All roads lead to the Oslo Borough Market

Story Natural
Country
Norway
Year
2018
Storyteller
I am the head of Old Oslo History Association, an author and journalist, former editor at The Norwegian Broadcasting and head of tThe Norwegian School of Journalism.
Share:
Overview

For 600 years the Oslo Borough Market was a trade center that brought Norwegians to Bysantz as varangians, to Europe as vikings, becoming a main center for nation building - until 1624 when it burnt, the city was moved closer to the Akershus castle and the market place became a traffic hub. The City Council has decided to restore the old market place, and by 2024 - with private and public means - it could become a lively public place.

The Oslo City Council decided in 2010 that the Oslo-road/ Bishop-road crossing in The Old City should be re-established as Oslo Borough Market. Until recently this was the most busy crossing in the city, and due to the decision traffic had to be directed out of the area.

The lively trade was the basis for nine churches and four monasteries. All the main monastic orders were represented. Monks from England established the first on the ground of the only St.Edmund church outside England. The Nonneseter monastry, for women, was the richest. 

Oslo was a rich city before and after Harald Hardråde came from Bysantz to unite England, Denmark and Norway into one kingdom, a dream that was killed at Stanford Bridge in 1066. The Oslo Borough Market was a political centre, between the king’s castle and the Bishop’s castel for more then six hundred years.

The task is now to re-establish the Oslo Borough Market in the Old City and make it live again as a public place. Most of the traffic has been removed,  We have a model of a statue of king Håkon V and queen Eufemia that could be raised as a kind of invitation  to a restored market place, and need financial support from public and private sources to bring the site back to people’ memory.

European Dimension

This project will increase the understanding of Norways long and consistent connection with Europe, how influences from Europe influenced Norwegian nation building, what Norwegian furs and timber meant to Europe for several centuries, but also how Roman law became Norwegian law and later through trade connections was copied in other countries.