Norway – ALL I NEED IS MY PASSPORT

Heading South

Norway

Oct 092024

October 2024

October 7th, we headed south and crossed back across the Arctic Circle at 8:45 this morning.

The Arctic Circle passes though Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenland (Denmark), and Grimsey Island (Iceland). There are markers and even tourist attractions at a few of these places. This is the one I saw on Viking Island in Norway.

Marking the Arctic Circle on Viking Island

A stop in Brønnøysund – The center of Norway

Torghatten

While difficult to see, there is a tunnel through this mountain. There is a very long legend that includes another mountain called the Seven Sisters. To make things simple, here is how the mountain got its hole. Troll Hestmannen was chasing the beautiful girl Lekamøya. As he realized he would not get the girl, he released an arrow to kill her, but the troll-king of Sømna threw his hat into the arrow’s path to save her. The hat turned into the mountain with a hole in the center.

Munkholmen, Trondheim

I want to thank a shipmate for getting this photo, as I didn’t get up on deck soon enough to take it. This is Munkholmen or Monk’s Island.

Before the 12th century, Munkholmen was the Court of Justice and the center for execution. To warn potential enemies, the heads of enemies of the state were placed on stakes. Among them were the heads of Haakon Sigurdsson and Tormod Kark, executed in 995 by order of Olav Tryggvason, then King of Norway.

According to legends, those who visited the island must spit on the heads to pay tribute to King Olav Tryggvason. The tradition of displaying severed heads on stakes continued for some years, with the heads of criminals and political enemies placed to face the city of Trondheim instead. It was considered an efficient method to deter citizens from committing crimes.

It was a 12-day boat trip to see the Northern Lights. I did see them, but it also rained almost every day and night. Such is Mother Nature.

Northern Lights

Norway

Oct 082024

October 2nd 2024

I am on a ship to see the Northern Lights. Sadly, the weather has not cooperated. Clouds make it difficult for the lights to be seen.

On the 2nd, the clouds broke for a small period of time, and I was able to shoot these.

It is very important to know that what you are seeing is what the camera sees, but not what the naked eye sees. When I looked into the night sky, all of these greens were white. Why?

“Humans use two different kinds of cells in their eyes to sense light. Cone cells are the main cells we use for vision in the daytime. Rod cells can detect much fainter light at night but only see in black and white and shades of gray. Aurora only appears to us in shades of gray because the light is too faint to be sensed by our color-detecting cone cells.

The most common aurora color is green.

Red auroras are comparatively less frequent and are usually associated with intense solar activity. They occur when solar particles react with oxygen at higher altitudes.

Thursday, October 3rd

There are a lot of clouds tonight – so there is not much visible activity.

Friday, October 4th

I didn’t even go outside. This is looking through the windows of the boat

Rain

alternating with snow

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued watches for strong geomagnetic storms from October 4th through Sunday the 9th.

Essentially, the sun has produced solar flares on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, both associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, plumes of solar material, and magnetic fields currently en route toward Earth. On October 3rd, there was a solar flare that was said to be the largest of the current solar cycle and the biggest since 2017.

All that is wonderful, but as long as there are clouds, you can’t see much, no matter how active.

October 5th – Tromso

The weather is still not cooperating and has bathed Tromso in Clouds. -If you put the video on full screen, you can see the lights dance among the clouds.

And two still photos from the night.

No one tells you that what you are looking at is what my camera sees. Except on very rare occasions, the human eye sees only white, which is why when the lights are amongst the clouds, they are challenging to spot.

October 6th

Tonight was special! The greens and reds were so intense that they were visible to the naked eye, making for a very special evening.

I was so surprised to see so much, as the much anticipated solar activity had passed us by.

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This photo was taken by Eva Stiegler, our tour group leader. I was fascinated by how she caught the white rather than the green.

This amazing time lapse photo was taken by by a fellow traveler John wough

Vesterålen

Norway

Oct 072024

October 6, 2024

Vesterålen is an archipelago in Northern Norway. Its name comes from Old Norse. The first element is vestr, which means “west,” and the last element is áll, which means “(deep and narrow) sound” or “strait”.

Trondenes

I came on this excursion to see Trondenes Church, although all of Vesterlain proved to be stunningly beautiful.

Trondenes Church is Norway’s northernmost medieval stone church and the world’s northernmost surviving medieval building. It is also one of the largest stone churches in Norway.

Though frequently referred to as a 13th-century church, dating based on dendrochronology, its completion was shortly after 1434. The Church is well preserved, with the exterior condition still close to the original state.

The church bells in their outbuilding

The church bells once hung from a turret, but the turret has long since been demolished, and the bells now ring from this small white tower in the graveyard.

The baptismal font is one of the oldest remaining items on the church’s interior.

The windows show how thick the church’s walls are.

The door goes back centuries

There is a cultural center and museum next door to the church.

An old Stave Church

This is a replica of what many feel was the original stave church on the site. It is thought that the stone of the Trondenes Church was built around the original wooden stave church.

A wall of prisoners from WWII

During WWII, up to 1200 POWs were crammed into a camp at Trondenes. They had been brought here to build the nearby coastal fortification “Batterie Theo” MKB 5/511 with its four massive 40,6 Cm guns. Approximately 800 of the prisoners died here through starvation, sickness, cold, hard labor, and murder. The dead POWs were buried between the camp and the old church, and in 1951/52, the cemetery was exhumed, and the bodies were relocated to the War Cemetery at Tjøtta further south in Northern Norway in what became known as “Operation Asphalt”.

The above wall pays homage to the men who died in the camp.

The wall is made up of individual cards of each POW.

The balance of this excursion was riding on a bus through Vesterålen. Vesterålen consists of several islands, the three largest being Andøya, Hadseløya, and Langøya.

Major regional employers include fisheries and other marine industries, tourism, healthcare, and education.

Salmon farming in Vesterålen

Located still in the Arctic Circle, the area is stunning.

A river is emptying into the fjord. Here, the water is brackish and has some tidal action.

The clear water of the fjord lets you see anemones and fish.

The sunrise this morning just before pulling into Harstad

Sailing into Trollfjord

Trollfjord is Tucked between the towering peaks of the Lofoten Islands. At just 1.2 miles long, it’s one of the smaller fjords in Norway. And it was filled with eagles today.

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The Coast of Norway – Hammerfest

Norway

Oct 072024

October 5, 2024

Hammerfest is one of three cities in the world that claim to be the Northernmost. I will leave that argument for the pub. However, Hammerfest history is worth delving into. The town received its first doctor in 1792, but within a couple of decades, the population had been ravaged by plague and the Napoleonic wars. In 1890, two-thirds of the town was destroyed by fire. As part of rebuilding, the city became the first in Norway to get electric street lighting.

Because of its ice-free harbor, Hammerfest was a substantial naval base throughout the German occupation of Norway in World War II. Parts of the town suffered bomb damage, but German forces themselves did the most damage at the end of the war.

Anticipating a substantial Russian breakthrough at the Eastern Front, Hitler’s 1,000 Nazi soldiers left nothing behind. It was October 1944, and with no shelter, food, or supplies, the plan was for the Red Army to starve and freeze to death.

Within days, Hammerfest burned. Roads were wiped from the map, telegraph poles were chopped down, and communication lines were destroyed. The harbor lay ravaged, mines pockmarked the town, and the entire population of the surrounding municipality was left homeless. So systematic was the Nazi solution, 10,000 buildings were razed to the ground, The fires raged on for four months, and by the time the locals had fled, Hammerfest had ceased to exist.

The ice-free harbor includes the nearby island of Melkøya, home to a natural gas processing station. It processes gas from the Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea.

