The Norwegian Folk Museum, Oslo

Last year I had the pleasure of visiting Oslo and whilst there visited the Norwegian Folk Museum.

I did in fact do a big tour of all the museums I could visit in one day so I’ll be doing a full post on that separately, but there were a few that deserved their own posts, so here we are!

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

The Norwegian Folk Museum, or the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History as it is also known, focuses on the time period from 1200 to present day in their outdoor buildings and indoor exhibitions. There are many buildings containing exhibits from furniture, clothing, weapons, jewellery and art which are lovely to wander around. I’ve shared a few highlights below:

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

The furniture was fascinating for me, I love seeing wooden furniture with various carvings and paintings on the them. Each museum I have been lucky to visit around the world has their own style and having something like the wardrobe above would be a feature item in my dream home in my head!

I also love a big blanket chest at the bottom of the bed and there were so many in these exhibitions, they were really interesting to see.

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

One thing I have been a particular fan of the last few years is a winter jumper with a Nordic print, and although they’ve been a fashion item of late they’ve existed for years and years. It was so interesting to see the different garments and the loom making blankets with the patterns in, in fact it’s made me want even more of these items in my wardrobe and home!

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Outside there are even more fun things to see! If you’re a local reader then you will definitely have heard of St Fagans, the open air museum in Cardiff of Welsh history. This part of the museum is exactly the same, it’s a walking tour of buildings from the middle ages upwards. There’s an entire little village included here:

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Norwegian Folk Museum

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

But my personal favourite part was by far the section called The Countryside, a collection of houses and buildings such as farmhouses, storehouses and barns. If you have seen the TV series called Vikings you will have seen these buildings featured heavily, and they didn’t disappoint in person either! With the country covered in snow it felt like a real treat seeing these buildings in the country they were designed to be in, I find them fascinating!

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

They have replicated entire small villages here with all the different building types and they really are masterpieces. However, you really haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen the Stave Church from Gol. Unfortunately my camera died (it was -14C at the time of trying to use it so you can’t really blame it can you?! Same thing happened the day before at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival so I was expecting it this time!) so I managed to take a few stills on my ‘Action Cam’ and I’ve copied them below:

Norwegian Folk Museum Oslo

My photos don’t do this church justice at all, it’s beautiful, striking and very powerful looking whilst also being ornate and detailed like nothing else I’ve ever seen. There are dragons carved into the wood and so many other small details , I could have spent so long here!

I managed to whip around this during their quiet season pretty quickly even with the snow (I had the urgency of -14C temperatures and a limited time thanks to it being a Sunday where it’s only open 11-4 and I needed to visit as many museums as I could that day). You could probably spend a day here if you’re interested in learning lots, wandering the different sections and like to take your time. However you could also spend a few hours here especially with children and see enough before moving on to something else.

This museum is in Bygdoy in Oslo, conveninetly within walking distance of the Viking museum, and then further on to the end of the road where the Kontiki musueum, Fram museum and Maritime museum are all situated. I managed to visit all five of these in a day,  making sure I was outside the first one at 11am and getting kicked out of the last one at 4pm! It was a long day but thoroughly worth it.

Are you a museum goer in new cities? I always think they have a lot to offer, especially somewhere completely new where there’s so much new culture and history to learn!

Have you visited the Norwegian Folk Museum? Which museum in Oslo was your favourite?

 

Have you visited Oslo before? See my thoughts on where to go in a 24 hour visit to the city, or if you’re there for a while read my suggestions for where to eat!

Don’t forget to come back for my future posts on the other museums, it’s coming soon!

L xxx

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