Villa Grande

Villa Grande rises on a hill above Bygdøy in Oslo, placing an early twentieth-century villa among cultural institutions. Construction began in 1917 under architects Christian Morgenstierne and Arne Eide. A later redesign by Jens Zetlitz Monrad Kielland reduced the original plans.

Completed between 1918 and 1921, the property passed to Aker Municipality before reaching the Norwegian government in 1926. During the Second World War, Maria and Vidkun Quisling lived here under the name Gimlé. After Vidkun’s arrest in 1945, the villa became General Andrew Thorne’s Allied headquarters in Norway. Later, nursing, rehabilitation and healthcare education filled its rooms. Since 2006, the Norwegian Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities has worked here.

Exhibitions examine the persecution and deportation of Norwegian Jews, wartime resistance and religious minorities. A bunker beneath the villa protected Quisling from bombing and also served as a hospital. Renovated and opened to visitors in 2014, the bunker brings the wartime setting into view. Mino, an annex opened in 2021, adds exhibition rooms, a classroom and a workshop. Its first exhibition addressed everyday racism in Norway.