The natural gas processing station processes gas from the Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea.

Snøhvit, a gas and condensate field, was the first field developed in the Barents Sea after its discovery in 1984. Production began in August 2007.

The plant receives natural gas from Snøhvit through an 89-mile pipeline from the Barents Sea. It cools the gas to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which is then shipped abroad.

I headed to the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society Museum, with only an hour in town.

The Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society Museum

Hammerfest’s mascot is the polar bear which can be found on the city’s coat of arms. This all may seem odd since the polar bear and other predators live across an ocean on the Svalbard archipelago.

In the past, Hammerfest’s prosperity was based on hunting marine mammals in the Arctic Ocean, and expeditions to Svalbard were commonplace to hunt for seals, walruses, and polar bears back when the polar ice came much farther south.

Interesting exhibits in the museum

Hammerfest Arctic Cultural Center

The Culture Center by A-lab is a lovely structure. In walking through the foyer, I spotted this giant bone. Alas, I could find nothing about it. It was not part of the original design, so it was obviously a public art piece, but by whom and why, I do not know.

Hammerfest Church

The triangular design of Hammerfest Church resembles the Arctic Cathedral in Tromsø. However, this landmark building was actually inspired by the fish-drying racks found throughout the north of Norway. Built in 1961, the stone and concrete parish church seats more than 500 people.

Fish Drying Racks espied from the road.

The Norweigian Coast – Vardø

Norway

Oct 042024

October 4, 2024

Vardø – Norway’s Easternmost Town

On Christmas Eve, 1621, the northern coast of Norway suffered a vast and sudden storm. At the time, many of the local male population were at sea. Forty men on ten boats drowned.

This tragedy coincided with new laws on sorcery and witchcraft that came with the union of Denmark and Norway.

Vardohus Fortress

Several women were brought to the Vardohus Fortress and tortured, accused of flying to meet Satan at the witches’ sabbath. Many of them confessed after torture and were subsequently burned at the stake.

Over a hundred people were tried for witchcraft, with 77 women and 14 men being burned at the stake. The northern district of Finnmark, within which Vardø lies, experienced the highest rate of accusations of witchcraft of any part of Norway and an unusually high proportion of executions arising from the trials.

In all the trials, the men executed were indigenous Sami.

Steilneset

Swiss Architect and Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor designed this memorial on the island to commemorate the suspected witches who were burned.

The memorial comprises two structures. The one conceived entirely by Zumthor is a 410-foot-long wooden structure framing a fabric cocoon. The second houses an installation by the late French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010).

Inside the structure designed by Zumthor is a corridor with light bulbs hanging behind 91 windows. These represent each of the men and women who were put to death.

The installation by Bourgeois, entitled The Damned, The Possessed and The Beloved, occupies the smoked-glass-clad second structure.

Inside the smoke-glass structure is a circle of mirrors that surrounds and reflects a flaming steel chair inside a hollow concrete cone.

The Coast of Norway – Bodø , Tromsø and Honningsvåg

Norway

Oct 042024

October 2024

The ship crossed into the Arctic Circle in the middle of the night.

The word Arctic has a fascinating etymology.

The word “artik “pertains to the north pole of the heavens,” from Greek arktikos “of the north,” literally “of the (constellation) Bear,” from arktos “bear;” also “Ursa Major; the region of the north,” the Bear being the best-known northern circumpolar constellation. Then to round up this vocabulary lesson: antartyk “opposite to the north pole”

Painting the Northern Lights in Bodø

A quick stop in Bodo for a look around.

Bodø is a port town at the entrance to Salt Fjord. Bodø was founded by Trondheim merchants and chartered in 1816. Bodo is a commercial fishing center specializing in cod drying. In World War II, German air and ground action destroyed much of the town.

The Bodo train station

The Bodo train station is the terminus of the Nordland Line, a 453-mile railway line between Bodo and Trondheim. Traditionally, the Nordland Line was defined as running from Hell to Bodø. However, the National Rail Administration has officially classified it as running from Trondheim Central Station to Bodø, making it the longest railway line in Norway. Construction was to have begun in 1923, but its completion was delayed until the 1960s due to WWII.

This sculpture, titled “Between the mountains and the sea,” is in Bodo Square. It is made of limestone from the Bjørntvedt quarry in Porsgrunn, Acrylic, optical fibers, and black rubber and is by Phillipp Dommen.

Tromso

We were here to visit the planetarium, and for me, finally eat a Pølse.

The Arctic Cathedral of Tromso

Pølse

I had reindeer and beef topped with fried onions (sprøstekt løk), sweet onions, beets, and mustard served on a hot dog bun, as the server recommended. The hot wine was delicious as well.

On October 2nd, we had our first clear enough night to see some Northern Lights.

Honningsvag

You come to Honningsvag on Magerøya Island to visit the North Cape. While not technically Norway’s northernmost point, it is the most northern place in Europe that can be accessed by an automobile. The first tourist appears to have been an Italian Franciscan priest, Francesco Negri, who came in 1664. The North Cape then became a popular tourist destination during the last decades of the nineteenth century after King Oscar II’s visit in 1873. It is the number one tourist spot in Norway, although it wasn’t too terribly crowded when I was there.

The North Cape

Monument commemorating the visit of King Oscar II of Norway and Sweden in 1873

The sign explaining this stone reads: “In 1907, a king from the Far Eastern land of Siam made a journey through Europe and paid a visit to the newly independent state of Norway.

King Chulalongkorn was warmly received by King Hakon and Queen Maud …The King then traveled northwards, reaching Nordkapp, where he had his initials and the year of his visit incised on a rock.”

The North Cape Globe Monument

Children of the World at the North Cape

The “Children of the World” sculpture was started in 1988 when author Simon Flem Devold randomly selected seven children from seven countries, Tanzania, Brazil, USA, Japan, Thailand, Italy, and Russia, to visit the North Cape and dream of “Peace on Earth”. During their visit, each 8- to 12-year-old child made a clay relief symbolizing friendship, hope, joy, and working together. In 1989, the reliefs were enlarged, cast in bronze, and erected in a semi-circle outside the North Cape Hall.

The tundra of Magerøya Island

The reindeer on the island

Every year, Sami families from Karasjok, about 156 miles south, bring their reindeer herds by truck and ferry north to scatter throughout the island and graze. This fellow was one of the last to be rounded up to return to their winter home. To get back, they swim.

Bamse

Bamse (a Norwegian word for “male bear”, “teddy bear,” or “big boy”) came to Honningsvag in 1937. His owner, Erling Hafto, was the master of the Norwegian whale-catcher Thorodd.

At the onset of the Second World War, Thorodd was drafted into the Royal Norwegian Navy as a coastal patrol vessel, and Bamse was enrolled as an official crew member. After the Nazi invasion of Norway, the Thorodd was part of the naval opposition to the Germans, and one of its uses was POW transport.

In battle, Bamse would stand on the front gun tower of the boat, so the crew made him a special metal helmet. His acts of heroism included saving a young lieutenant commander who had been attacked by a man wielding a knife by pushing the assailant into the sea and dragging back to shore a sailor who had fallen overboard. He was also known for breaking up fights among his crewmates by putting his paws on their shoulders.

Bamse eventually became the mascot of the Royal Norwegian Navy and then of all the Free Norwegian Forces.

Bamse died in 1944, and it is said that 800 people attended his funeral.

