Oslo City Hall: The Red-Brick Rådhuset Where the Nobel Peace Prize Is Awarded

Walk down to the harbour in central Oslo and one building takes over the skyline. Two square brick towers rise above the water at Pipervika, one 63 metres tall and the other 66, with a large gilded clock set into one of them.

This is Oslo City Hall, or Oslo rådhus in Norwegian. Many visitors know it simply as Rådhuset, and plenty more know it from television, because every December it is where the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out.

It is also a working building. The city council meets here, the municipal administration has its offices here, and on most days anyone can walk in for free and look at its enormous murals.

A City Hall Decades in the Making

Oslo had made do without a proper city hall for a long time. After the great fire of 1624, King Christian IV moved the town north of Akershus Fortress, and a modest city hall was finished in 1641. That building still stands at Nedre Slottsgate 1.

By the 1800s the city administration had outgrown it and was spread across rented rooms around town. Competitions for a new hall were held in 1876 and 1898, but neither project found the money to go ahead.

The idea of building on the waterfront at Pipervika came from architect Oscar Hoff in 1906. It was former mayor Hieronymus Heyerdahl who pushed it forward in 1915, after the city had struggled to host official guests during the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition.

Arneberg, Poulsson and the Winning Design

The competition drew 44 entries in its first round. In 1918 the architects Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson were named the winners, with a scheme that clearly looked across the border to Stockholm.

That influence was no accident. Ragnar Östberg, who designed Stockholm City Hall, and Martin Nyrop, architect of Copenhagen City Hall, both sat on the jury. All three buildings share the same faith in monumental brick as a civic material.

Money remained tight, and the design kept changing while the city waited. By the final version of 1930, functionalism had left its mark. The most visible change was the addition of the two office towers that now define the building.

From Foundation Stone to the 1950 Opening

King Haakon VII and Crown Prince Olav attended the laying of the foundation stone in September 1931. Actual construction started in February 1933, after old buildings in the area were cleared. The Tivoli amusement park on the site also had to close.

The shell was complete by November 1936, and a few floors of offices were already in use when Germany invaded Norway in 1940. Work stalled during the occupation and picked up again after the war.

Oslo City Hall was officially opened on 15 May 1950, as part of the celebrations for the city's 900th anniversary. By then, taste had moved on to steel and glass, and critics found the brick giant old-fashioned.

Time has been kinder. In a popular vote run by Aftenposten, Oslo readers later chose the City Hall as the capital's "Structure of the Century".

Reading the Brick Exterior

Look closely at the walls and you will notice the bricks are unusually large. They measure roughly 27.5 by 13 by 8.5 centimetres, closer to medieval bricks than to those in ordinary 1930s construction. They were made locally by Hovin Teglverk.

The facades are full of art. Anne Grimdalen's equestrian figure of King Harald Hardråde dominates the western wall, while Nic Schiøll's statue of St. Hallvard, the city's patron saint, looks out towards the fjord.

Dagfin Werenskiold's colourful reliefs tell stories from the Poetic Edda. Joseph Grimeland made the bronze relief above the entrance and the figure known as the "Oslo girl" high on the wall.

In front of the building, six free-standing sculptures by Per Palle Storm show the craftsmen who built the hall. It is a nice touch for a building that was meant to celebrate the working city as much as its rulers.

Inside: the Main Hall and Its Murals

Decorating the interior was a project in itself. Competitions began in 1937, and in the end eight painters and 17 sculptors were hired. Most of the work was finished for the opening, though the sculpture park outside took until the 1960s.

The heart of the building is the Main Hall, 31 metres wide, 39 metres long and about 21 metres high, with marble floors and marble on parts of the walls. Henrik Sørensen and Alf Rolfsen covered its walls with vast paintings.

Their murals show Norway and Oslo between the wars and during the occupation. You will see trade and industry, the rise of the labour movement, kings and St. Hallvard. It reads almost like a history book painted at full scale.

The semicircular City Council Hall is lined with oak and tapestries. The best known was designed by Else Poulsson, the architect's niece, and woven by Else Halling. It shows St. Hallvard with the seven virtues, a quiet reminder to politicians to choose wisely.

The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

Every year on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, the Main Hall becomes the setting for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. A podium is raised at the far end of the hall for the laureate and the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The laureate receives the medal and diploma here, in the presence of the Norwegian royal family and the prime minister. For one afternoon, a municipal hall becomes the focus of attention far beyond Norway.

The Nobel Peace Center sits just across the square in the former Vestbanen railway station, so it is easy to pair the two on the same walk.

The Carillon in the Eastern Tower

High in the eastern tower hangs a carillon of 49 bells. You will often hear it ring out over Rådhusplassen, the square between the building and the harbour.

Carillon concerts are held on the first Saturday of each month at 11:00. In June, July and August there are also concerts every Sunday at 15:00, which makes a summer afternoon by the water even better.

Visiting Oslo City Hall

Entry is free. According to the City of Oslo, the building is open to visitors Monday to Saturday from 09:00 to 16:00 and closed on Sundays. Some rooms may be unavailable during your visit, because this is an active political building.

Every visitor goes through a security check, so allow a little time for queues. The hall also closes on a number of days each year, especially in the run-up to the Nobel ceremony in December. Check the official list of closed days on the city's website before you go.

If you want more than a self-guided wander, a guided Oslo City Hall tour is worth booking. Group tours last about 45 minutes and run in Norwegian, English and German. In summer the city has also offered free guided tours on set days, so it pays to check what is on when you visit.

The address is Rådhusplassen 1, a few minutes' walk from Nationaltheatret station and right beside the Aker Brygge waterfront.

Seeing It as Part of Oslo's Architecture

The City Hall makes a good starting point for a walk through the city's building history. Follow the harbour east and you reach the white marble roof of the Oslo Opera House, a very different idea of what a public building can be.

Between those two landmarks you can trace almost a century of Norwegian civic architecture, from national pride in brick to a sloping stone landscape you can walk across. For more buildings to see in the capital, browse our guide to architecture in Oslo.

Whether you come for the murals, the bells or the Nobel connection, Rådhuset rewards a slow look. It is a building that tells the story of the city that paid for it, one oversized brick at a time.