Further along Oslo: from the Town Hall to the Town Hall. Further around Oslo: from Town Hall to Town Hall Oslo City Hall
Oslo City Council is located in the very center of the city, in the Pipervika district. This huge building today houses the city council itself, the city administration and several art studios and galleries.
History of creation
Before settling in this beautiful and huge building, the Oslo City Hall had to change several premises. With the growth of the number of employees, the area of the buildings themselves had to be increased. Initial plans for the construction of new premises for the city hall were announced by Hieronin Heyerdahl in 1915. In 1918, as part of an announced competition, the winners were Norwegian architects Arnstein Arneberg and Marcus Poulsson. But due to the onset of the economic crisis, construction had to be postponed. It was only in September 1931 that King Haakon VII solemnly laid the first stone to begin construction of the Oslo City Hall building. The construction itself began a little later, namely in February 1933. The main part of the town hall could be built before November 1936. But in 1940, due to the invasion of German troops into Norway and the outbreak of World War II, construction was stopped. Construction continued only in 1947. The Oslo City Council building was officially opened only on May 15, 1950. This date coincided with the city's anniversary, when Oslo turned exactly 900 years old.
Architecture
During the existence of the project, more than one architect managed to work on the building of the Oslo City Council. The building is a mixture of several architectural styles. There is something here from national romanticism and functionalism, as well as a piece of neoclassicism.
Oslo City Hall is a large, symmetrical building made of red brick. In general, the building can be visually divided into three main parts: a low main building and two towers. On the roof of the eastern tower there is a carillon of 49 bells. This carillon plays every hour. On the same tower you can see the dial of the city clock. The main entrance to the City Hall is on the north side. This is where you can see an unusual astronomical clock with zodiac signs on the dial. The ramps that lead to the main entrance are decorated with wooden frescoes depicting images from Scandinavian myths.
City Council meetings, official receptions and ceremonies are held in the central building of the City Hall in Oslo.
Note to tourists
The interior of the City Council is decorated with works by Norwegian artists. The walls depict motifs telling about the history of Norway and its culture, about working life and important events of the city. In general, the design of the entire room is designed in a modest, unpretentious style, which is so characteristic of the national culture of Norway. Locals They consider the City Council building to be the main symbol of Oslo and an outstanding architectural monument.
On December 10, 1990, the first ceremony of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize laureates took place in the large hall of the city hall. Now this award ceremony has become traditional within the walls of this building. Such famous personalities as Barack Obama, Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela performed and received awards on the stage of the large hall.
Anyone can visit the City Hall building from Monday to Sunday from 9-00 to 16-00.
Neighborhood
There is a square around the Oslo City Council building. Through this square you can exit to the city embankment. Also next to the town hall there is a small but very cozy park with a well-kept lawn and very beautiful trees.
The Town Hall building rises at the end of the Oslofjord and gives the impression of something so fundamental, powerful....
The building was built over the course of 17 years, from 1933. The Town Hall was opened on the eve of the 900th anniversary of Oslo - in 1950.
One of the peculiarities of this building is the fact that every year on December 10, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded here in the presence of the royal family.
On the fjord side there is a statue of Saint Halvard on the wall of the Town Hall. The legend says about him the following:
"Halvard was the son of a wealthy Hövding (as noble people were called in Scandinavia) from Husaby. He spent his youth on Viking campaigns, then returned and began to live at home. One day, when he was crossing the Drammenfjord on his boat, he was called from the shore by a woman who began to beg He took her with him. She explained that they had unfairly accused her of theft and wanted to kill her. Halvard landed on the shore and put the unfortunate woman in his boat. But as soon as they sailed, the pursuers appeared. They demanded that Halvard land the woman, but he refused. do, because they believed that she was innocent. Then the pursuers shot both the woman and Halvard with arrows. They tied a stone to Halvard’s body and threw it into the sea, but Halvard’s body did not drown as a martyr, since he died defending an innocent man. "
He was buried in stone church in Oslo, and since that time he has been considered the patron saint of the city...
