Bygdoy, Oslo Attractions
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To the west of Oslo (6km/4mi by road; motorboats from Rådhusplass) lies the Bygdøy peninsula, with the Folk Museum, the Viking ships and other attractions including bathing beaches.
Norwegian Folk Museum
The Norwegian Folk Museum (Norsk Folkemuseum) consists of a number of different buildings. The main building contains collections of everyday objects, silver, carpets, furniture, etc., together with a Lapp Exhibition (costumes, tents and equipment for reindeer herding, hunting and fishing). In the same building is Ibsen's study from his house in Oslo. Visitors can take an interesting walk through the Old Town (Gamle Byen) with its medieval houses; Pharmacy Museum (mortars and herbaria of 1857).There is also a large open-air museum, with old wooden buildings, arranged according to the part of Norway from which they come. Of particular interest are the stave church (ca. 1200) from Gol in the Hallingdal, brought here in 1885, and the Raulandstue (ca. 1300) from the Numedal.
Viking Ships Museum
To the south of the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo is the Vikingskiphus, a large hall specially built to house three Viking ships, seaworthy vessels of the ninth century. Boats of this kind were used by the Vikings on their long sea voyages and also for the burial of their chieftains.
Oseberg Ship
The Oseberg (Oseborg) Ship (21.50m/70ft long and just over 5m/16ft wide), discovered north of Tønsberg in 1904, is the largest and finest pre-Christian object found in the northern countries. Built about 800, it was the state barge of the chieftain's wife, Åsa, and was used for her burial about 850. Of particular interest are the rich grave goods found in the ship.
Gokstad Ship
The Gokstad Ship (23.30m/76ft long by 5.24m/17ft wide), found at Gokstad in 1880, was also used for a burial; unlike the Oseberg Ship, it was a seagoing vessel, and accordingly was less richly decorated. It was designed for use either under sail or with oars; the warriors' shields would be hung along the thwarts. An exact replica of this ship sailed to America in six weeks in 1893.
Tune Ship
The Tune Ship, found in 1867 some 10km/6mi above Fredrikstad, is the most poorly preserved of the three ships in the Viking Ships Museum, only part of the ship's bottom having survived.
Fram Museum
On the southeast side of Bygdøy (at the landing-stage used by the motorboats) can be found the Fram Museum, containing the famous vessel in which Nansen sailed to the Arctic in 1893-96.
Bygdøy Shipping Museum
At the Fram Museum is the Shipping Museum. In front of it is the "Gjøa", in which Amundsen sailed through the Northwest Passage in 1903-06.
Kon-Tiki Museum
In an adjoining building to the Fram Museum and Shipping Museum in Oslo's Bygdøy area is the balsa-wood raft "Kon-Tiki" in which the Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five companions sailed from the Peruvian port of Callao to Eastern Polynesia (April 28 to August 7, 1947). Here too are a 9.50m/30ft high figure from Easter Island, prehistoric boats, an underwater exhibition and an Easter Island family cave, as well as the 14m/46ft long papyrus boat "Ra II" in which Heyerdahl and a crew of men from eight nations crossed the Atlantic in 1970.
More Norway Resources
- Oslo tours and things to do by Viator
Map - Bygdøy (Oslo)
