My favorite spot in Oslo – Vår Frelsers Gravlund – Our Saviour’s Cemetery

How can a cemetery be a favorite spot? Easily, but you need to see it to understand.

We are talking 21 acres of green grass, tall old trees and fresh air in the middle of Oslo. Personally I believe this is one of the "must see" places.

It’s more of a park than a cemetery. It’s quiet, peaceful and simply beautiful.

This is in the Gamle Aker district, and around it you can also find small old housed and crooked alleys with an abundance of flowers. Not many flowers in this picture, but's it's the one I've got.

Damstredet

Close to 200 more or less famous Norwegians are buried in this cemetery, along with 4300 others. Poets, writers, painters, composers, prime ministers, publishers and many others, you can find while wondering around enjoying the peace and quiet.

You will find names like Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsson, Edvard Munch, Alf Prøysen, Marcus Thrane, Henrik Wergeland, Camilla Collett and a poet with a fanciful name like Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven. You will also see the beautiful War Memorial for sailors.

War Memorial for sailors

This cemetery was consecrated on the 17^th of June 1808 by Bishop Fredrik Julius Bech. And until 1833 this was the only civilian cemetery in town. The reason why the town needed a new cemetery was the great famine and cholera epidemic, a result of the Napoleonic Wars. The cemetery has five sections, the southern, northern, western, eastern, and of course Norway’s main honorary burial ground, Æreslunden.

There are two churches here. By one of the gates, out towards Akerveien, you find Our Savior’s Orthodox Church. This is the Russian orthodox church of the St. Olgas congregation.

Our Savior's Orthodox Church

And at the end of Akerveien, at Telthusbakken, you can see something unique – Gamle Aker Church. The church has been pillaged and ravaged by fire several times. Still this is the oldest standing building in Oslo, built in the year 1100, probably on the orders of king Kyrre. This is believed to be the place where Vikings, and later the Norwegian kings, had their “thing” – folkmoote – the governing assembly of their time. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it at this moment, but click on the link, and see pictures others have posted.

Just click where it says video to see it.

Pictures:

Henrik Ibsen - Play writer

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - Poet and writer

Henrik Wergeland - Poet - Brother of Camilla Collett

Inscription from Wergeland's grave. "In gratitude Jews outside of Norway put up this memorial".

J.S.C. Welhaven - Poet

Camilla Collett - Writer - Sister of Henrik Wergeland

Alf Prøysen - Poet

Johan Sverdrup - Lawyer and politician/Prime Minister

J. Løvland - Editor

Martin Tranmæl - Journalist and politician

Marcus Thrane - Author, journalist and leader of the first Norwegian labor movement

Some are not possible to read anymore, unfortunately.