Oslo Scenes

(August 2026)

Ánslo, founded as a major trade post in 1048 by Harald (Hardrada), later became (post Vikings) “Kristiania,” and then in 1925, Oslo. Home to the likes of Ibsen and Undset, it is a major cultural centre.

Opera House, National Theatre

The roof of the building tilts to ground level, but don’t bother clambering up that slippery white granite/marble slope in order to take in “the panoramic views of Oslo,” because you can just walk around the corner and take the Munch Museum’s lift to a rooftop bar and enjoy it in much more civilised fashion.

Oslo City Hall

A vast, red brick twin-tower edifice is where local democracy works, or goes to die, depending on your view. Once through security, you can freely (and for free) wander around its wide foyer, halls, rooms and chambers, where impressive large murals abound. Truth to tell, the works themselves are redolent of socialist realist art and have a strong whiff of leftist sanctimony about them, but worth a view in any case. Even that bleeding heart, Munch, gets a room of his own. The farce that is the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held here every year.

 

 

Nobel Peace Museum

Opened in 2005 by the now departed King Harald V, the building (1872) was once a railway station. It is near the City Hall where the Nobel prize cocktail circuit occurs annually on the bomb-maker’s birthday. Funding comes from Norwegian Ministry of Culture, private sponsors and admission fees (plus, no doubt, Mr. George Soros).

There is a glo-stick garden of award recipients…

…and a medal struck for Alfred Nobel (21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) himself:

Vigeland Sculpture Park

(Oslo, 27 August 2026)

Gustav Vigeland (11 April 1869 – 12 March 1943) is Norway’s most famous sculptor. One dares to say that he is Norway’s best sculptor, although that is not a high bar. Although he did hang-out for a time with Rodin in Paris, his work lacks the sensitive detail of that modernist; being very literal, it does not achieve the pleasing abstractions of, say, a Henry Moore, and (needless to say), it vanishingly pales beside the great Greek classicists such as Alexandros (Agasandros?) of Antioch.

His pieces are akin to the work of the preferred Nazi sculptor, fellow traveller, Arno Breker, and considered individually, are not of a standard to commend them to posterity. However, the Vigeland statuary installations at Frogner Park in Oslo are quite a different matter. Here one is confronted by some 212 of his works, most in granite; some bronze, wrought over a twenty-year period, and the overall effect is awesome.

Human figures abound, in a myriad poses:

Then comes the famous Monolith (Monolitten), with its 121 figures struggling to reach the top, a tower of flesh worthy of Dante, or Rubens:

Time out for a refreshment at Anne på landet, situated within the park:

“His Majestet, Kong Harald V er død”

(21 February 1937 – 28 August 2026)

Exiled as a child during WWII, spirited away hours before the Nazis invaded, a rower at Balliol College, an Olympic sailor, who married a ‘commoner’ (Sonja Haraldsen) in 1968, King since 1991, Harald V was obviously much loved by his people. He fell gravely ill in August 2026 and with a concerned nation following the news of his worsening condition, Harald died on 28 August 2026, aged 89.

The Varnished Culture went to the Royal Palace and with at least 10,000 Norwegians (and a stack of print and broadcast journalists), entered the parade area and the square. The Hearse came in, then the flag was raised at half-staff, then the Cabinet came out to confirm Harald’s son, Hakken, was now King Haaken VIII. Then there was a 21 gun salute.

At our hotel that evening, we met a nice lady who had come to Oslo by train to pay respects to the late King.

The future post-Harald is uncertain. But Norway is a stable, cohesive, and profitable country, so long live King Haakon VIII. The Norwegians are a resilient people – just consider Thor Heyerdahl, who spent 101 days in open sea on a hand-made balsawood raft, the “Kon-Tiki”: