Oslo

Oslo Cathedral — formerly Our Savior's Church — is the main church for the Oslo bishopric of the Church of Norway, as well as the... parish church for downtown Oslo. The present building dates from 1694-1697. The Norwegian Royal Family and the Norwegian Government use the Cathedral for public events. It was closed for renovation in August 2006 and re-opened with a festive high mass on 18 April 2010. The current Oslo Paper Cathedral is the third cathedral in Oslo, Norway. The first, Hallvards Cathedral, was built by King Sigurd I of Norway in the first half of the 12th century, and was located by the Old Bishop's Palace in Oslo, some 1.5 kilometers east of today's Oslo Cathedral. For almost 500 years, Hallvards Cathedral was the most important church in the city. After a great fire in Oslo during 1624, King Christian IV decided to move the city a few kilometers west to be protected by Akershus Fortress. Construction of a new church was started in 1632, on the main square in the new city. After that, Hallvards Cathedral fell into disrepair and decayed. In 1639, the second cathedral was built .
more

The Royal Palace in Oslo was built in the first half of the 19th century as the Norwegian residence of Norwegian and Swedish king Charles III and... is the official residence of the present Norwegian Monarch. The crown prince couple resides at Skaugum in Asker west of Oslo. The palace has 173 rooms. Until the completion of the Royal Palace, Norwegian royalty resided in Paleet, the magnificent town house in Christiania that the wealthy merchant Bernt Anker bequeathed to the State in 1805 to be used as a royal residence. During the last years of the union with Denmark it was used by the viceroys of Norway, and in 1814 by the first king of independent Norway, Christian Frederick. King Charles III John of the Bernadotte dynasty resided there as crown prince and later as king during his frequent visits to his Norwegian capital. Charles John chose the site for the permanent Royal Palace on the western side of Christiania in 1821 and commissioned the officer and inexperienced architect, Danish-born Linstow, to design the building.
more

Vår Frelsers gravlund is a cemetery in Oslo, Norway, located north of Hammersborg in Gamle Aker district. It was created in 1808 as a result of... the great famine and cholera epidemic of the Napoleonic Wars. Its grounds were extended in 1911. The cemetery has been full since 1952. The cemetery is known primarily for Æreslunden, Norway's main honorary burial ground.
more

Oslo City Hall houses the city council, city administration, and art studios and galleries. The construction started in 1931, but was paused by the... outbreak of World War II, before the official inauguration in 1950. Its characteristic architecture, artworks and the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, held on 10 December, makes it one of Oslo's most famous buildings. It was designed by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson. The roof of the eastern tower has a 49-bell carillon which plays every hour. It is situated in Pipervika in central downtown Oslo. The area was completely renovated and rebuilt to make room for the new city hall, back in the late 1920s. In June 2005 it was named Oslo's "Structure of the Century", with 30.4% of the votes. In early middle ages, it looks like different halls in Oslo had the City Hall status from time to time. Right where Oslo Market is located on this very day, the Early Oslo City Hall was built. From the sources we know that the old Oslo City Hall had an open vine cellar for public use.
more

Jostein Gaarder /ˈju:staɪn ˈgɔːrdər/ is a Norwegian intellectual and author of several novels, short stories and... children's books. Gaarder often writes from the perspective of children, exploring their sense of wonder about the world. He often uses metafiction in his works, writing stories within stories. Gaarder was born into a pedagogical family. His best known work is the novel Sophie's World, subtitled A Novel about the History of Philosophy. This popular work has been translated into fifty-three languages; there are over thirty million copies in print. In 1997, he established the Sophie Prize together with his wife Siri Dannevig. This prize is an international environment and development prize , awarded annually. It is named after the novel. Jostein Gaarder has been involved in the promotion of human rights and sustainable development for several years, establishing the Sophie Prize in 1997. He has also vehemently criticized the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the treatment of the Palestinians. In August 2006, Jostein Gaarder published an op-ed in one of the major daily newspapers in Norway, Aftenposten.
more