A small glimpse of the town of Honningsvag

Finnkirka rock formation

Approaching Kjøllefjord is the Finnkirka rock formation. According to legend, Finnkirka was an ancient sacrificial site for fishermen, seafarers, and the Sami. Those sailing along the coast feared the stretch of sea past Nordkyn. On their eastward journey, seafarers sailed as far as the sea cliff Altertavla on the eastern side of the fjord and made an offering for a safe onward journey. On the return voyage, they sailed to Finnkirka on the western side of the fjord and offered thanks for surviving the journey around Nordkyn.

It has been continually too cloudy to really see Northern Lights. This was the evening of October 3rd.

The Coast of Norway – Trondheim

Norway

Oct 042024

September 2023

Trondheim

Like other cities in Norway, Trondheim has its own manhole covers. Their’s contain the Trondheim city coat of arms. The coat of arms represents the two important kings in Trondheim, Olav Tryggvason, who founded the city, and Olav the Holy, who, after his death, was declared a saint.

Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway and the fourth largest urban area. The tech capital of Norway, it is home to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF), the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), and St. Olavs University Hospital.

We were fortunate to see this bus charging station in use

This is Norway’s first wireless Electric Road System. The buses take about 18 minutes to charge and then run all day.

The Nidelva flows through Trondheim, with old storehouses flanking both sides of the river.

Like other cities in Norway, Trondheim was repeatedly ravaged by fires. The 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits.

The Old Town Bridge of Trondheim – Gamle Bybro

The Bridge was built by Johan Caspar von Cicignon in 1681 in conjunction with the reconstruction of the town after the great fire of 1651.

Originally, Gamle Bybro was constructed of wood, but three stone piers supported the wood. In the middle of the bridge, an iron gate was placed. This remained a guarded city gate until 1816. At each end of the bridge, there was a toll and guardhouse.

At one end of the bridge is this contraption.

The Trampe bicycle lift

The bicycle lift was invented and installed in 1993 by Jarle Wanwik. While the use of the lift is free, your ability to use it properly will most likely cost you your pride. When using the lift, the right foot is placed on the starting point (the left foot stays on the bicycle pedal). After pushing the start button, the user is pushed forward, and a footplate emerges. A common mistake among first-time users is that they don’t keep their right leg outstretched and their body tilted forward. This makes it hard to maintain balance on the footplate and can result in falling off.

At the bicycle lift is this charming sculpture. It is titled Minnesmerke and is by Otto Nielsen.

Norway’s Rock and Roll Museum featuring Norwegian artists.

Nidaros Cathedral

Nidaros Cathedral was built over the burial site of King Olav II (c. 995–1030, reigned 1015–1028), who became the nation’s patron saint. It is also the traditional location for the consecration of new Norwegian kings.

It was built over a 230-year period, from 1070 to 1300, when it was substantially completed. However, additional work, additions, and renovations have continued intermittently since then, including a major reconstruction starting in 1869 and completed in 2001.

The West Front of the cathedral

The West Front was the final portion to be completed. The restoration of the West Front took from 1905 to 1983 and was worked on by many sculptors. In 1869, the Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop was founded to restore the Cathedral.

The workshop has been closed, but they have kept a vestige of it in the gift shop. I appreciate their honoring the crafts people long after their work has been completed.

Above is the statue of St. Olaf, a king of Norway who died at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 while strongly promoting Christianity in Norway. He is a leading Nordic saint. His statue is shown with a war axe in one hand and an orb in the other. Olaf’s sculpture stands on a dragon-shaped creature with a human head, representing Paganism.

On the left is Olaf Tryggvason, who died in the battle of Svolder in 1000. He is considered the second Christian king of Norway. Between the statue’s feet, one can see the head of Tormod Kark, a slave who slew his pagan master, Haakon Jarl.

In the center is Bishop Sigurd, who came with Olav Tryggvason from England to Christianize the country and is the first to canonize a Norwegian Saint, Saint Sunniva. He went on to Sweden, where his three nephews were decapitated and their heads arranged in a bowl and thrown into the river. The heads in the bowl have the appearance of the architects instrumental in the reconstruction of the cathedral.

On the right is Saint Clement, one of the first Bishops of Rome.

The Stone Mason

If you look carefully through the balustrade, you will see a small sculpture of a stone mason. According to a prophecy, the cathedral will fall upon its completion. The mason holds the last brick in his hand, forever preventing the cathedral from being completed and thus, as the legend goes, keeping the cathedral standing.

These two sculptures are on the very top of the cathedral. I think the one on the left looks a lot like Dobby from Harry Potter.

Stiftsgården

Stiftsgården is the royal residence in Trondheim. It is one of the largest wooden buildings in Northern Europe, and it has been used by royalty and their guests since 1800.

I am specifically on a boat to see the Northern Lights. However, it limits your time ashore. This was a real drawback in the case of Trondheim, a city well worth spending some quality time in.

Kjeungskjaer Lighthouse

Kjeungskjaer Lighthouse

Leaving Trondheim on the way to Rorvik we passed the Kjeungskjaer Lighthouse. Built in 1880,it sits on a tiny skerry off Ørlandet. The weather in this area is highly unpredictable (it is raining as I write this, after a nice sunny day in Trondheim.) For this reason, the stone-built lighthouse and its cast-iron lantern room were built to withstand all conditions. The original French-built Fresnel lenses that project the light from the lantern are still in operation.

The 66-foot-high structure helps fishermen and sea travelers stay on course as they approach the point where the Trondheimsfjord meets the North Sea nearby.

The Coast of Norway – Urke and Alesund

Norway

Oct 042024

September 2024

I boarded the MS Richard, a boat with the Hurtigruten Line, for their Astronomy Voyage along the Western Coast of Norway and into the Arctic Circle, focusing on the Northern Lights.

Hurtigruten has a long and fascinating history. It began in 1893 with a steamer owned by Captain Richard With.

Today, their coastal ships carry freight, mail, and guests along the coast of Norway. People get on and off as we stop, and freight is dropped off and loaded at various ports as well. I am on the boat for 11 days and 12 nights, sightseeing during the day and sky-gazing once the sun goes down.

Day One Stops in Urke and Alesund

The coast of Norway

Urke is a very tiny village in the Sunnmore Alps with a population of around 30. It is serviced by Hurtigruten, which has a tender to ferry people back and forth.

Urke, Norway

A Storage Shed in Urke, notice the two doors, compared to the one in most sheds I have seen thus far.

I found these little sheds on the water fascinating. Between the rocks leading to them are round logs. I assume this is a boat storage with an ancient way of getting the boat inside.

Alesund

Entering the fjord on the way to Alesund

On the night of January 23rd, 1904, the town was the scene of the Ålesund Fire. It started in the Aalesund Preserving Company factory and was one of the most terrible of the many conflagrations in Norway. Fed with gale-force winds, practically the entire town was destroyed. The fire destroyed nearly 850 houses, leaving approximately 230 houses remaining. Only one person died in the fire, the 76-year-old Ane Heen, but more than 10,000 people were left without shelter.

Alesund

German Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany had often vacationed in Sunnmøre, so after the fire, he sent four warships with materials to build temporary shelters and barracks. The town was rebuilt in Jugendstil, the architectural style of the time, in stone, brick, and mortar. The structures were designed by approximately 20 master builders and 30 Norwegian architects.

Jugendstil was the German counterpart of Art Nouveau.

Walking the deck of the boat, I saw this sign on the rail. I felt it belonged more on the Charon crossing the river Styx than this boat—the joy of language translation.

Views, Views, Views

Bergen

Sep 282024

September 27, 2024

Bergen, also known historically as Bjørgvin, is believed to have been established by Olaf III of Norway. Bergen is where trade took off in the country, and it was the largest settlement in Scandinavia until the 16th century.

