The Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy is one of the two buildings comprising the Museum of Cultural History. In the Viking Ship Museum there are grave finds from Tune, Gokstad, Oseberg and Borre.

When the Tune Ship was found and excavated in 1867 at the Nedre Haugen farm in Rolvsøy, Østfold, no separate museum was planned for the Viking Ships; neither was a museum planned when the Gokstad Ship was excavated in the summer of 1880 at Gokstad farm in the county of Sandefjord. The Gokstad Ship was exhibited as it had been found in a temporary shelter in the University Garden in Oslo. In 1904 the Oseberg Ship was excavated from the Oseberg Farm in Slagen, not far from Tønsberg. After the excavation, the ship was reassembled in yet another temporary shelter in the University Garden.

In 1913 Professor Gabriel Gustafson, who had led the excavation of the Oseberg Ship, proposed the building of a Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy. That same year an architect competition was announced, and subsequently won by Arnstein Arneberg (1882 - 1961). The Norwegian Parliament allocated funding for the hall for the Oseberg Ship and finally in 1926 the Oseberg Ship wing was constructed and the ship transported there from the University Garden. In 1932 the wings for the Gokstad and Tune Ships were completed. The ships were now all in place. The last wing with grave finds from Oseberg was not completed until 1957.

Arnstein Arneberg is a highly renowned Norwegian architect and the Viking Ship Museum is one of the more significant works of Arneberg’s production, which includes as well the Oslo City Hall and the home of the Norwegian royal family at Skaugum.

In the Viking Ship Museum visitors enter and immediately face the Oseberg Ship. If one walks past the ship, one reaches the centre of the museum, with artefacts from the Oseberg discovery right in front, the Gokstad Ship to the left and the Tune Ship to the right. The Museum also has a balcony that is open to the public with a beautiful view from above of the Oseberg Ship and Gokstad Ship. On the mezzanine above the entrance there are thematic exhibitions. Starting in May 2004 there will be an anniversary exhibition on the excavation of the Oseberg Ship. The museum also has a museum shop with books, posters, post cards, souvenirs and jewellery. In the summertime food and mineral water are sold from the kiosk outside the museum.

 

Norwegian name:	Vikingskip museet i Oslo.
Location:	City of Oslo, Norway.
Address:	Huk Aveny 35, 0287 Oslo, Norway
Telephone:	+47 22 13 52 80.