OSLO - JUNE 1981

LATE JUNE IS A FABULOUS TIME TO TRAVEL IN SCANDINAVIA!

STROLLING IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF NORWAY

According to the Norwegian sagas, Oslo was founded in 1048 by king Harald Hardråde, but recent archaeological research has uncovered burials from before 1000. Oslo occupies an arc of land at the Oslofjord. The fjord lies to the south; in all other directions Oslo is surrounded by green hills and mountains. There are 40 islands, the largest being Malmøya (0.56 km²), and 343 lakes, the largest being Maridalsvannet (3.91 km²), within the city limits. Kirkeberget, at 629 m, is the highest point. The city's population is only 533,050 (in July 2005), but it occupies a large land area, with many parks and open areas (22 km²), giving it a very green appearance.


"KARL JOHANN GATE - Main Street Norway"


"ROYAL PALACE - built between 1824 and 1848 as the Norwegian residence of Swedish-Norwegian king Charles III (Charles XIV of Sweden), is used as the official residence of the present Norwegian Monarch - King Harald V"


"CITY HALL - The city's administrative body, and seat of the City Council, was inaugurated in 1950"


"CITY HALL, as seen from the Akershus Fortress"


"OSLOFJORD and AKERSHUS FORTRESS - The old castle was built 1n 1299 to protect Oslo. The fortress has never been successfully captured by a foreign enemy. However, it surrendered without combat to Nazi Germany in 1940 when the Norwegian government evacuated the capital"


"AKERSHUS FORTRESS, a military area, but open to the public"


"CITY HALL, as seen from the Oslofjord. The City Hall is where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held, unlike the others Nobel prizes, which are awarded in Stockholm. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the prize should be awarded to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses"


"FRAM was a ship used between 1893 and 1912 in expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Nansen, Sverdrup, and Amundsen, and was probably the strongest wooden ship ever built. It is said to be the ship to have sailed furthest north and furthest south, and is currently preserved at the Fram Museum"


"STAVEKIRKE - The Gol Stavkirke - from around 1200 - was moved from the mountain village of Gol to the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in 1880 by King Oscar II"


"KARL JOHANN GATE - Small Lake and Grand Hotel"


"SHOPPING STREET on the way to the Central Station"


"VIGELAND PARK is Norway's most visited attraction (over one million visitors every year), and was created between 1907 and 1942 by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943). It contains 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, all modelled in full size by Vigeland without the assistance of pupils or other artists, but transferred into stone by the professional artisans he hired. The Fountain is the earliest sculpture in the park"


"MONOLITTEN - One of the main attractions of the Park. The column - 14.12 meters high and carved out of a single block of stone - contains 121 figures, and was modelled in the years 1924-25"



"VIGELAND SCULPTURES - Surrounding the Monolitten, there are 36 groups in granite depicting the cycle of life. Every sculpture includes at least two figures depicting the human condition. The figures from the early period are broad and simple. Later, however, more space was allowed between them and greater differentiation among the figures was introduced"