It was a gorgeous day in Bergen. Considering that it rains 239 days a year, how lucky was I to get a clear, crisp, beautiful day to take the Fløibanen funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen?

Atop Mount Fløyen, looking out at the fjords with the Northern Sea too far to see

Looking down on Bergen
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Tubakuba

There is a lot to do when atop the mountain, mainly hiking or sitting on the terrace of the restaurants and just gazing out at the beauty. I did do a little exploring.

Tubakuba was crafted by a design-build workshop at the School of Architecture, led by Espen Folgerø from OPA Form Architects. Tubakuba (Tuba Cube) uses different types of Norwegian wood and prides itself on being the only off-grid hotel room in Bergen.

Tubakuba

The front door

Tubacuba is available to rent for a stay. There are other little places to rent at the top of the tram as well, such as this beehive structure.

Oh, and there are ten cashmere goats as well wandering around. They are “Pippi”, “Fløydis”, “Waldemar”, “Spot”, “Trym”, “Gucci”, “Stjerna”, “Frøya”, “Ferdinand” and “Alex”.

The ten cashmere goats were born in 2020 on Radøy. There are six girls and four boys. Because they are bred to clear vegetation, they were all castrated as babies.

The funicular at night

Historic Bryggen

Bergen, Norway

Sep 282024

September 27, 2024

The very first buildings in Bergen were at Bryggen, a vibrant and important area of the city for many centuries. It is also a highly visited and photographed area.

Thanks to wooden houses, Bergen, including the neighborhood of Bryggen, burned down several times throughout history. There are 61 buildings in Bryggen, and 25% of them are from 1702, the last time Bryggen was burnt down in its entirety.

Bergen is one of North Europe’s oldest port cities on the west coast of Norway. It was established as a center for trade in the 12th century. In 1350, the Hanseatic League established a “Hanseatic Office” in Bergen. They gradually acquired ownership of Bryggen and controlled the trade in stockfish from Northern Norway through privileges granted by the Crown. The Hanseatic League established four overseas Hanseatic Offices, Bryggen being the only one preserved today.

The word Hanse means ‘convoy’. This word refers to the groups of merchants traveling between the Hanseatic towns by land or sea.

The Hanseatic League’s common goal was to dominate trade, protect economic interests, gain diplomatic privileges, and establish trading routes.

The original compact medieval urban structure of Bryggen is preserved with its long, narrow rows of buildings facing the harbor, separated by narrow wooden passages. At the time, Bryggen was basically a colony of bachelor German merchants.

The residential areas lie on either one or both sides of the narrow passages, which function as private courtyards.

The houses are built using a combination of traditional timber log construction and galleries with column and beam construction and horizontal wooden panel cladding.

Rows of two- to three-story buildings were signified by the medieval name “gård”.

Towards the back of the gård are small fireproof warehouses or storerooms (kjellere) built of stone to protect special goods and valuables against fire.

The sign over the door reads: “In 1666, the elder Dirich Wolpman had his principal Arendt Meiier build this cellar for the best.”

St Mary’s Church

St. Mary’s Church is the only remaining of the twelve churches and three monasteries built in Bergen between the reign of Olav Kyrre (1066–1093, traditionally 1070) and the end of the twelfth century. The church’s construction is believed to have started in the 1130s or 1140s and was completed around 1180, making this church the oldest remaining building in Bergen. There have been a few fires that burned the church, as well as several renovations and reconstructions, most recently in 2013.

Rosenkrantz Tower

Rosenkrantz Tower is regarded as the most important Renaissance monument in Norway. In the 13th century, it was the residence of one of Norway’s most significant kings, Magnus the Lawmender. Parts of the tower are from the 1270s and were built by Mangus the Lawmender Håkonsson, but it has been extended several times for fortification and offices for the governors of Bergen. In the 16th century, it became the governor´s castle.

There is an earnest historic preservation movement within Bryggen.

Here, the restoration is going on behind glass so people like me can ogle. These two buildings were rebuilt as three-story warehouses with lofts after the great city fire of 1702. Both buildings were originally built as “stuer*” with an office and living quarters for the merchant and his workers. The buildings are built on log rafts on the ground, called bulwarks, which are foundations consisting of several layers of cross-laid beams placed on deep layers of soil.

Rot heavily damaged the foundations, which is the main reason the buildings at Bryggen need to be restored.

The restoration began in March 2021. To enable excavation, the buildings were jacked up using a lifting rig.

*The literal translation of Stuer is the living room; what its context was in 1702, I do not know.

In 1979, Bryggen was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List with this explanation: Bryggen bears the traces of social organization and illustrates the use of space in a quarter of Hanseatic merchants that dates back to the 14th century. It is a type of northern “fondaco”, unequaled in the world, where the structures have remained within the cityscape and perpetuate the memory of one of the oldest large trading ports of Northern Europe.

“The Bryggen Project” was established in 2000. This is an extensive and long-term project for monitoring, safeguarding and restoring Bryggen, including both archaeological deposits and standing buildings.

Randomly Walking in Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Sep 282024

September 2024

You have to love a town that takes this much care with its bandstand in the public park. The music pavilion is cast iron and was given to Bergen by F.G. Gade in 1899.

St. Jørgen´s Hospital

St Jorgen’s Hospital

St. Jørgen´s Hospital has existed in Bergen since the 15th century, but nothing remains from the medieval hospital due to several city fires. Between 1850 and 1900, Bergen had three hospitals for leprosy patients and the largest concentration of patients in Europe. St. Jørgens Hospital had patients until 1946.

In 1873, Bergen doctor Gerhard Armauer Hansen identified the leprosy bacillus. Because of his discovery, Hansen is one of the most famous Norwegians in the world, and in many parts of the world, leprosy is still commonly known as Hansen’s disease.

Witches Stone

The Witches Stone

At the top are the words hekse steinen or witches stone. The stone was erected as a monument to the victims of witch trials in Norway. The inscription at the bottom of the stone translates to 350 bonfire victims to miscarriage of justice 1550–1700. These numbers are representative of the number of witches burned across Norway. As many as 1,000 others were imprisoned, fined, or exiled.

What is a visit to Norway without seeing a troll?

You still see phone booths in Bergen.

The phone box design was the result of a design competition by Oslo Telefonanlegg in 1932. The winning design was by the architect Georg Fredrik Fasting from Bergen.

The jury wrote the following about the winner: “No. 80 “Riks.” The draft shows a completely striking, simple solution to the task, which in both a technical and aesthetic way is well worked out. It solves all the problems of the programme in a satisfactory manner. The author has hit the mark both in the layout and the build. The draft has such a shape that the booth can be placed almost anywhere. The user guide can be put over the telephone and the suggested method of hanging can also be approved. The door must open outwards.”

Early morning street sweeping in the rain on Østre Murallmenningen, a quirky twisting zigzag street in the Strandsiden neighborhood.

The photo gives no clue as to how steep that little narrow street in the Nordnes neighborhood actually is.

Another steep little street in the Nordnes Neighborhood.

Fredriksberg Fortress in Nordnes. The grounds were used as a place of execution until the Swedish counterfeiter Jacob Wallin was executed in 1876.

A divine dinner was had at Pinocchio’s—a wine bar with a two-star Michelin chef from Chicago and his Norwegian wife.

The restaurant is in a 1600s jail and is just a divine atmosphere of stone and ancient wood.

*Staying at the Bergen Bors Hotel. It is a late classical building initially designed by Franz Wilhelm Shiertz in 1862 and redesigned by Lars Solberg between 1890 and 1893. It was renovated into a hotel in 1970.

Inside the main room are frescoes by Axel Revold done in 1923.

