Maison Oslo / Walks / Frogner & the Royal Park

Architecture · 3 hours · English or French

Palace, villas and a sculptor's axis: Frogner and the Royal Park

When the Royal Palace was finished in 1849 it stood in the countryside. Within a century the city had wrapped itself around it: first villas for civil servants, then grand apartment blocks, a functionalist power company and a park laid out by a sculptor. This is the Oslo most visitors only drive through, and the one many of Oslo's best hotels stand in.

The Royal Palace in Oslo
Photo: Andreas Haldorsen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why you'll love it

  • A quieter, greener Oslo: the Palace Park, villa streets and Frogner Park
  • Urban planning you can see: how the city grew west after 1849, 1858 and 1878
  • Homansbyen, Oslo's first planned villa town, rebuilt in a rush after the great fire of 1858
  • Sommerro: a 1917–1931 power company headquarters that became one of Oslo's finest hotels
  • Vigeland's 850-metre axis, walked end to end, with the planner's eye on how it was laid out
  • Ideal if you are staying in Frogner or near the Palace: we start where you are

The route, minute by minute

Slottsplassen → Palace Park → Homansbyen → Sommerro → Bygdøy allé & Frogner Church → Gimlehøyden → Frogner Park & the Vigeland axis · about 4 km, gentle slopes

When: Sat–Sun 09:30 & 14:00 · Mon–Fri evenings 17:30. Times below are for the first start of the day; later starts follow the same route. Evening walks follow the same route and end on the Vigeland axis at dusk.

  1. Slottsplassen, the Royal Palace

    Meeting point

    Hans Linstow's palace was begun in 1825 and finished in 1849, on a hill outside the old town, looking straight down what became Karl Johans gate. A new capital needed a new axis: we read it from the top.

  2. The Palace Park

    300 m · 5 min

    Twenty-two hectares in the romantic landscape style of the 1840s, planned by Linstow and shaped by the first palace gardener, Martin Mortensen. It only reached its final form in the 1850s, after the last plots were bought in 1845.

  3. Homansbyen

    500 m · 8 min

    In the 1850s the lawyers Jacob and Henrik Homan bought farmland behind the palace and divided it into plots. Sales were slow until the great fire of 1858 left wealthy families homeless. Architect Georg Andreas Bull designed the villas, and a garden suburb for civil servants appeared almost overnight.

  4. Sommerro, the old power company

    700 m · 10 min

    Bjercke and Eliassen won the competition in 1917; the money ran out in 1920; the Oslo Lysverker headquarters finally opened in 1931. Neoclassical bones, functionalist plan, art deco details, murals by Per Krohg. Since 2022, a hotel. A short look at the lobby, or coffee.

    Included: Coffee

  5. Bygdøy allé and Frogner Church

    600 m · 9 min

    Frogner joined the city in 1878. The 1890s brought ornate apartment blocks for the new middle class, lined along a tree-planted avenue. Ivar Næss's Frogner Church (1907) is Jugendstil in stone.

  6. Gimlehøyden

    400 m · 6 min

    Built between 1916 and 1925 to plans by Harald Hals, Harald Aars and Lorentz Harboe Ree: a planned housing ensemble around shared space, and a lesson in how Oslo tried to house its growing middle class well.

  7. Frogner Park and the Vigeland axis

    800 m · 12 min, then the 850 m axis

    Frogner Manor was here before the city. Gustav Vigeland designed not only more than 200 sculptures but the layout itself: an 850-metre axis from the Main Gate over the Bridge and the Fountain to the Monolith, 17 metres of granite and 121 figures. We walk it end to end and finish on the Monolith plateau.

F

Your guide · Urban planner and founder of Maison Oslo · English · Français
Every walk is prepared with the makers, curators and sources behind each stop. Ask anything, in English or French.

Add-on

The pre-walk booklet

Route, timeline, glossary and reading list for this walk, to print at home or delivered printed to your hotel.

Preview the booklet

Good to know

Is it suitable for children?

Yes. It is the most family-friendly of our walks: parks, space to run, and Vigeland's sculptures are a hit with children.

Can we go inside the Royal Palace?

The palace opens for guided tours in summer only, booked through the Royal Court. We can plan your walk around a palace tour.

Is it hilly?

Gently: the palace sits on a hill and Frogner Park rises to the Monolith. About 4 km in total, at an easy pace.

In French?

Yes. Every walk runs in English or French.

Read before you go

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