| 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.
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