Stave Churches

Norway, Oslo

Sep 282024

September 24, 2024

Gol Stave

Gol Stave Church

Gol Stave is a 12th-century stave church originally from Gol in the region of Hallingdal, Norway. The reconstructed church is now located in the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History.

Although stave churches were common throughout Northern Europe in the Middle Ages, only about 30 stave churches survive in Norway, nearly all dating from the 12th and 13th centuries; Sweden, Poland, and England each have one of these churches.

A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building. The name derives from the building’s structure of post and lintel construction, where the load-bearing ore-pine posts are called stafr in Old Norse (stav in modern Norwegian).

In the typical Scandinavian type of stave church, a foundation of boulders supports a horizontal wooden frame on which sit four corner posts, or staves.

The staves are connected above by a rectangle of beams that complete a boxlike frame; all elements are joined by wooden pegs or by dovetailing and the outer wall timbers are positioned vertically, in contrast to the more common “log” horizontal placement used in wooden structures.

The roofs, typically steeply pitched and adorned with decorative elements, were designed to withstand the harsh Norwegian winters while also providing a striking silhouette against the landscape.

Every few years, the churches were tarred to safeguard the wood against the challenging weather conditions. The special glaze, made from pine resin, took days to prepare in a massive peat-and-wood mound called a mile.

Making the resin is an art in itself. The actual construction of the mile takes one to two days, and the burn itself takes (up to) three days. Building it requires accuracy. The wood is precisely stacked and knocked together to avoid air pockets that can cause problems during the burn.

In 2019, reenactors and members of the Nordic Tar Network constructed a large mound of wood for traditional tar production. Photo by Ole Jorgen Schreiner

The stacked wood would have been arranged on a hillside and insulated with at least a double layer of cut peat. Tenders needed to keep a fire around the mound burning at the right temperature and add more peat when needed. Over the days, the indirect heat reduced the wood at the center of the kiln into charcoal and released the tar, which was then collected downhill via a drain system.

The wood mound is covered by layers of cut peat.

Gol Stave Church. The drawing is slightly erroneous, as the sill under the church floor is missing. Picture from Wikipedia

A portal surrounds the church

A side door with intricate carving and ironwork

Notice the faces carved at the top of the vertical posts where they meet the ceiling

The Apse

In Catholic times, the church was most likely decorated with colorful saints. Numerous runic inscriptions and carvings dated to the early Middle Ages are in the church. Most of the carvings are in the chancel and show animal figures, humans, and geometric symbols. The runes on one of the staves in the nave can be read as “Kiss me, because I struggle.”

The last supper

A few examples of Lutheran church art, namely the wall paintings in the chancel and apse from 1652, have been preserved. The paintings were originally financed by the congregation members whose names are written on the wall of the chancel.

Fantoft

The original stone cross is from Tjora, near Stavanger.

Fantoft was built in Fortun in Sogn in 1170 and moved to Fantoft in 1883. In June 1992, the church was set on fire and burned to the ground. The only thing left were the remains of the framework. The fire was believed to have been started deliberately by Varg Vikernes, the Norwegian black metal artist who was jailed for arson of several churches.

Vikernes stated that the church-burning campaign was part of a war Black Metal was waging on Christianity and Norwegian society.

While it was an easy decision to rebuild the church, it was a difficult undertaking. It had been several hundred years since the last stave church was built in Norway, so the existing knowledge about this type of structure was meager. There was also very little that could be used from the old church, so most of the building parts had to be made on-site according to surveys and existing drawings. The timber used in the reconstruction was 350-400-year-old pine trees. The only remaining objects from the original church are a wish stone placed in one wall and the cross at the altar.

Fantoft is well-lit, unlike Gol Stave, making it easier to understand and see the stunning woodwork of the interior.

The stylized dragon heads are notable features of the exterior. This is a result of the conflict between traditional Norse mythology and the emerging Christianisation of Norway when the Church was originally built. Keeping some of the older traditions, such as the belief that dragons could keep evil spirits away.

The Sigurd saga, a famous Norse legend, is depicted in the detailed woodwork on the interior.

* *

Pews were not always found in Stave churches. In Gol Stave, there was simply a small area around the perimeter similar to this one in Fantoft.

Pews in Fantoft

As in Gol, there is a perimeter area most likely to protect the wood of the actual church.

Vigeland Sculpture Park

Norway, Oslo

Sep 252024

September 2024

The sculpture park is the embodiment of the life work of Gustav Vigeland. The park contains over 200 of his sculptures in granite, bronze, and wrought iron installed mainly in the period 1940-1949.

Born in 1869, Gustav Vigeland is the most celebrated sculptor in Norway.

He conceived the idea of creating an outdoor park for his sculptures in 1914, and full plans were agreed by 1931. Vigeland also convinced the City of Oslo to build him a home and studio, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. In return, he promised to donate all his works to the city in the future and after his death.

Vigeland Park is within Frognerparken (Frogner Park), Oslo’s largest public park. Vigeland was involved in its design and planning, although he died six years before its completion in 1949.

The Bridge

The Bridge‘s 58 bronze sculptures show children, women, and men of different ages, including the iconic little boy Sinnataggen (The Angry Boy). The sculptures on the Bridge share themes of play, lust, energy, and vitalism.

Vigeland modeled these sculptures from 1925 to 1933. They were some of the first sculptures mounted in Vigeland Park in the early 1940s.

‘Man Attacked by Babies’ shows a father struggling with the responsibilities of parenthood.

* * * *

The Fountain

After walking through the promenade of sculptures, you are led to the Fountain. It was originally meant to be placed at Eidsvolls plass in front of the Parliament, but that never happened.

In the center are six men representing different ages holding up a large saucer-shaped vessel as a curtain of water flows down into an adorned basin.

The corners are decorated with “Trees of Life. representing a romantic expression of Man’s relationship to nature. They also form the setting for life’s evolving stages, stretching from childhood and adolescence through adulthood to old age and death.

* *

There are plaques around the face of the basin.

The Monolith

The Monolith stands at the highest point in Vigeland Park. It is carved out of one stone block, hence the name. The stone was from a quarry in Iddefjord, Norway, and transported to the park during the late 1920s.

The Monolith depicts 121 humans climbing around and clinging to each other, with children at the top. Every figure represents a different stage of life.

The figures are studies of the human body at every stage. They reveal the full range of human emotions, including those not usually celebrated, such as anger and violence.

The Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life in bronze was modeled in 1933-34 and erected in 1949.

The wheel symbolizes eternity, and here, it is designed as a rotating wreath of women, men, and children holding onto each other for all eternity. This sculpture summarizes the entire dramatic theme of the park: a sculptor’s reflections on the journey of human life from cradle to grave, through joy and sorrow, through dreams, fantasy, hope, and eternal longings.

It was a day of off-and-on rain but a fascinating look at one man’s obsession.

A Day Wandering Oslo, Norway

Norway, Oslo

Sep 252024

September 2024

Knus Nazismen

On the side of the main train station is Knus Nazismen. It was dedicated by five remaining members of the Osvald group, a Norwegian organization active during World War II. The organization committed at least 110 acts of sabotage against Nazi occupying forces and the collaborationist government of Vidkun Quisling. On February 2, 1942, they detonated a bomb at Oslo East Station in protest against Quisling’s inauguration as Minister-President.

It was sculpted by Bjorn Melbye and unveiled on May 1st, 2015. The monument depicts a silver hammer smashing a silver swastika. The hammer and swastika rest atop a large boulder with the inscription, “It was worth fighting for freedom for all nations, for all races, for all classes, for all people” Asbjorn Sunde. (leader Osvald Group)

There are two plaques on the bedrock, one to members of the Osvald Group who gave their lives in the war from 1940 to 1945 and the other to members of the State Railway who also gave their lives.

