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Oslo |
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Oslo is predominantly modern in design and architecture and is noted
for its many museums, parks, and public statues. In the city are the University
of Oslo (1811), which includes museums of paleontology, ethnography, and
mineralogy, as well as colleges of architecture, theology, veterinary
medicine, fine arts, and music; the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
(1857); the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which helps select the winner of
the Nobel Peace Prize; and the National Archives. Other points of interest
include the National Gallery, which contains collections of European,
especially Norwegian, art; the Oslo Museum of Decorative Art; the Norwegian
Folk Museum; Frogner Park, which contains about 150 works by the Norwegian
sculptor Gustav Vigeland; the Munch Museum, with paintings by the Norwegian
artist Edvard Munch; the Kon-Tiki Museum, with exhibits relating to the
voyages of the Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl; Akershus
Fortress (1300?); the royal palace (1848); and the Storting (parliament)
building. |
Despite
tourist office endeavours, OSLO retains a low profile among European cities,
and even comparisons with other Scandinavian capitals are a little less
than favourable. You'll inevitably pass through – from Oslo the main train
routes head out west to the fjords, north to the Arctic, south to the
coast and east to Sweden – but take heart: Oslo is definitely worth seeing.
The city has some of Europe's best museums, fields a streetlife that surprises
most visitors, and helps revive travellers weary of the quiet northern
wilderness.
Oslo
is the oldest of the Scandinavian capital cities, founded, according to
the Norse chronicler Snorre Sturlason, around 1048 by Harold Hardråda.
Several decimating fires and 600 years later, Oslo upped sticks and shifted
west to its present site, abandoning its old name (Às, a Norse word for
God, and lo meaning field) in favour of Christiania – after the seventeenth-century
Danish king Christian IV responsible for the move. The new city prospered
and by the time of the break with Denmark in 1814, Christiania (indeed
Norway as a whole) was clamouring for independence, something it achieved
in 1905 – though the city didn't revert to its original name for another
twenty years. The modern city centre reflects the era well: wide streets,
dignified parks and gardens, solid nineteenth-century buildings and long,
consciously classical vistas combine to lend it a self-satisfied, respectable
air. Seeing the city takes – and deserves – time. Its half a million inhabitants
have room to spare in a city whose vast boundaries encompass huge areas
of woods, sand and water, and much of the time you're as likely to be
swimming or trail-walking as strolling the city centre.
The
settlement, established as Oslo by Harald III of Norway around 1050, became
the site of the royal residence about 1300. During the following century
the community flourished as a trading center and port. After Oslo was
destroyed by fire in 1624, it was rebuilt by Christian IV of Denmark and
Norway and renamed Christiania (or Kristiania) in his honor. It did not
reassume the historical name of Oslo until 1925. The city enjoyed an artistic
and economic renaissance during the 19th century. From 1940 to 1945, during
World War II, Oslo was occupied by German forces and suffered some damage.
In 1952 the Winter Olympic Games were held here. In 1993 Oslo was the
site of historic peace negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) and representatives of the Israeli government. The agreements accepted
by both parties in Oslo were signed at the White House in Washington,
D.C., on September 13. Population (1998) 499,693.