Museum of the Viking Age
Photo: Museum of the Viking Age, AART Architects and Ralph Appelbaum Associates & Tamschick Media+Space
THE MUSEUM OF THE VIKING AGE
Oslo’s great new home for the Viking world
On Oslo’s Bygdøy peninsula, three ships that survived beneath the earth for more than a thousand years are becoming the heart of one of Europe’s most significant new museum experiences. Scheduled to open late in 2027, the Museum of the Viking Age will reunite the Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ship finds with thousands of objects that reveal a far richer civilisation than the familiar image of raiders at sea.
A NEW MUSEUM BUILT AROUND ANCIENT SURVIVORS
There are museum objects that can be moved into a finished building, and there are museum buildings that must be conceived around objects too fragile to travel in any conventional sense. Oslo’s new Museum of the Viking Age belongs firmly to the second category.
Its three ships are not theatrical reconstructions. They are archaeological survivors: immense, incomplete and extraordinarily vulnerable assemblages of original Viking Age timber. Their new home has therefore been shaped as much by conservation science as by architecture. Climate stability, vibration control, fire safety, security and carefully engineered support systems are not backstage technicalities here. They are the conditions that make the museum possible.
This is why the project matters beyond Oslo. The former Viking Ship Museum was one of Norway’s most recognisable cultural institutions, yet its compact galleries and ageing technical systems were no longer sufficient for the long-term protection of the collection or for the number of visitors drawn to it. The answer was not simply a renovation. It was a fundamental expansion in scale, purpose and historical ambition.
When the new museum opens, it will no longer present the ships as isolated icons surrounded by a relatively small selection of grave goods. It will interpret the Viking Age as a complex period of movement, craft, trade, belief, violence, agriculture, social hierarchy, migration and encounter. The ships remain the emotional centre, but the story around them becomes much larger.
FROM THE VIKING SHIP MUSEUM TO THE MUSEUM OF THE VIKING AGE
The change of name is deliberate. The old museum was known internationally for three vessels; the new institution intends to examine an entire age.
The Viking Age is generally dated from the latter half of the eighth century to the latter half of the eleventh. These centuries transformed Scandinavia and connected its communities to a world stretching far beyond the Nordic region. People travelled west towards the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland and North America; east through river systems towards the Baltic, present-day Russia, Byzantium and the Islamic world; and south into the trading networks of continental Europe.
Some travelled as raiders and warriors. Others were merchants, craftspeople, farmers, settlers, diplomats, enslaved people, explorers or members of households whose lives were shaped by those wider connections. The archaeological record carries evidence of wealth and deprivation, extraordinary mobility and deeply rooted local communities. It also preserves societies in which power was unequal, slavery was a reality, religious practice was changing and violence could be both political and personal.
The new museum’s task is to hold these truths together. It must convey the technical brilliance of a clinker-built ship without romanticising every voyage. It must show exquisite ornament while explaining the social systems that produced and possessed it. It must distinguish evidence from legend and allow uncertainty to remain visible where archaeology cannot provide a final answer.
That approach promises something more compelling than a hall of heroic stereotypes. It offers a research-led encounter with the Viking world in all its splendour, ingenuity and contradiction.
THREE SHIPS, THREE VERY DIFFERENT STORIES
The Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune finds are often grouped together, but they should not be read as three versions of the same vessel. Each has a different form, condition and history. Together they show how much a ship could express about travel, status, ritual and power.
THE OSEBERG SHIP: ART, CEREMONY AND TWO WOMEN OF EXCEPTIONAL STATUS
The Oseberg ship is the collection’s great work of sculptural art. Built around AD 820 and used for a burial in AD 834, it measures approximately 21.5 metres in length. Its high, curling prow and stern terminate in richly carved animal forms, while intricate ornament runs across parts of the vessel with an assurance that still feels startlingly immediate.
The ship could be sailed and rowed, with 15 oar holes along either side, but it was more lightly built than the robust Gokstad vessel. Its significance lies not only in its survival but in the remarkable burial assembled around it.
Two women were placed in the grave. Their identities remain uncertain, yet the scale and richness of the burial demonstrate that at least one held an exceptional position. The objects deposited with them included clothing, shoes, combs, beds, tents, household and farming equipment, ship’s gear, a wagon, carved animal heads, textiles and elaborately decorated sledges. Animals were sacrificed as part of the burial ritual.
This is a world away from the narrow popular shorthand of Viking men, swords and conquest. Oseberg opens questions about female authority, ritual leadership, wealth, ceremony, household organisation and the relationship between the living and the dead. It also preserves materials that rarely survive for a millennium. Wood, textiles and organic remains make the burial an archive not just of elite display, but of touch, labour, colour and skilled making.
