Oslo

Oslo is the capital of Norway, at the head of the Oslofjord in the southeast of the country. The Nobel Peace Prize is presented each December in Oslo City Hall, a brick building with two towers on the harbor.

Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, founded the town in the 11th century on the eastern side of the bay, and Haakon V began Akershus Fortress on a point above the harbor at the end of the 13th century. After a fire in 1624, Christian IV of Denmark and Norway rebuilt the town in stone beside the fortress and named it Christiania. It became the capital of Norway when the country received its own constitution in 1814. The city took back the name Oslo in the 1920s and held the Winter Olympic Games in the 1950s.

Norsk Hydro, the aluminum company, has its headquarters in the city, and Orkla makes food and household brands such as Grandiosa frozen pizza. Schibsted publishes the newspapers Aftenposten and VG from Oslo. The Port of Oslo receives ferries from Denmark and Germany at its quays in the inner fjord.

Akershus Fortress, a medieval castle turned into a Renaissance palace, still serves the Norwegian armed forces on its point above the harbor. The Oslo Opera House, finished in the late 2000s, has a sloping roof of white marble that people can walk up from the water. Vigeland Park in Frogner holds more than 200 sculptures in granite and bronze by Gustav Vigeland. The Holmenkollen ski jump on the hill above the city holds a ski festival each March and has a ski museum in its base.