Rådmannsgården

Rådmannsgården stands in Kvadraturen, the oldest quarter of what used to be the town of Christiania, now Oslo. Built in 1626 for the wealthy councillor Lauritz Hansen, it is the district's oldest preserved building. Imported Dutch bricks alternate red and yellow across the exterior walls. High gables with blind arcades, dormers and a steep roof announce the Dutch Renaissance style. An asymmetrical bay window looks out towards Rådhusgaten. The wing towards Nedre Slottsgate started life one and a half storeys high and gained its second floor in 1782. A cloister towards the backyard gave way in the 1600s to the present stairwell in bricked studwork.

In the 1760s the king bought the property and put it to military use as Kommisariatsgården. The university library occupied the house from 1824 to 1852, and a garrison hospital followed. Around 1860 the Deichman Library, Oslo's public library, arrived too. The city of Oslo took over in 1897 and turned the rooms into offices. Since 1936 the art association Oslo Kunstforening has run exhibitions and cultural events here. Artists and historians often make the building itself part of the story, exploring its layered past through performances, installations and lectures.

Inside, you can read the eras in faded wallpapers, worn wooden floors and overpainted frescoes. Parts of the interior still carry stucco ceilings with figurative representations, a rare survival from the 1600s. A unique plaster ceiling shows virtues alongside exotic animals. Next door stands Anatomigården, the city's oldest preserved timber frame house, dating from the 1700s. The university's medical faculty once used it, and for a time it even housed the town executioner.