Oslo City Museum (Oslo Bymuseum)

Inside Frogner Manor in Frognerparken, Oslo City Museum traces the capital’s history through photographs, paintings, objects and exhibitions. See how the city developed from its medieval origins, browse rooms on everyday life from the 17th century to the 1950s, and look for old paintings of Oslo, including watercolours by Edvard Munch. Theatre history has its own section, with costumes, props and posters. The museum also has a café with indoor and outdoor seating for a light break.

A city told through everyday life

The museum’s collections document Oslo’s social and political development, as well as the changing shape of the city. Exhibitions cover its origins and urban growth, then turn to the ways people lived across different periods.

Rooms on life from the 17th century to the 1950s bring together objects from daily routines, from food tins to household appliances. The displays give the city’s history a domestic scale: the objects show how everyday surroundings changed alongside Oslo itself.

Paintings and theatre history

Old paintings of Oslo offer views of the city in earlier decades and centuries. The art collection includes work by Norwegian artists such as Fritz Thaulow, Gudmund Stenersen and Peder Cappelen Thurmann. A group of watercolours by Edvard Munch dates from early in his career.

Another part of the museum is devoted to Oslo theatre over the past century. Costumes, props and posters document its history. Other exhibitions include material on everyday life during the Second World War, the evolution of kitchens and puppetry art by Karel Hlavaty.