On the same side of the Town Hall there are bronze figures symbolizing the professions of those who built this building...
They say that the construction of the building took over 8 million bricks, made by hand and differing from each other in texture. Hence this result...
The entrance to the Town Hall is from Fridtjof Nansen Square
At the top of the building you can see the figurine of the girl gymnast "Oslopiken" - a monument to all the women of Oslo....
and this wonderful astronomical clock...
In front of the entrance to the Town Hall there is a fountain by Dir Vaa - “A Pair of Swans”...
Along the perimeter of the courtyard, behind the columns, in the walls there are wooden panels based on Scandinavian mythology, carved by Dagfin Werenschell and currently being restored by an unknown artist...
The side walls of the building were also not left without decorations....
There is also service parking here. Petty officials use bicycles...
Well, more responsible workers - motorcycles....
If one of them is late at work, this “comrade” will be very happy to issue the vehicle owner a huge fine for overdue parking...
After such a comprehensive examination of the building from the outside, you can look inside...
The first thing that catches your eye when you get inside the Town Hall is the absence of visible guards and any metal detectors.
The best Norwegian artists were involved in decorating the interior of the Town Hall.
Including Henrik Sørensen, one of whose works “The People of Work and Leisure” occupies an entire wall....
The frescoes on other walls are no less impressive...
Bust of Magnus Poulson - one of the architects of the Town Hall....
Right there, on the first floor, this bell was lost...
and this wooden tablet with coats of arms...
And this is a kind of map of the city....
You can go up to the second floor, where there are smaller rooms, but in their beauty they are in no way inferior to the previous ones...
Some walls here are also memorable...
In the banquet hall you can meet members of the royal family...
In another room - look at this drawing...
It seems that we have gone around everything... It’s time to know the honor, and we shouldn’t forget about the bus that has been waiting for us...
It looks like this is not our bus, but we were in such a hurry...
Oslo Town Hall (Norwegian Oslo rådhus, Nynorsk Oslo rådhus) is a monumental meeting building for the city council of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. The main purpose of the city hall is the political and administrative management of the country's capital. In 1986, Oslo became the first municipality in Norway to introduce a parliamentary system with an appointed city government. The Mayor is elected separately by the City Parliament and serves for the duration of the election cycle, which is four years. The city parliament consists of 59 members - they meet approximately 15 times a year. Since 1990, the City Hall has hosted the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony every year on December 10th.
The idea of creating a new town hall in Oslo as a monumental monument to Norwegian independence appeared shortly after the country's dissolution of its union with Sweden in 1905. In 1915, Hieronymus Heyerdahl, the mayor of Christiania (from 01/01/1925 renamed Oslo), proposed a plan according to which, simultaneously with the construction of a new town hall building, the Pipervika area, old slums near the harbor, would be cleared and a magnificent view of the Oslofjord would be opened . In 1918, a competition was announced for the best architectural project. The winners were Arnstein Arneberg and Markus Poulsson. However, the financial and economic problems that arose as a result of the First World War prevented the planned construction from immediately starting. The final project they finalized (the eighth in a row), which was completed in 1930, combined various artistic and architectural trends of the time. The combination of national romanticism, functionalism and classicism gives the building a truly unique character. The first stone of the foundation of the future building was laid in the fall of 1931, and gradually, according to this ambitious city development plan, a new city center grew up in place of the cleared slums, the main accent of which was the towers of the city hall that towered above all the buildings. However, World War II delayed completion of construction, and the new building was officially opened only on May 15, 1950.