The Oseberg textiles deserve unhurried attention. Fragmentary though they are, they retain evidence of clothing, imported materials and woven images. The wagon and three ornate sledges are among the finest surviving examples of Viking Age woodwork. Four of the five carved animal heads are expected to be displayed. Seen at close range, such objects make the familiar word “craftsmanship” feel inadequate: they represent sophisticated systems of design, specialised labour and visual meaning.
THE GOKSTAD SHIP: THE ENGINEERING OF OPEN WATER
Where Oseberg seduces through ornament, Gokstad communicates physical capability. Built around AD 890 and used in the burial of a powerful man around AD 900, it is Norway’s largest preserved Viking ship, approximately 23.8 metres long.
There are 16 oar openings on each side. The vessel could carry a substantial crew and combine propulsion by oar with a large square sail. Its hull is broader, stronger and more seaworthy than Oseberg’s, giving visitors a direct encounter with the engineering that made long-distance travel possible.
Clinker construction – overlapping planks fastened together – produced a hull that was light, flexible and strong. The shallow draught allowed ships to approach beaches and enter relatively shallow waters, while sail and oars offered different forms of speed and control. That combination helped connect coastal communities, carry people and goods, support warfare and extend Scandinavian influence across vast distances.
The Gokstad burial contained more than the great ship. Three smaller boats, riding equipment, beds, a tent, a sledge and other possessions formed part of the grave assemblage. The burial had been disturbed and robbed in antiquity, leaving conspicuous absences as well as surviving evidence. Archaeology often speaks through what is missing, and Gokstad is an unusually powerful example.
The vessel’s size can dominate the first impression, but the most rewarding way to view it is to move between whole and detail: the long curve of the hull, the overlapping strakes, the oar openings, the steering arrangement and the reconstructed sections that help make the original fragments legible. It is both a monument and a working idea of a ship.
THE TUNE SHIP: THE VALUE OF THE FRAGMENT
The Tune ship is less visually complete, but its fragmentary state is precisely what makes it essential. Found in 1867 at Nedre Haugen on Rolvsøy, outside Fredrikstad in south-eastern Norway, it was the first Viking ship to be excavated.
It was built around AD 910 from oak, using the same clinker principle seen in the other ships. It probably had 12 oar openings on either side and appears to have been a fast, ocean-going vessel, possibly used as a warship. Yet much of it was lost or damaged during an excavation carried out before modern archaeological methods and conservation standards had developed.
Tune therefore tells two histories at once. The surviving timbers speak of Viking Age shipbuilding, speed and status. Their condition also reveals the history of archaeology itself: what early excavators noticed, what they discarded, what could not be preserved and how later researchers have learned to ask new questions of old material.
Visitors should resist treating Tune as the lesser of the three ships. Oseberg may be the most complete and Gokstad the most imposing, but Tune makes the nature of archaeological knowledge unusually clear. The past does not arrive whole. It is reconstructed from fragments, documentation, comparison and informed uncertainty.
MORE THAN 5,500 OBJECTS – AND A MUCH LARGER HUMAN STORY
The former museum displayed the three ships and roughly 350 additional artefacts. The new museum plans to show more than 5,500 objects across approximately 5,500 square metres of exhibition space. The wider Viking Age collection numbers more than 50,000 objects, so the public display will still be a carefully edited selection rather than the collection in its entirety.
Scale alone, however, is not the real transformation. The decisive change is the range of lives these objects can illuminate.
Weapons and status objects have an obvious visual authority, but a culture is not understood through prestige alone. Tools expose working knowledge. Textile equipment points towards labour that was essential to households, clothing, sails and exchange. Cooking vessels and containers lead into food, storage and travel. Imported materials reveal networks that joined Scandinavia to distant regions. Personal objects bring the scale back to the body: dressing, grooming, carrying, wearing and remembering.
The ship burials themselves were carefully staged political and ritual events. They are not neutral samples of ordinary Viking Age life. They reflect elite choices about death, memory and display. A strong museum must therefore use them both as extraordinary evidence and as evidence with a bias. The splendour is real, but it represents a particular concentration of wealth and power.
This is where the thousands of additional objects become so important. They can broaden the frame from spectacular graves to everyday work, from local farms to international exchange, from ship owners to the many people whose labour made ships, sails, food, clothing and journeys possible. They can also reveal how archaeological interpretation changes as new techniques produce new information.
A MUSEUM WHERE RESEARCH IS PART OF THE EXPERIENCE
The Museum of the Viking Age is part of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo. That institutional connection is central to its identity. This is not a finished story installed once and left untouched; the ambition is for research, conservation and new discoveries to remain visible in the public museum.
