Commanding the Oslo Fjord, the City Hall is a monumental Functionalist building inaugurated in 1950. Work had begun almost 20 years earlier, but the project was interrupted by the Second World War.
You’ll know the City Hall by its red brick facade and two towers, 63 and 66 meters tall.
Those bricks were fired especially for this building and are larger than modern bricks and more akin to those that were used in Medieval constructions.
Inside and out the City Hall is decorated with depictions of Norwegian historical figures by some leading artists from the middle of the 20th century. Anne Grimdalen produced the sculpture of Harald Hardrada on horseback, while at the front is St Hallvard, Oslo’s patron saint, sculpted by Nic Schiøll. The marble-clad Main Hall is also coated with frescoes by Henrik Sørensen and Alf Rolfsen showing the growth of the city and key moments in its history.