Oslo City Hall consists of a large central building, in which the city council holds its meetings and where rooms for ceremonies are located, as well as 2 towers, in which approximately 450 city government employees work. East Tower 66 meters high, western - 63 meters. Square land plot, on which the town hall is located, is 4.560 m², total usable area buildings - 38,000 m². The central meeting hall has an area of 1,500 m² and a height of 20.8 m. In 2000, a group of 49 bronze bells, weighing from 4,000 to 14 kilograms each, was completed. The interior design of the town hall is in keeping with the traditions of Norwegian national culture and reflects outstanding events in the country's history, including the events of the Second World War. The achievements of the country's economy are also reflected on the walls of the building...
| Nearest hotels: | 260 meters | Rica Victoria Hotel | from | 145 € * | |
| 220 meters | Doubletree by Hilton | from | 153 € * | ||
| 550 meters | Perminalen Hotel | from | 113 € * | ||
| * minimum room rate for two in low season | |||||
After the greatest creation of the 20th century - the Vigeland sculpture park, after the sweetest - the Aker Brygge embankment, it’s time to move on to the most daring project of the last century - the Oslo Town Hall. Indeed, the construction of a new town hall was an extremely bold decision that absolutely changed the face of the city. This modern building, crowning the 100-kilometer Oslofjord, has become a dominant feature, eclipsing Akershus Castle. Deciding to build it was the same as deciding to demolish the Moscow GUM and build in its place something modern, eclipsing the Kremlin - isn’t it bold?
At the beginning of the 20th century, from the bay to Karl Johans Street and beyond, the buildings did not exceed 4 floors - a small provincial town. It was the city hall that was called upon to destroy this provincialism, to bring the capital and the country out of the shadow of the historically more majestic Copenhagen and Stockholm.
It all started in 1915, when the municipality decided on the need to build a new town hall building. Of the 44 options presented, in 1918 the design of architects Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulson was chosen. There was no money for construction and the project, constantly updated by the winning architects, lay dormant until 1931, when King Haakon VII laid the first stone in the foundation of the building. Construction did not proceed quickly and, given the break for the war, it was, as usual, completed by the anniversary - the 900th anniversary of the city in 1950.
The building is made from more than 8 million hand-made bricks, all slightly different in color, adding texture and life to the walls. A distinctive feature of the town hall are two towers over 60 meters high. The best artists of Norway were gathered to design the construction site of the century, each of whom received a piece corresponding to their place in the creative hierarchy of that time. The painting of the main hall was entrusted to Henrik Sørensen, and Edvard Munch, for example, who was known as a strange eccentric, got a small room in one of the towers.
From the wall of the building facing the Town Hall Square and the harbor, Saint Halvard, the patron saint of Oslo, greets arrivals with his hands raised in greeting. The main entrance to the Town Hall is on the back side, from Fridtjof Nansen Square, where in the galleries on the sides you can see funny wooden sculptures on mythological themes by Dagfin Werenschell, as well as a fountain with swans :)
Every hour, a melody plays through the bay, played by a carillon of 49 bells. Grieg's creation is sweetly distorted, which makes you remember childhood inept attempts to select melodies on the piano, and causes an involuntary smile.
(Fridtjof Nansens plass)
Mon-Sun 09:00 – 18:00
Ticket price - 40 NOK
Free with OsloPass
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I admit that when I looked at the photographs of the Town Hall, I was not impressed by it. In reality, everything turned out differently. Really beautiful building. Probably thanks to the handmade bricks from which it is built. Wooden panels to the right and left of the entrance, a large clock, a figurine of Saint Halvard - everything pleases the eye. I walked through all the halls inside the Town Hall (by the way, admission was free). There were a minimum number of people and no guards watching over you. In general, nothing prevented us from properly examining the interior decoration of the halls. What I liked most was the banquet hall with royal portraits and a wall-sized painting. For some reason, it seemed to me that the picture depicts a real nudist beach, which is located in the south of Bygdø.
(Victor 08/14/10)
In some magazine I found a color photograph of the town hall from the side of the fiord with the steamboat. dark blue evening, the nearby shore is covered with snow, the town hall with luminous windows. To the left and right of it are the streets of Oslo, illuminated by many lanterns. On black water there are stripes of reflected light. I framed the photo in the "passepartout" style and hung it on the wall.
