Detail: Saint Hallvard

This is the decoration on the Oslo City Hall, facing the seaside. It was made by Nic Schiøll, a Norwegian sculptor. The big statue is of Saint Hallvard, the patron of Oslo. We have told you about him before, when we showed you one of the manholes of Oslo.

The story of Saint Hallvard: On May 15 in the year 1043, a woman was accused of stealing, but claimed she was innoncent. She tried to escape and begged a young man, Hallvard, to take her on his boat across the sea. He believed her and helped her, but the followers soon reached them on another boat and accused Hallvard of helping a thief. He wouldn't listen to them, so they shot him with arrows and then beat the woman to death. To cover up the murders, the woman was buried near the beach and Hallvard was dumped in the sea with a millstone around his neck. But his body floated, even with the heavy millstone, and Hallvard was found.

Later, at his grave, several omens were reported. Hallvard was martyrized as he had died trying to save an innoncent woman, and was eventually named a saint. His remains were later placed in a silver shrine and placed in the Maria church in Oslo.

In the year 1130, the new Saint Hallvard church was built and the holy shrine was moved there.

Saint Hallvards feastday is May 15, marked by concerts and walks through medieval Oslo.

Photo by: Mark Wilkinson

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof at Alfaset

Alfaset cemetery is quite large and situated in the northern parts of Oslo, quite far from the center. Apart from the "normal" graves, there is one specific area for gypsy graves, one for muslim graves - and there is the cemetery for German soldiers who died in Norway during World War II. I've visited a few times. Even though they were our enemies, it's quite heartbreaking to see all the stone crosses, each with three names on each side. I don't know how many crosses are there, but this photo only shows one part of the cemetery.

The old king

This is a statue of King Haakon VII of Norway. He was really a prince of Denmark; Prince Carl, but elected by the Norwegian people as their king, after the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905. He and his wife, Maud - princess of Great Britain and Ireland, came to Norway with their son Olav (at that time Alexander) on November 25th 1905.

King Haakon was very loved by the people, especially after World War II, as he refused to surrender to Germany.

Prince Olav became king after his father's death in 1957 and became just as popular as his father, if not even more.

Where only the brave will go

This is a manhole with the symbol of Oslo on it. It's Saint Halvard, the patron of Oslo. In his hand he's holding the three arrows that killed him and the millstone his killers used to sink him in the sea. He sits on a throne with lion heads and before his feet lies the woman who symbolises the victim he tried to save.

The story is that on May 15th in the year 1043, a woman was accused of stealing, but claimed she hadn't. She tried to escape and begged a young man, Halvard, to take her on his boat across the sea. He believed her and helped her, but the followers soon reached them on another boat and accused Halvard of helping a thief. He wouldn't listen to them, so they shot him with arrows and then beat the woman to death. To cover up the murders, the woman was buried near the beach and Halvard was dumped in the sea with a millstone around his neck. But his body floated and was found.

Later, at his grave, there were reported several omens. Halvard was martyrized as he had died trying to save an innoncent woman, and was eventually named a saint. His remains were later placed in a silver shrine and placed in the Maria church in Oslo.

In the year 1130, the new Saint Halvard church was built and the holy shrine was moved there.

Anne Stine and Helge Ingstad

This statue is placed outside of the Viking Ship Museum, which you can see in the second picture in yesterday's post.

Helge Ingstad was a Norwegian explorer. His wife Anne Stine was an archaeologist. In 1961 they found remnants of a Viking settlement on Newfoundland and were the first to prove that Islandic/Norwegian vikings had found a way across the Atlantic ocean to North America about 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

The sign says: "They discovered the America of the vikings."

Read more on Wikipedia.