A postal delivery

Oslo Bors

The Oslo Bors, or stock exchange building, was constructed in 1827 and designed by Christian H. Grosch. It is Norway’s first monumental building. The garden was planted in the early 1800s and was Oslos’ first public park. Stock exchange trading is now fully electronic, so this building now serves as offices for the Bors.

Oslo Cathedral

Surrounded by trees, the Cathedral is difficult to photograph from the outside. It was rebuilt between 1848 and 1850 after a plan by German-born architect Alexis de Chateauneuf.

The Norwegian firm Ryde & Berg A/S was chosen to build the new main organ, with 53 stops which was inaugurated for the cathedral’s 300th anniversary in 1997.

The ceiling murals were painted by Hugo Lous Mohr between 1936 and 1950. They depict scenes from the Bible and the history of Christianity in Norway and are considered some of the finest examples of religious painting in the country.

The Devil of Norway

On the exterior of the Cathedral is the Devil of Norway. It is about 900 years old and was found among the ruins of St. Hallvard’s Cathedral. The statue was removed from the ruins and placed on the walls of the Oslo Cathedral. The figure depicts a man being attacked by a dragon and a lion on both sides.

Saint Hallvard

Saint Hallvard’s is the home of the country’s largest Roman Catholic parish and is named after the city’s guardian saint.

After slogging up a ridiculous hill through dirt paths and large residential highrises, I found the church to be closed. I had attempted a visit because of its interior dome.

The Brutalist building was built in 1964 by the architecture firm of Lund & Slaatto. Its main feature is an asymmetrical inverted concrete dome that, viewed from the air, looks like a huge bowl. I borrowed this interior photo from an architecture website.

St Hallvard’s inverted dome from the interior

Bislett Stadium

Bislett became Norway’s main arena for speed skating and track and field in 1940 and was designed by the architect Frode Rinnan. At the 1952 Winter Olympics, the stadium hosted some figure skating and speed skating events.

Kjærlighetskarusellen (The Carousel of Love)

Not far from Bislett Stadium is the urinal Kjærlighetskarusellen. It is not exactly something to go out of one’s way for, except that it is a Norwegian Cultural Heritage Site. Nicknamed the Carousel of Love, it served as an important meeting place for gay men during a time when homosexuality was taboo in Norway. Sex between men was illegal in Norway until 1972.

Our Saviours Cemetery

Of course, I visited a cemetery in Oslo. The most famous is the Cemetery of Our Saviour, which was created in 1808 due to the great famine and cholera epidemic of the Napoleonic Wars. Its grounds were extended in 1911. The cemetery has been full and thus closed for new graves since 1952, with interment only allowed in existing family graves.

There are many famous people buried here, but the two I recognized were Edvard Munch and Henrik Ibsen.

Grave of Edvard Munch

The grave of Henrik Ibsen and his family

Obelisks and stones were the majority of grave markings, but I found this one carving.

Our Saviours Cemetery

Public Art in Oslo – Neve Og Rose by Ola Enstad

Fountain by Skule Waksvik

Ola Enstad’s stainless steel outdoor sculpture Dykkar skulptur (Diver sculpture) near Radisson Blu hotel in the Vaterland neighborhood

While wandering, I found this lovely sculpture by Ola Enstad, “Diver sculpture.” It consists of six stylized life-size divers diving into the Akerselva River.

Not far away, I walked across this stunning white bridge that crossed the Akerselva River. It struck me how it would be such a delight to walk the river and see all the other beautiful sites. There seems to never be enough time to accomplish all one wants when traveling.

The steepness of this little road doesn’t show how much uphill I walked, but what it will show you is the fact that it is not a city to walk without a good solid pair of shoes.

Stolperstein

In my aimless walking, I spotted these stolperstein. I have seen them before, after being introduced to them by a dear friend who now lives in Jerusalem. A Stolperstein is a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literally, it means ‘stumbling stone’ and metaphorically ‘stumbling block’.

A lovely little glimpse of the historic Damstredet area

It was an exhausting day, but the weather was glorious. I had the most incredible lobster roll for lunch at Code Restaurant (Dronning Eufemias gate 18) and fabulous Ramen for dinner at Koie Ramen, where, ironically, the chef is Filipino.

Oslo City Hall and the Nobel Peace Center

Norway, Oslo

Sep 252024

September 2024

The Nobel Peace Center

The Nobel Peace Center building was purchased from Consul General Christophersen in 1903. The architects Carl and Jørgen Berner were commissioned to reconstruct it. Carl Berner designed much of the interior in the “art nouveau” style popular at the time, as opposed to the neo-classical design of the exterior. When the Nobel Committee members convene, they still sit around the table designed by Jørgen Berner in 1905. – The ceremonies are now held in the City Hall.

Oslo City Hall

Oslo City Hall

Oslo City Hall was constructed between 1931 and 1950, with an interruption during the Second World War. It was designed by architects Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson.

Joseph Grimeland designed the bronze relief over the entrance “Sea and land” (Sjø og land) and also the Oslopike (“Oslo girl”) high up on the wall.

The intricate clock displays the time, month, and position of the moon and sun, plus the zodiac signs.

In the forecourt is a fountain with two bronze swans (Svanegruppe) by the sculptor Dyre Vaa.

black and white marble designs encircle the fountain

There are 16 wood reliefs by Dagfin Werenskiold face the square and are multicolored depictions of motifs from the Poetic Edda of Norse mythology concerning the life of gods and the stories of wisdom and love, war and hate, and visions of the future.

The western wall of the building is dominated by Anne Grimdalen’s sculpture of Harald Hardråde on horseback.

When you enter City Hall you do so in a giant room that is adorned with murals and a stunning marble floor. This room is where the Nobel Prize is awarded.

Shown in this mural are the struggles of the Norwegian people under the Nazi occupation.

Titled “Administration and Festivity,” the murals in the Central Hall at Oslo City Hall depict scenes from Norwegian history and legends. Artist Henrik Sørensens painted these murals between 1938 and 1950. He included many images from World War II.

This mural is by Alf Rolfsen. It’s “A Picture of the Nation”, showing the main trades of Norway back in the 40s-50s. A fisherman, a farmer, a sailor and an industry worker. On the left side of the fresco you can spot the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, he represents the Nation seeking outwards. On the other side is the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, representing the inwards spiritual journey.

The ceiling of the great hall

A depiction of Saint Hallvard.

The marble floor

A marble plaque representing the tmedieval poem of the Poetic Edda that describes how the world might have come into shape and would end according to Norse mythology. According to this literary text, the beginning of the world was characterized by nothingness until the gods created the nine realms of Norse cosmology, somehow linked by the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

I didn’t have a photo that really showed the enormity of the room. This is from Norway with Pal, a great website about all things Oslo.

Two dragons on the exterior of the building I could find nothing about

Inside the entry of Oslo City Hall

This is just a small sampling of the amazing artwork in Oslo City Hall. I must return someday and spend more time seeing the rest of the building.

Norway’s Rich Maritime History

Norway, Oslo

Sep 252024

September 2024

Kon Tiki Museum

Kon Tiki

I grew up with stories of Thor Hyerdahl and Roald Amundsen, so visiting these museums on a very rainy day was a real education. Hyerdahl was a handsome adventurer and Norwegian ethnologist who became famous by organizing and leading the famous Kon-Tiki (1947) and Ra (1969–70) transoceanic scientific expeditions.

