Akershus Castle:  Construction of the castle was finished around 1300, it functioned as the official Norwegian royal residence for several decades. In 1592 this medieval castle and royal residence developed into a fortress.

Following the great fire of 1624, the castle was modernized and remodeled, with the new appearance being that of a renaissance castle. The castle primarily functioned as a palace until the turn of the 19th century.

After the German occupation from 1940 to 1945 was over, much was destroyed and had to be built from scratch in our country. In a stripped and worn Akershus Castle – with loans of equipment from many museums and galleries – the castle was for the first time in more than a hundred years used as the center of the national celebration of King Haakon VII’s 75th birthday on the  3rd of August 1947.

Akershus Castle today contains banquet halls, the Royal Mausoleum, and the government’s reception rooms, and its small, historic church is the home of the royal sarcophagi