Vigeland Museum

The Vigeland Museum is a hidden gem in Oslo.You can usually have the place almost to yourself, even during the height of the tourist season.  Gustav Vigeland is Norway's greatest sculptor and his sculpture park, the largest in the world done by a single sculptor, receives a large proportion of visitors to Oslo. Most that do visit are awed by the sheer scale of the sculptures and the park. But in many ways you can better appreciate Vigeland's monumental sculptures by getting an up close look at the plaster models in the nearby museum that was his workshop. The museum also has some of Vigeland's sculptures that predate the work that you'll see in his park and are stylistically quite different.

Above are the models for the Fountain and the surrounding Trees of Life.

The Monolith was too large to fit in his workshop. So Vigeland made the above sculpture in three pieces. It took 3 men 14 years to chisel this model in the park.

You can see how the most famous sculpture in the park, the Sinnataggen (The Angry Boy), was made.

Gunnar Sønsteby

Karl Johansgate is Oslo's main street. It connects the Norwegian Parliament to the Royal Palace. About halfway between is a statue of a modest looking man standing next to his bicycle. That's Gunnar Sønsteby, Norway's most decorated WWII resistance hero.

Shortly after the Germans invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, they marched down Karl Johansgate. Gunnar was there, with his bicycle, to witness the event. He later became the head of the resistance in Oslo and the most sought after man by the Gestapo in Norway.  Gunnar passed away in 2012, but the statue of him with his bike can be seen on Karl Johansgate very close to the actual  spot where he witnessed the Germans taking over Oslo, as shown in the photo below.