The cabin of the Kon Tiki

On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and a small crew sailed from Peru in the primitive raft Kon-Tiki. (named for a legendary Inca god) and made from locally available balsa logs from Callao, Peru. Three and a half months later, their arrival in Polynesia demonstrated the possibility that the Polynesians may have originated in South America.

The Ra

In 1969, Heyerdahl and a small crew crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco to within 600 miles of Central America in a facsimile of an ancient Egyptian reed boat, the Ra. Thus, they confirmed the possibility that the pre-Columbian cultures of the Western Hemisphere might have been influenced by Egyptian civilization.

Both expeditions were intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between distant civilizations and cultures. Thor Heyerdahl was right there was contact with South America, but he was not right that everyone came from there. The population of Rapa Nui has a small contribution of DNA from South America, dating to pre-European times. Other of Heyerdahl’s theories regarding navigation have been dispelled.

This is a collection of cave stone sculptures collected by Heyerdahl from Easter sland. In 1955-56, he learned that there were old family caves passed down through the generations. Heyerdahl was the first outsider allowed into one of these caves. These sculptures vary in age and have been at the Kon Tiki Museum since Heyerdahl brought them back to Oslo.

In 2019, King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway signed an agreement that pledged to transfer items from Oslo’s Kon Tiki Museum to a “well-equipped” museum on Easter Island.

Fram Museum

The Fram Museum

Opened in 1936, the Fram Museum honors Norwegian polar exploration in general and four Norwegian polar explorers in particular – Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen.

The Fram Museum

Fram (“Forward”) is a ship that these Norwegian explorers used on expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions between 1893 and 1912.

Gjøa, the first ship to sail through the Northwest Passage

Roald Amundsen and a crew of six on the Gjøa were the first to sail through the Northwest Passage in a three-year journey, ending in 1906.

Amundsen then decided to be the first to adventure to the South Pole.

In 1925, Amundsen attempted to fly to the North Pole with five others in two aircraft, the N24 and the N25. After more than eight hours in the air, they landed on leads in the drift ice. The six men struggled for 3½ weeks to create a runway on the drift ice.

Amundsen visited San Francisco, California, in the autumn of 1913. He was there on a lecture tour when Norwegian-American Johnsen gave him a plane ride, strengthening Amundsen’s belief that this was the transport method of the future.

Sculpture of Antarctic Explorer Roald Amundsen and his team is located outside the Fram Museum.

This war memorial sits on the water outside the Fram Museum. The Google translation of the plaque reads: “In the Second World War 1939 – 1945, over one thousand Nordic vessels from merchant fleet and navy performed countless military missions and transported 145 million tons of invaluable importance to the Allied victory. Trade ships were armed, and more than half were lost. Four thousand five hundred were killed in the battle for Norway’s liberation of our seafarers. The courage and loyalty will always be reminded of deep respect and gratitude.”

Next to the war memorial was this collection of birds completely ignoring the human taking their photo.

Inner Fjord

The inner fjord looking towards the direction of the North Sea

I took the ferry across the inner Oslo fjord to return to my hotel. This interesting sculpture is on the ferry landing. It is by Ola Enstad, who also did the divers found near the Radisson on the Akerselva River.

“Dykkaren” by Ola Enstad

Norsk Folkemuseum

Norway, Oslo

Sep 252024

The Norse Folk Museum

September 24, 2024

I could have spent an entire week at the Folk Museum. It has 160 historic buildings and focuses on the period from 1500 until the present. There is also room upon room with art, clothing, and items related to Norway’s history.

Norsk Folkemuseum was founded by Hans Aall in 1894. In 1907, the museum took charge of the King Oscar II Collection, the world’s first open-air museum, established in 1881, which included the stave church from Gol and the farmhouses Hovestua from Heddal and Kjellebergstua from Valle in Setesdal.

The above is Oscar II’s portal (From the 1883 Kristiania fair). It was built as the entry to the Norwegian section of the Industrial and Art Fair held in the Royal Palace Park.

It was designed by the architect Holm Hansen Munthe (1848-1898), the foremost representative of the so-called Viking revival style.

After the fair closed, the portal was presented to the King and set up as the entry gate for the Collections at Bygdøy. It was taken out of use in the 1920s and was in such disrepair by 1951 that it was dismantled. In connection with the museum’s centennary in 1994, the portal was restored and rebuilt at the same place as it once stood.

Open Hearth House

Open hearth farmhouse

Open-hearth houses were typically three-roomed houses. They had a larger main room, an entrance, and a small chamber, or “kove.” The main room served as the kitchen, dining room, work room, bedroom, and reception room. Although sparsely furnished, it always had a long table with benches.

The main room’s focus was the open hearth, or “åre,” with its warmth, light, and cooking space. The rising smoke seeped out through the vent, or “ljore,” the room’s only source of daylight.

A bed, a kvile, stands in each corner by the door. Their great width makes them look shorter than they are, but short, broadbeds were the norm. Pillows were not used – the head rested on a rolled-up blanket. And people curled up together as best they could. The bench with the backrest, the brugdebenk, is one of the few movable pieces of furniture. For cooking, an iron pot hung over the hearth from a long wooden arm, the gjøya, which could be swung back and forth to regulate the heat under the pot.

The “gjøya” usually ends in a carved, often stylized horse’s head. Much symbolism and superstition was linked to this horse-head, and especially to the bond between horse and man. The horse was credited with magical powers symbolizing light, fire, strength, and procreative powers.

Storehouses

Storehouse from Søndre Berdal

Storehouses, also called lofts, were two-story buildings known as early as the Middle Ages. The name is used for the upper story and for the entire building. The lower room used for storing food was called the bu or bur, while the upper room was a bedroom and guest room where clothing and valuables were also stored.

The quality of carpentry and décor on the loft mark it as the most important building on the farm.

Both stories are built of logs with a gallery, or sval, on one or more sides of the upper room.

Storehouse from Søndre Tveito (Tinn, ca. 1300)

Setesdal Farm

Setesdal was once fairly isolated since almost impassable valley sections complicated contact with the coast. Most farmsteads in Setesdal were situated on the hillsides surrounded by their patches of land and hayfields. Outbuildings and in-houses were usually separated into two rows, with the in-houses forming the upper row and the outhouses forming the lower row. Crops included grain, mostly barley, and potatoes, from the early 1800s. All farms grew turnips. In the 1800s, some farms started to grow red and white currant bushes, apple trees, and cherry trees. The animals grazed in the farm’s forest and on the uplands.

The Setesdal farmstead

A close look at the construction in Setesdahl

Olderfjord

This area is relevant to WWII. The Battles of Narvik were fought from April to June 1940 as a naval battle in Ofotfjord.

The white building is a home that was once located at Olderfjord, on the west side of the Porsanger Fjord, approximately 60 km from the municipal center Lakselv. The house was built between 1950 and 1951, using drawings by architect Leif Pedersen in Hammerfest.

The red building, or cowshed from the 1940s, was located in Indre Billefjord, on the west side of the Porsanger Fjord, approximately 30 km from the municipal center of Lakselv.

Parsonage

The parsonage

Even since the Middle Ages, priests have been provided with houses and adjacent farms that assured their incomes. The parson administered the parsonage, while the congregation was responsible for its maintenance. Clergymen became royal officials after the Reformation, part of the class of public officials that made up a network spanning both kingdoms of Norway and Denmark. Family relationships and a common cultural background linked them.

This particular house was built for parson Gjert Geelmuyden. Its appearance has changed little since 1752 except that the windows and main door have been renewed. The roofs have probably kept their original swaying shape.

Construction

Construction

A sod roof, or turf roof, is a traditional Scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards.