Johan Severin Svendsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania , Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen,... Denmark. Svendsen's output includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, and the Romance for violin, as well as a number of Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra. At one time Svendsen was intimate friends with the German composer Richard Wagner. His father was a music teacher and Svendsen learned both the violin and clarinet from him. By the time he finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a violinist. In Lübeck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible for him to study from 1863-67 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Ferdinand David, but problems with his hand forced him to switch to composition, which he studied with Carl Reinecke. He completed his studies in Leipzig in 1867, receiving first prize in composition. During this period, Svendsen had a son out of wedlock, Johann Richard Rudolph . Gradually his attention turned to conducting.
more

Paul Waaktaar-Savoy is a Norwegian musician and songwriter. He is best known for his work as guitarist in the Norwegian pop band A-ha. He has... written or co-written most of the band's biggest hits, including "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", "Hunting High and Low", "Take on Me", the James Bond theme "The Living Daylights" and the ballad "Summer Moved On". In addition, Waaktaar-Savoy is also a painter. Paul is the guitarist and main songwriter for A-ha, one of the most successful bands of the 1980s. Once "Q Magazine" named him as one of the best unknown lyricists of his generation. A-ha performed "Summer Moved On" live at the Nobel-Peace-Price-Concert. After this, they decided to record a new album and, in 2000, A-ha had the comeback of the year, followed by a sold-out tour. The A-ha album "Lifelines" was released in 2002. The following tour was documented in A-ha's second official live album, How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head, which was released in March 2003. In 2004 the compilation album The Singles: 1984-2004 was released their last album with WEA. After that A-ha signed to Universal. Analogue was released in 2005.
more

Ellen Helen Nikolaysen is a Norwegian singer/actress. She participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 as part of the Bendik Singers group... with the song It's Just A Game and again as backing vocalist for fellow Bendik Singer Anne-Karine Strøm in 1974 before competing in her third consecutive Eurovision this time as a solo artist in 1975 with Touch My Life With Summer. She won the Best Performance Award at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo in 1974. In the early 1990s she began a new career as actor in musicals on Norwegian theatre stages.
more

Jarl André Bjerke was a Norwegian writer and poet. His debut was in 1940 with a collection of poems, Syngende Jord . He has written a wide... range of material: poems , mystery novels , essays, and articles. He was known as a master translator, and translated works by Shakespeare, Molière, Goethe, Racine, etc. into elegant Norwegian. A central theme in Bjerke's works, especially his poems, is the longing for childhood. André Bjerke was, together with his equally famous cousin Jens Bjørneboe, also known as a prominent proponent of the Riksmål language during the Norwegian language struggle, and of anthroposophy, especially in the 1950s. His father was the author Ejlert Bjerke, and his mother Karin Bjerke . His mystery novels, among the best of the genre in Norwegian, are influenced by his interest in psychoanalysis. His first mystery novel, Nattmennesket was published in 1941.
more

Eva Joly is a Norwegian-born French magistrate and politician for the French Green Party. Born in Grünerløkka, Oslo, she moved to Paris... at 20 to work as an au pair. There, against the will of the parents, she married the son of the family that employed her, Pascal Joly and adopted her middle name 'Eva' as it was easier to pronounce in French. Working as a secretary, she took her legal education at night school and became a magistrate when she was 38. Joly specialised in financial affairs, and in 1990 she joined the High Court of Paris as an investigating judge. Here she quickly made a mark with her tireless crusade against corruption, in particular taking on, among others, former minister Bernard Tapie and the bank Crédit Lyonnais. Her most famous case, however, was that of France’s leading oil company – Elf Aquitaine. In the face of death threats, she carried on the case to uncover several cases of fraud. In 2002 she was asked by the Norwegian Minister of Justice, Mr Odd Einar Dørum, to accept a three-year position as a special advisor on corruption.
more