Visiting Oslo

Oslo, crowning the Oslo Fjord, or simply The Vik (or Cove) as the fjord was called before Oslo got predominance, has been inhabited for some time, though according to the Kings' sagas Oslo was founded at 1050 by the adventurer-king Harald Hardråde after he quite literally had been around the known world, visiting tourist attractions like Rus, Constantinople, and North Africa. He considered Oslo well situated for his favourite hobby, harassing the Danes. Among the Anglo-Saxons he may be better known for taking the bronze medal at the England 1066 games. (Unfortunately the only network accessible English version of the saga is this atrocious translation.)

Half a millennium later, in 1624 after Norway had become Danish and Oslo once more burnt down, the city was moved to the west under the Akershus castle and renamed Christiania after the reigning king Christian IV. By then city planning and the rectangular city grid were back in fashion, creating the part of the city now known as Kvadraturen.

The industrial revolution made Christiania a major city. From a population of less than ten thousands at the beginning of the 19th century it grew to well over 200,000 by the end. In particular during the 1880s and 1890s Kristiania got a contiuous influx of rural Norwegians. It was a period of immense poverty and squalor as well as one of economic and cultural expansion. Workers' quarters got nicknames like New York and Chicago due to their rapid development. Opera lies in the middle of this belt.

The 20th century experienced a more moderate doubling in size and a shift from an industrial city by the beginning to a post-industrial, and far less polluted, city by the end. The city planners made several errors of judgements particularly in the 1960s, but fortunately the worst ones were never implemented. The vacating industrial areas along the river were taken over by information technology and media companies during the 80s and 90s, and the riverfront was beautified (well, mostly).

The growth from the previous century continues. While the centre of Oslo used to be banana-shaped, with one end going towards north-west and the other towards north-east, the centre is now filling in the middle and the highest rate of development is along the ring encircling it. The other axis of development is along and into the fjord. The traffic that separated the city from the fjord is now largely gone, to be replaced with built-up areas, and the Old Oslo ruins are more accessible now that the railroads and motorways have receded. As for harrassing the Danes: Try taking one of the Denmark ferries.