Parks and open spaces are an integral part of the landscape of Oslo, the capital and largest city of Norway. The various parks and open spaces are interconnected by paths so that the city's inhabitants can walk between them.
As the city expanded in the middle of the 19th century, areas were appropriated for parks and recreational purposes. The eastern part of the city (Østkanten) was prioritized due to congestion and industrialization. The residential and more affluent western parts of the city (Majorstuen, Frogner) have comparably fewer parks and open spaces. 95% of the city's inhabitants have a park or an open green space within 300 meters of their home.
Some of the parks have a special place in the life and history of Oslo:
Frogner Park with the Vigeland installation, Norway's most visited tourist attraction. Eidsvolls plass and Studenterlunden along the main street Karl Johans gate. Slottsparken, which surrounds the Royal Palace. St. Hanshaugen, the first large public park outside the city center. Birkelunden and Olaf Ryes plass in Grünerløkka. Akerselva environment park, with walks around structures from early stages of Norwegian industrial development. Bygdøy and Ekebergsletta, large natural parks.
Landscape and parks The central part of Oslo is situated between hills; Holmenkollen, Voksenkollen, Vettakollen and Grefsenåsen north of the city and Haukåsen to the east, all of them with a height of 350–500 metres. The Ekeberg hill is located to the southeast, with a height of 150 metres. On the slopes from the hills north of the city Holmenkollåsen, Grefsenkollen and Korsvollparken are the areas that provide the best view of the city.
The slopes at Ekeberg have the best view over the central city area. The part of the Ekeberg hill that faces the fjord has woods with paths and views towards the fjord. The viewpoints around the city have several parks; Blåsen in Stensparken, St. Hanshaugen, the hills Ola Narr - Tøyenparken - Kampen park are all three with an elevation about 80–90 metres above sea level. Hasleparken behind Tøyenparken is somewhat higher. On the Aker ridge (from Akersneset with the castle along the Akersgata to St. Hanshaugen) is also Kontraskjæret and Egebergløkka used as parks, with views over Pipervika and the eastern part of the inner city. Torshovparken and Myraløkka on Sagene have views towards the center of the city and the fjord.
Akerselva and its surroundings have in the last hundred years been landscaped in a matter that preserves both the river and its industrial history. The task of developing the other rivers within the city as parks has started. The work with the river Alna has been concluded with an environment park while Lysakerelva, Frognerelva, Hovinbekken and Ljanselva are still under development.
Oslo has a long shoreline that has been used by shipyards and ports for the last 150 years. In the west, on the border to Bærum, the Vækerøparken is situated along the shoreside. Beaches with parks are Huk on Bygdøy, Katten and Hvervenbukta and areas on Malmøya and Ulvøya. The "Fjordby" plan allocates more access to the shoreline for the city's population.
Among the islands within the city border Hovedøya, Gressholmen and Langøyene are easily accessible by ferries and have extensive parks and beaches. In Gamlebyen, the water level in Middelalderparken gives a view of the shoreline in medieval ages.
Early parks in Oslo
In the Late Medieval Age, there was a garden north of the Olav's monastery (currently the bishop's residence), where vegetables were grown. The garden also had a fish pond. Aside from that information, little is known about gardens in medieval Oslo. It is nonetheless most possible that the monastery at Hovedøya had a garden, created by the English monks who lived there. The garden at the castle Akershus is the earliest depicted garden in Norway, possibly created around 1560. The garden had neatly arranged beds, a pavilion and a fish pond called Munkedammen after the feudal overlord Christen Munk. The garden was cleared by the end of the 17th century, and the pond was filled in around the 1860s, though it was reopened in 1965. In the 1770s, the Kanonparken was created by the commandant. It was open and constructed in public, though it was not primarily intended for use by the civil population.
Paléhaven became the first publicly available park when the owner Christian Ancher opened it in the 1760s. It was Norway's only city park in Baroque style and was situated by the shoreline. The only thing left of it today is an alley of linden trees on Christian Frederiks plass ("Plata"). Multiple enclosures around the early city had gardens, mostly for growing vegetables, from the 18th century also as parks. Ponds were created for fish. The only one of these enclosures unsullied is the closure Rolighed at Professor Dahls gate 32.
The garden on Marseli's enclosure (Marselienborg) is the current Eidsvolls plass, where German and Dutch gardeners around 1600 created what became the finest garden in the city. Around 1840 a public park was established on Eidsvolls plass. The area south of Eidsvolls plass was later developed. The nearby garden on Ruseløkken, the current Studenterlunden, was a Renaissance garden at that time.
The garden around Munkedammen in Pipervika was around 1750 one of the first semi-public gardens where the upper class of Christiania went for walks, but it decayed after 1790. The pond was about 50 meters wide and 100 meters long and was a continuation of two earlier, separate ponds one assumed that the monks from the Hovedøya monastery had created. In the pond there was a small island with a pavilion and a herb garden.
North of Stortorget and Grensen several parks were created around 1700, among them James Collet's Grensehaven between Akersgata and Grubbegata, in Renaissance style. The garden at Oslo Ladegård had hedges, paths in a square system, a long pond, and alleys down to the fjord, in Renaissance style. A small part of Ladegårdshagen was recreated in 1999.