As was mentioned, the museum goes up to the modern age.

The gas station was built in the concrete neo-classicistic architectural style of the 1920s to sell gasoline to drivers on one of Norway’s most important highways. The museum has reconstructed the building according to the original plans, and it is of the same type as most other stations from that period.

This privy was formerly from Smalensgat at Valerenga, one of Oslo’s working-class districts. It was built in 1887, demolished, and given to the museum in 1980. The municipal Kristiana Renholdsverk in Oslo was established in 1897, and these were the city’s most important type of toilets. They existed until the 2000s.

Dronningensgate 15

The brick building on the left is half-timbered. The ground floor facing the street is the oldest part of the building, dating from the early 1600s. The bookbinder Frederik Jacobsen Brun owned the house from the end of the 1600s until 1741. During this time, the buildings were built and rebuilt, eventually forming an enclosed square around a courtyard.

The building on the right, with its yellow and red stripes, was very fashionable in Christiania in the early 1700s. A special bricklaying technique, cross bonding, forms the stripes. This gave a decorative effect to brickwork. The fashion became so popular that stripes were also painted on walls built of single-colored bricks.

The anchoring irons on the front – AO 1714 TESGMMD – form the initials of the first owner, Tøger Eriksen Grøn, and his wife, Margrethe Mogensdatter. Such irons were placed to keep the beams of each floor fastened to the wall while at the same time being used decoratively to show when the house was built and by whom.

As I mentioned, the museum has over 160 buildings, and I only touched on a few. I bet if I were an elementary school kid, I would be sick of being taken here on field trips, but as an adult, I would relish another week to explore this amazing museum.

Bjørvika Neighborhood of Oslo

Norway, Oslo

Sep 252024

September 2024

I have never been to Norway, so this is a new adventure. I have come to view the Northern Lights, but that will be in another week. For now, I am enjoying Oslo. It is a fascinating city with incredible architecture, delightful people, and perfect weather.

The Patron Saint of Oslo

According to legend Thorny Hallvard, the cousin of St. Olav, became a local small trader who traveled often on business. One day in the spring of 1043, as he was preparing to row his boat across the fjord, a young, pregnant thrall (Viking Age slave or serf) ran up and begged him to take her with him as three men were pursuing her.

She explained that the men had accused her of breaking into and stealing from a house, which she had not done. Hallvard believed she was innocent, took her into his boat, and started to row across the fjord. Just then, the three men pursuing her got to the shore and resumed their pursuit in another boat. They called to Hallvard to demand that he hand the woman over to them. Hallvard refused. Furious, they shot arrows that struck Hallvard in the neck, killing him.

The three men tried to hide the evidence of the murder by bludgeoning the woman to death and burying her on the shore and by tossing Hallvard’s body into the fjord after tying a millstone around his neck. A few days later, Hallvard’s body was found floating in the fjord, the millstone still securely tied to his neck. Friends who had been searching for him fished his body up and wrapped it with stalks of osier shrub native to the area and then buried him near his home. Soon, the stalks of osier shrub at his grave miraculously began to sprout. The man who had died defending an innocent woman became a local and then a national martyr.

The present version of the manhole cover, designed in 1924, shows Hallvard on a lion throne, the three lethal arrows in his left hand, the millstone in his right hand, and the nude woman he attempted to save at his feet. There’s a motto in Latin around the periphery, reading Unanimiter et Constanter (Unanimous and Eternal).

Bjørvika

She Lies

I am staying on Bjørvika harbor, and the first thing you see is this sculpture called She Lies by Italian artist Monica Bonvicini. It is based on Caspar David Friedrich’s painting Das Eismeer (The Sea of Ice). The artwork floats on a concrete platform tethered to the harbor floor, allowing it to turn and change based on the tides and currents. It is different from every view.

Here, I caught it with a cruise ship in the background. Between them is a fjord sauna, yes a moving sauna so you can jump in the water as you potter around.

Mother

Also on the harbor is Mother, a sculpture by the artist Tracey Emin. It is a huge kneeling figure caressing an unknown something, with its back to the Munch Museum.

The Munch Museum

The Munch Museum is dedicated to the works of Edvard Munch and was built in 2020. It was designed by Spanish architect Juan Herreros of Herreros Arquitectos.

Near the Munch Museum is a restaurant owner with a good sense of humor

Across the Akerselva River from the Munch Museum is the Oslo Opera House, which also houses the Oslo Ballet Company.

Oslo Opera House

The ground floor of the Opera House contains the work studios for carpenters, dressmakers, and others. You can peek in the windows and see what is going on.

The Oslo Opera House from the 12th floor of the Munch Museum

Creature from Iddefjord by Martin Puryear

The artist says, “I wanted to construct an ambiguous stone presence that could be experienced not only with the eyes but also by direct physical contact.” The granite sculpture sits in front of Oslo’s new central library in Bjørvika.

Oslo Central Library – Deichman Bjørvika

The international architecture competition to design Oslo’s new main library was won by Lund Hagem and Atelier Oslo architects in 2009. “The librarians wanted a house that would inspire visitors to explore all the new facilities and activities the modern library can offer. This motivated us to create an open and intriguing building in which you are constantly invited around the next corner, to discover new places”.

That the building took more than a decade to complete was the result of at least one engineering snafu (in 2014, the foundation sprung a leak, delaying construction by a year) and politicians’ efforts to reduce the cost. (The eventual budget was about $230 million.)

Barcode Area of Bjørvika

The Bjørvika Barcode project consists of twelve narrow high-rise buildings of different heights and widths. The buildings are built with some space in between them, thus jointly resembling a barcode. Barcode buildings are the home of leading national and international businesses, and 10,000 people work there daily. The buildings also contain 400 apartments and a daycare center. On the street are a plethora of restaurants, shops, galleries, and other service providers.

Each building is specifically designed to be different, and all were designed by different architects.

The buildings seen in the photo above: Starting on the left PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Building, the first Barcode building to be completed. Next is the Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) Building by Solheim & Jacobsen the next is the The PWC building is by A-Lab. Next is the Deloitte Building by Snøhetta.

After the Deloitte building is an open area called the Station Common, taking you to the Akrobatan Bridge.

After that is the Visma Building by Dark Arkitekter. Then DnB NOR Building by MVRDV, Dark Arkitekter, and a-lab

Akrobaten Bridge

Akrobaten (‘the acrobat’) is a pedestrian bridge stretching across the railway tracks of Oslo central station, connecting the two neighborhoods of Grønland and Bjørvika. The construction is made of steel and glass, with a total weight of approximately 500 tons. NLI was the engineering/design company.

Night lights near the Akrobaten Bridge

Peleton Bike stands

The Norwegian practice MAD arkitekter created these bike stands called the ‘MAD Bike.’ Made of stainless steel, they provide safe bicycle parking and create an interesting visual and spatial impression. They are arranged in a pattern that emulates a peloton – a pack of riders in a road bicycle race, Tour de bjørvika! The front bike leads the pack in the direction of the fjord.

Nordenga Bridge

The Nordenga bridge, also by NLI, crosses the railroad tracks and connects Bjørvika with inner-city Oslo. The design choice, with trusses and columns supporting the roadway, was based on a minimum number of columns within the track area. The steel bridge weighs 2100 tons.

Kayaking in the Barcode area in Bjørvika Oslo. near 8 Dronning Eufemias gate

At night

The Deloitte building in Bjørvika district, designed by Snöhetta at night

Felleskap by Norwegian sculptor Nico Widerberg across the river from the Clarion Oslo, where I am staying

A multicourse dinner at Vaaghals was worth every penny.