“Art is as much about searching as it is about creating,” wrote Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard in his book about painter Edvard Munch. “For entrances to reality, openings into the world.” For the uninitiated, that’s kind of how Oslo feels. It is an entryway into Scandinavia, into Norway and into a society and aesthetic that is familiar yet uniquely its own. The city’s unhurried pace and looming institutions present an atmosphere of stoic civilization, yet running through it all are undercurrents of eclectic folk myth and a mossy woodsiness intertwined with threads of Black Metal and a particular type of expressionistic Scandinavian madness.

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It all spirals outward from the central hub that is City Hall Square, with its charmingly touristic pier and promenade flanked by the expansive structures of the Nobel Peace Center, the National Museum of Norway, City Hall itself and the old fortress just up the hill.

For the art-inclined traveler, the National Museum is the obvious place to start, but its collection is enormous, so spread your visit across two days if you want to see everything........

© Observer