Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The name Oslo is derived from the words
Ás,
the Old Norse name for the Norse Godhead,
and
lo,
meaning 'pasture', yielding roughly 'the fields of the gods'.
The city was originally founded in 1049 by King Harald Hardråde (Harald Hard-Ruler),
whose son Olav Kyrre (Olav the Peaceful) set up a cathedral and a corresponding bishop-
ric here. In the late 13th century, King Håkon V created a military presence by building the
Akershus Festning (Akershus Fortress) in the hope of deterring the Swedish threat from
the east. After the mid-14th-century bubonic plague wiped out half of the country's popu-
lation, Norway united with Denmark, and from 1397 to 1624 Norwegian politics and de-
fence were handled from Copenhagen. Oslo slipped into obscurity, and in 1624 it burned
to the ground. It was resurrected by King Christian IV, who rebuilt it on a more easily de-
fended site and renamed it Christiania, after his humble self.
For three centuries, the city held on as a seat of defence. In 1814 the framers of Nor-
way's first constitution designated it the official capital of the new realm, but their efforts
were effectively nullified by Sweden, which had other ideas about Norway's future and
unified the two countries under Swedish rule. In 1905, when that union was dissolved and
Norway became a separate kingdom, the stage was set for Christiania to flourish as the
capital of modern Norway. It reverted to its original name, Oslo, in 1925 and the city has
never looked back.