In 1977, my wife and I were at this place in May on a cruise package. Now this poster reminds me of the cruise, Norway and my wife.
(Yuri 03.12.13)
I visited there on my first day in Oslo and was not impressed, to be honest. I liked the banquet hall, all painted and beautiful view on the Oslofjord. However, later I looked at the Town Hall from a different perspective. She is unusual and beautiful.
There is a landmark in the capital of Norway that still causes passionate discussions among visitors to the city: this is the Town Hall, reviews of which range from extremely negative to completely enthusiastic.
Oslo City Hall, built of dark brick, is a big celebrity: it is here that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year in December. The “culprit” who assigned this honorable responsibility to the city was Alfred Nobel, who established the prize in 1895. At that time, Norway was still part of Sweden, which helped the former Christiania get this worthy “trophy”.
Monumental city hall building in Oslo
The idea of the need to build a new building was born back in 1905. But the start of work had to be postponed, as the First World War began. Then the delays were due to the fact that they could not choose a suitable project. As a result of delays, construction of a much-needed building for the city began in 1933, and then new war- The Second World War destroyed all the plans of the mayors. The grand opening of the Town Hall took place only in May 1950, on the eve of the anniversary of Oslo, which was supposed to turn 900 years old.
Northern (main) façade of the Oslo Town Hall building
From a distance, the complex with two towers looks a little gloomy, but if you approach it at arm's length, you can find many interesting details that soften the first impression. On the facade of the central entrance there is a figure of a girl - “Oslopiken”, a monument to the women of the city. There is also an astronomical clock here. And the courtyard is decorated with the “Two Swans” fountain, the work of Dire Vaa. In the galleries behind the columns you can admire funny wooden bas-reliefs made on the themes of folk epics.
Astronomical clock on the main facade
The façade on the Oslofjord side has its own highlight - a bronze figure of St. Hallvard, the patron saint of Oslo. On the left side of the building (on horseback) another historical figure is depicted - King Harald the Harsh, the founder of the city. Below it there is a bas-relief dedicated to the builders of the Town Hall, and a small fountain-bowl decorated with animal figures.
On the right tower, when viewed from the fjord, there are chimes, and there is also a carillon of 30 bells, which every hour delights the ears of the townspeople and visitors of Oslo with masterpieces of local composers.
Sculptures of workers are scattered around the building different professions who worked on the building: here you can see a foreman and a mason, a carpenter and a porter, an electrician, etc.
Sculptures of workers at the town hall building
The Town Hall is a kind of city beacon: it can be seen both from the fjord and from the windows of trains arriving in Oslo from all over the country, as well as from Gothenburg and Stockholm.
It’s worth mentioning the huge Town Hall Square, because it is an attraction in itself, and not only for tourists: citizens of different ages enjoy spending their free time here.
If the Town Hall opened in 1950, then we had to “conjure” the square for another 10 years, because it was necessary to install sculptures and work on the fountains, of which there are many on it now. The overwhelming number of sculptures depict women, men and children, but for some reason in the nude.
Square near the Town Hall with a fountain and sculptures
But there are also “dressed attractions” here. These include a monument to the brave vice-admiral of the Danish fleet, who glorified his name in the war with the Swedes - Peder Turdenskiöld. And a little higher, on a bastion hill, comfortably seated in a chair, Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself, the 32nd President of the United States, is resting in the shade of trees.
The grand lobby of Oslo Town Hall
Municipal ferries and a variety of pleasure boats operate from the piers near the square, making it practically the heart of Oslo. This means that you should definitely visit here, because from here you can see an absolutely incomparable view of the Oslofjord. In addition, you should not miss the opportunity to see the “pride of Norway” - the Town Hall. And form your own opinion about it.
