Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Norwegian Folk Museum

As promised, here are some more pictures from the Folk Museum at Bygdøy here in Oslo. All of these were taken on May 17th.

About the museum: It is the largest museum of cultural history anywhere in Norway. It is an open air museum, the most important collection of which is the many old buildings from many areas around the country. The museum was founded in 1894, inspired by the Nordic Museum in Stockholm. At the beginning it was indoors, but after only a few years it moved to the Bygdøy peninsula, the a location right next to the world's first open air museum - ie, the collection of old buildings belonging to HM King Oscar II. This collection was donated to the Folk Museum in 1907. Today, in addition to the open air sections - which comprise buildings from ca 1200 (Gol stave church) to a 20th century apartment house - the museum also has indoor exhibitions on various topics, some permanent (Norwegian arts and crafts, toys, traditional clothing) and some temporary, on all kinds of themes. There are several restaurants and of course a gift shop in addition to several crafts shops, and various activities take place around the area. In nice weather it is IMO the most beautiful place in Oslo. Future tourists: don't miss it. :-)

5 comments:

Leisha Camden said...

Thanks. :-)

Paz said...

WOW, I love those old buildings with the grass roofs, must be lovely to wander around on a summers day

Leisha Camden said...

It is pretty wonderful, yeah. :-) It's so wooded there and the buildings are placed so nicely, it's a fantastic place. The turfed roofs are traditional in this country ... did you see the pictures of our cabin that I posted last summer? It's an oldfashioned house with a turfed roof like these, although of course nowhere near as old. It's beautiful in summer with these roofs, when you have the grass growing and all the flowers, and sometimes even a little tree or two. :-)

Marcos Imamura said...

Hei! Nice pictures!!! I just loved Norwegian Folk Museum! And it was great to see your pictures and remind me of while I was there with my dear friends from Bulgaria and Georgia! :-)
Hadde!

Paz said...

Yes I remember those pics and I remember that you commented you would like a roof like that somewhere