Edvard Munch’s The Scream times three, Andy Warhol, a library that serves cocktails – forget the fjords, Oslo in Norway plays the cultural tourism card
- Paris for romance, Amsterdam for its canals, Oslo for ... well, what? But wait, Norway’s capital is forging a new identity led by culture and architecture
- Its waterfront boasts a contemporary art museum, the new Munch Museum, an opera house whose roof you can walk over and the 2021 Public Library of the Year
Norwegian landscapes are sublime. Mirror-like fjords, romantic mountains, and craggy coastlines – all watched over by the shimmering dance of the Northern Lights – draw adventurous tourists and filmmakers alike, including those behind recent blockbuster Dune and the latest James Bond movie No Time to Die.
But what about tourists who prefer a more urban experience? Is it the country for them?
Norway is not in the top 50 tourist-drawing nations, ranking below Bulgaria and Belgium, and while it does have beautiful towns – Alesund’s art nouveau islands, Bergen and its Unesco-protected Hanseatic wharf and the moated fortress of Fredrikstad, to name three – the capital, Oslo, doesn’t stand out as a prime city destination.
Perhaps that is in part due to the high cost of food and drink compared with elsewhere in Europe, but it is also because, for many travellers, there is no singularly identifiable Oslo thing, like Paris’ romance, London’s urbanity or Amsterdam’s canals.
However, Oslo is forging a new identity, led by culture and the contemporary architecture along the city’s fjord-facing edge, creating a walkable waterfront with a range of museums, galleries and cultural moments.
