This guide crosses Oslo from east to west, from the railway station where most visitors arrive to the sculpture park where many of them end up. On the way it covers the Nobel Peace Center by the harbour, the National Theatre, the brick Uranienborg Church behind the Royal Palace and Frogner Park with Gustav Vigeland's sculptures. Each stands for a different side of the city: travel, peace, drama, faith and art.
Oslo Central Station
Oslo Central Station, Oslo S, was taken into use on 1 June 1980 on the site of Oslo East Station, which had opened in 1882. For a century the city had two main terminals: trains to the east and north left from Oslo East, while Oslo West, opened in 1872 by the harbour, served the lines to the west until it closed in 1989. Bringing them together under one roof made Oslo S the hub of Norway's railways. The old Oslo East building was kept and stands beside the newer main building, so the station is really two buildings side by side.
Today the Airport Express train runs from here to Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, every ten minutes. In front of the station, on Jernbanetorget, stands the tiger statue that marks the start of our scavenger hunt; the station itself is not one of the stops, but the route begins right outside.
- The two station buildings side by side: the old Oslo East hall from the 19th century and the main building from 1980.
Nobel Peace Center
The Nobel Peace Center opened in 2005 in the old Oslo West station, a building from 1872 designed by Georg Andreas Bull. King Harald V opened it, with the Kenyan laureate Wangari Maathai among the guests. It stands on City Hall Square, looking over the harbour and close to Oslo City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded every year on 10 December.
Inside, the centre presents the Peace Prize laureates and the issues they worked on, through exhibitions that change regularly. The British architect David Adjaye shaped its design and colour schemes, and the American designer David Small created its digital installations. It is one of the stops on our scavenger hunt, and so is the City Hall next door.
- The 19th-century station facade, a reminder that until 1989 trains left from what is now a museum about peace.
- The view across City Hall Square to the brick towers of the City Hall, the stage of the prize ceremony.
National Theatre
Norway's National Theatre gave its first performance on 1 September 1899. Its main building, by the architect Henrik Bull, stands in the centre, on the way from the Parliament to the Royal Palace. It is often called the home of Henrik Ibsen's plays, and most of his works have been staged here.
In front of the entrance stand two statues by Stephan Sinding from 1899: Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the two great Norwegian writers of the 19th century. The theatre is one of the stops on the scavenger hunt.
- The statues of Ibsen and Bjørnson flanking the entrance, both from the year the theatre opened.
- The facade of 1899, best taken in from a little distance, where you can see the whole front and the statues together.
Uranienborg Church
Behind the Royal Palace, in the Uranienborg neighbourhood and next to Uranienborg Park, stands a neo-Gothic brick church consecrated on 22 December 1886. Its architect was Balthazar Lange, later city architect of Christiania, as Oslo was then called. It was the most expensive church built in the city at the time, and it seats about 1,020 people.
The interior was given its present form by the architect Arnstein Arneberg in 1930. The original frescoes by Enevold Thømt are lost, but the stained-glass windows by Emanuel Vigeland, the younger brother of Gustav Vigeland, are the reason to look inside. The church is not a stop itself, but it is in the same neighbourhood as Uranienborgveien, one of the stops on the route.
- The stained glass by Emanuel Vigeland, which links this church with the sculptures you will see later in Frogner Park.
Frogner Park
Frogner Park is Oslo's largest park, and at its centre is the Vigeland installation: 212 sculptures in bronze and granite, all by Gustav Vigeland, who worked on them from 1924 until his death in 1943. An axis runs west from the main gate across the Bridge, with its 58 sculptures, past the Fountain to the Monolith. The park has been open to the public since 1904, and in 2009 it became the first park in Norway to be protected under the heritage law.
Before the sculptures there was a manor. Frogner Manor dates back to the 1750s and was rebuilt by Benjamin Wegner, who bought it in 1836 and turned the garden into a romantic landscape park. The city bought the estate in 1896, and since 1909 the manor has housed the Oslo Museum. Frogner Park is the last stop on our scavenger hunt.
- Sinnataggen, the Angry Boy, a small bronze child stamping his foot on the Bridge, one of the best-known figures in the park.
- The Monolith, carved from a single block of granite, with 121 human figures climbing towards the top; it was first shown to the public at Christmas 1944.
- The Wheel of Life, carved in 1933 and 1934, a ring of four adults, a child and a baby.
How to see them in one walk
Start at Oslo Central Station and the tiger on Jernbanetorget, then walk up Karl Johans gate, past the cathedral and the Parliament, and turn down to City Hall Square for the Nobel Peace Center. Walk back up to the National Theatre, continue past the Royal Palace and through the park behind it into Uranienborg for the church. From there head west to Frogner Park, entering by the main gate so you see the sculptures in the order Vigeland planned.
See Oslo with World City Trail
Our Oslo scavenger hunt turns the city centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the tiger statue to Frogner Park, and three places in this guide are stops: the Nobel Peace Center, the National Theatre and Frogner Park, along with Oslo Cathedral, Egertorget, the Parliament, the City Hall, the Royal Palace and Uranienborgveien. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Oslo.
Play the Oslo scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Oslo →
Play the outdoor escape game in Oslo →
Facts checked in October 2026.