Oslo sits at the head of a long fjord, with forest on the hills behind it and islands in front, so you can take a ferry or a metro into nature straight from the centre. Here are the facts and stories that make the city special.
10 fun facts about Oslo
- A city that changed its name: after a great fire in 1624, King Christian IV rebuilt the town next to Akershus Fortress and named it Christiania, after himself. It only became Oslo again on 1 January 1925.
- Home of the Peace Prize: the Nobel Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize awarded in Oslo rather than Stockholm. The ceremony takes place every 10 December in Oslo City Hall.
- An opera house you can walk on: the Oslo Opera House, designed by the architects Snøhetta, opened in 2008. Anyone can walk up its sloping marble roof to the top.
- The Scream has a new home: Edvard Munch left his own works to the city of Oslo, and since 2021 they have been shown in MUNCH, a tall museum on the waterfront next to the Opera.
- A park full of people: Frogner Park holds more than 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The centrepiece, the Monolith, shows 121 human figures carved from a single block of stone.
- A medieval fortress on the harbour: construction of Akershus Fortress began in the 1290s under King Haakon V.
- A polar ship you can board: the Fram, the wooden ship that carried Fridtjof Nansen into the Arctic and Roald Amundsen to Antarctica, stands inside the Fram Museum on Bygdøy. Amundsen reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911.
- A palace without a fence: the Royal Palace, finished in 1849, stands at the top of Karl Johans gate, the main street, and its park is open to everyone.
- A ski jump on the skyline: the Holmenkollen jump, rebuilt for the 2011 Nordic World Ski Championships, can be seen from much of the city and reached by metro.
- A green capital: Oslo was European Green Capital in 2019.
Why Oslo is called the Tiger City
Norwegians often call their capital Tigerstaden, the Tiger City. The name is usually traced to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the poet who wrote Norway's national anthem. In his 1870 poem Sidste Sang, a horse fights a tiger: the horse stands for the safe countryside, the tiger for the dangerous, hungry city. For a long time the nickname was not meant kindly, but the city gradually took it as its own. When Oslo celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in 2000, the sculptor Elena Engelsen made a bronze tiger about 4.5 metres long as a gift to the city. It stands on Jernbanetorget, the square outside Oslo Central Station.
Oslo Cathedral, explained
Oslo Cathedral, the Domkirke, was consecrated in 1697 in what was then Christiania. It looks plain from outside, but the interior is full of colour: the vaulted ceiling was painted by Hugo Lous Mohr in the 20th century, the stained-glass windows in the choir are by Emanuel Vigeland, Gustav's brother, and the bronze doors on the west portal were made by Dagfin Werenskiold in 1938. It is also the church for national occasions: King Harald V married Queen Sonja here in 1968, and Crown Prince Haakon married Mette-Marit here in 2001.
What to eat in Oslo
- Brunost: sweet, caramel-coloured brown cheese made from whey. Slice it thin with an ostehøvel, the cheese slicer invented in Norway, and eat it on bread or waffles.
- Fårikål: lamb and cabbage stewed with whole black peppercorns, often called Norway's national dish. It is at its best in autumn.
- Pølse i lompe: a hot dog wrapped in a soft potato flatbread instead of a bun, sold at kiosks and petrol stations.
- Skolebrød: a sweet bun filled with custard and topped with icing and grated coconut, a favourite in Norwegian bakeries.
- Fresh shrimp: in summer, buy cooked prawns and eat them by the harbour with white bread, mayonnaise and lemon.
Good to know before you go
- The Opera roof is free to walk on and is one of the best viewpoints over the fjord and the new waterfront.
- Ferries to the islands of the inner Oslofjord run as part of the city's public transport network, which makes an easy half-day escape in summer.
- Bygdøy, with the Fram Museum and the Norwegian Folk Museum, can be reached by bus all year and by boat from the pier near City Hall in summer.
- In December Oslo gets only about six hours of daylight, so plan outdoor sightseeing for the middle of the day.
Explore Oslo with World City Trail
Our Oslo scavenger hunt turns these sights into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around three hours, with about 60 minutes of walking: the Tiger statue outside Oslo Central Station, Oslo Cathedral and more of the centre's main sights.
At each stop you solve a puzzle and hear a short story, at your own pace. You can start whenever you like.
Play the Oslo scavenger hunt →
Facts checked in October 2026.