family moved to Kristiania (Oslo). Four years later, his mother died of tuberculosis. At the age of 15, her favorite sister succumbed to the same disease, the scourge of the age. She is depicted in his painting The Sick Child. Munch worked extensively in Germany, exhibiting in Berlin, the birthplace of Expressionism. After a serious depression in Copenhagen in 1908, he returned to Norway. Among the paintings exhibited Dances on the Beach at Midnight, Kiss on the Hair of a Woman, Jealousy, The Lonely Ones, The Harpy, The Vampire, Melancholy, The Kiss of Death, Winter at Kragerø. In short, all Munch's anxieties in one museum.

Take your time, return several times and stop for lunch in the surrounding area. All the more reason not to spend 6 hours in a row: this visit is included in the Oslo Pass!

Disabled access, free Internet connection. RestaurantTolvte on the ^12th floor (!) overlooking the fjord. Café MUNCH deli & café on the first floor with terrace and cocktail bar on the top floor.

Since 1946, this company has been offering tours of varying lengths: the Oslo Fjord, a night tour on a traditional sailing boat with a typical Norwegian dinner, a 3-hour cruise on the theme of jazz (Tuesday) and blues (Saturday). Departure in front of the city hall. For more information on prices and schedules, please consult the detailed offers on its website which will make you discover Oslo in a playful way alone, in group or with your family.

Domkirke Cathedral is one of the most central sites in Oslo and therefore an easy meeting point for many people. It is bound to be in your path! Opened in 1697, this cathedral has retained many of its original features, such as the pulpit, the altar and the remarkable organ case. The stained glass windows, made by Emanuel Vigeland (Gustav's younger brother), are particularly interesting, as well as the ceiling fresco.

The Nobel Center boasts an exceptional location on Aker Brygge, facing the fjord on City Hall Square. The façade of this handsome building features the portrait of the current year's laureate(s). It presents the history of the Nobel Prize, its creator, Alfred Nobel, as well as current events and the winners of the title since 1901!

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, industrialist and arms manufacturer, who held over 350 scientific patents during his lifetime, including that for dynamite, the invention that made his name. On his death, he left a colossal inheritance to finance the creation of an institution responsible for awarding prizes each year to people who had rendered great services to humanity, enabling considerable improvement or progress in the field of knowledge and culture in five different disciplines: peace or diplomacy, literature, chemistry, physiology or medicine and physics. The Nobel Prize for Economics was later introduced. The first award ceremony took place in 1901.

The Nobel Peace Prize was appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, at Alfred Nobel's request, unlike the other prizes, which were selected by the Swedish Academic Institution. In 1901, Sweden and Norway were under the same crown. When the two crowns separated in 1905, Norway inherited the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded annually on December 10 in Oslo (the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death).