Grünerhagen, created by the Grüner family on Nedre Foss was around 1700 a grandiose garden with terraces, alleys, a pond with a garden pavilion on piles and a zoo with various animals. The garden was destroyed by the end of the 19th century.
Bygdøy was the summer residence for the viceregent and had a renaissance garden from around 1680. The peninsula became an excursion spot by the end of the 18th century. Around 1830 a new garden in landscape style was created at Kongsgården and walks in the nearby woods were cleared.
Several of the estates around the city had grand linden alleys in the 18th century: Stubljan, Linderud, Søndre Bjølsen (currently Bjølsenparken) and Nordre Skøyen hovedgård. Linderud gård had a large garden with a 70-meter-long canal and a 120 alley of hazel trees. In the city center there are still linden alleys in Paléhagen, Regjeringsparken and Dronningparken.
The park surrounding Bogstad mansion from 1780 was the first in Norway in landscape style. Peder Anker engaged a gardener from Germany who utilized the slope from the main house down to the Bogstadvannet lake, with curved paths and artificial creeks. A similar style was applied when John Collett created the park around Ullevål gård, known for its rich variety of sentiments and as a center for the city's social life. Vækerø also had quite a large garden in a similar style and it is preserved today as Vækerøparken.
The wealthy Bernt Anker created a baroque park at Frogner hovedgård at the end of the 18th century. When Benjamin Wegner bought the estate in the early 19th century, a romantic landscape style park was created. That park included parts of what today is the Frogner Park. Around 1800 there was a total of 96 persons in the city that offered gardening services.
1812–1865: The first public parks When tiny Christiania with around 10,000 inhabitants became capital of Norway in 1814, the foundations for creating parks were not favourable compared with other large cities in Europe:
There were no castles with gardens, that could become a public park, as the Tuileries Palace. There were no continuous ramparts that could be demolished to make way for a park, as in Copenhagen (Tivoli Gardens, botanical garden, Ørsted park and Østre anlegg). There were no large areas in the center of the city that could be converted to parks, as the Royal Parks of London.
Before 1870 there was no consensus as to whether the city should engage in constructing parks. When the city's park administration was founded in 1875 and the rapid expansion of the city started, there were all the same several nice parks. Various private persons and organisations had provided for this:
Citizens in the organisation Selskabet for Christiania Byes Vel had constructed several parks. State authorities engaged in creating a capital; the area at Tøyen to be used by the new university, the Botsfengselet jail with its surrounding park, areas in vicinity to the Akershus castle, the garden Universitetshagen behind the university. Landlords that did not want neighbours created Eidsvolls plass A Frenchman with grand ideas (Charles XIV John of Sweden and Norway) created Slottsparken and laid the foundation for the park areas on Bygdøy. A businessman with varied interests, Fritz Heinrich Frølich, created the St. Hanshaugen park.
The Børshagen park was initiated by Christiania Byes Vel in 1812, the organisation cultivated an area previously known as Grønningen. This was the first publicly constructed park in Christiania and it was opened in 1819. It was named Esplanaden and was an important place for walks, even after the Christiania Stock Exchange opened in 1826.
The organisation Selskapet for Christiania Byes Vel concentrated on creation of public parks as one of its main priorities during its first fifty years of existence. At the bridge Nybrua crossing Akerselva the organisation erected the city's first outdoor monument in 1833, with a surrounding park. Bankplassen was laid out with the city's first bed of flowers in a public park (around 1860). Trees were planted around Oslo Cathedral and Trefoldighetskirken, and the organisation managed to stop construction at Kontraskjæret. Selskapet for Christiania Byes Vel did also organize planting of trees along various streets, among them Grønlandsleiret, the road from Nybrua to Tøyen, Drammensveien and Rådhusgata. Some of the trees are still standing across Kontraskjæret.
The Slottsparken, surrounding the Royal Palace, was laid out from 1838 to 1844, in landscape style with large trees, paths, ponds and lawns in the curved terrain. Within Slottsparken the Dronningparken face Drammensveien and is a romantic, intimate park, constructed some years after the main park and in general closed for the public, except for a limited time during the summer. To the east, facing Karl Johans Street are the heights Abelhaugen and Nisseberget. The 225-decare large park has a number of well-known statues and sculptures.
King Charles' original plan for the park was for it to continue to the Uranienborg woods, where the Uranienborg church is today, and be part of a chain of parks from the Royal Castle to the Bygdøy peninsula. The king's monumental plans were not realized in full, but the Slottsparken is Oslo's major central city park and the landscape of the Bygdøy peninsula with its woods, beaches and paths has made a major imprint on the city. King Charles took possession of the mansion at Bygdøy and proclaimed the area as a public park in 1837. He bought enclosures along Frognerkilen and constructed Lindehagen, today's Dronningberget, north on Bygdøy. The wood that belongs to the Royal Mansion was designated as a protected area in 1940. King Oscar II constructed pathways west and north on the peninsula, as of 1882 there were about 10 kilometers of paths available for the public.