Plans include a research centre and laboratory facilities with a public dimension, allowing visitors to understand how specialists study and protect vulnerable material. Digital interpretation and immersive storytelling are intended to support the original objects, while different narrative voices will introduce travellers, traders, warriors, builders, weavers, seers, fishers and sailors.
The most convincing use of technology in a museum like this is not spectacle for its own sake. It is the ability to restore context without pretending to restore certainty: to show how a sail may have worked, how a burial mound was assembled, how microscopic analysis changes an interpretation, or how an object links Norway to a distant trade route. The authentic artefact remains the point of gravity.
The museum also has an opportunity to explain why conservation is never complete. Some of the most ornate wooden objects from Oseberg were treated with alum salts during early twentieth-century preservation work. That treatment helped save them at the time, but it also contributed to serious long-term fragility. The three magnificent sledges became among the most difficult objects in the entire relocation project. Their survival now depends on continuous research, stable conditions and support systems designed around their individual weaknesses.
THE ARCHITECTURE: AN OLD LANDMARK ENTERS A NEW ERA
The historic Viking Ship Museum was designed by Norwegian architect Arnstein Arneberg. Its first hall opened in 1926; additional ship halls followed in 1932, and the completed complex with its final exhibition wing opened in 1957. The white, cross-shaped building became one of Norway’s most distinctive museum silhouettes, its calm, almost ecclesiastical interiors giving the ships a monumental presence.
The new project preserves and incorporates Arneberg’s architecture while adding a major curving extension designed by the Danish practice AART. The winning competition proposal was named “Naust”, the Norwegian word for a boathouse. Rather than competing with the old building through height, the extension spreads across the site as a broad contemporary form, creating new exhibition halls and the technical infrastructure required by the collection.
The combined museum will cover approximately 13,000 square metres. Around 9,000 square metres are planned as public areas, including the 5,500 square metres of exhibitions. A restaurant, museum shop, lecture hall, education spaces, research facilities and a museum park form part of the overall programme.
Architecture here has an unusually demanding responsibility. It must accommodate very large visitor numbers while preserving moments of concentration around exceptionally delicate objects. It must connect a protected twentieth-century landmark to a modern museum without turning the ships into architectural decoration. And it must manage daylight carefully: enough to give the building rhythm and atmosphere, but not so much that vulnerable materials are placed at risk.
THE EXTRAORDINARY RELOCATION
For decades, the ships’ fragility was one of the principal arguments against moving them away from Bygdøy. The new museum solves that problem by keeping the collection on the same site and moving the largest objects only into the adjacent new exhibition areas.
Even so, the operation required years of research, monitoring and engineering. Each ship was protected within a purpose-built steel support structure and moved at extremely low speed. Oseberg entered its new hall in September 2025, followed by Gokstad in October. Tune completed the sequence in February 2026. The three ornate Oseberg sledges followed, and by the end of April 2026 the most demanding part of the relocation project was complete.
The move was not merely logistical. It was an act of conservation on a monumental scale. In their new positions, the ships and sledges have climate-controlled surroundings, vibration-resistant bases and new support systems designed for their long-term protection. The public will eventually see the serene result; behind it lies one of the most intricate cultural-heritage operations attempted in Norway.
HOW TO EXPERIENCE THE MUSEUM
The temptation will be to walk directly to Oseberg, take in the famous silhouette and move quickly through the remaining halls. That would miss the museum’s deeper reward.
Begin with scale. Stand far enough away to understand the ship as a whole: hull, height, curvature and the relationship between its narrow timber structure and the journeys it could make. Then move closer. Look at where original wood ends and reconstructed support begins. Study the overlapping planks, the iron fastenings, the carved surfaces and the practical details that turned timber, wool, rope and human effort into movement.
After each ship, seek out the smaller objects from its burial. A vessel becomes more intelligible when placed beside the beds, sledges, tools, textiles, animals and personal possessions that accompanied the dead. The relationship between monumental and intimate is one of the collection’s greatest strengths.
Allow time for uncertainty. The identities of the Oseberg women are not known. The Gokstad man’s name is not known. The precise use of every object is not known. Good archaeology does not weaken when it acknowledges such gaps; it becomes more trustworthy.
For a first visit, it would be sensible to reserve at least two to three hours. Visitors with a serious interest in archaeology, maritime history, craft or conservation may want half a day. Once ticketing arrangements are announced, advance booking is likely to be wise, particularly during the first season, summer holidays and cruise-call days.
VISITING WITH CHILDREN
The ships offer an immediate sense of scale that works across age groups. Children do not need a detailed knowledge of Scandinavian history to understand the physical problem of propelling a 20-metre wooden vessel, sleeping aboard it or crossing open water without a modern engine.
The new museum is being planned with dedicated learning and activity areas, including facilities for school groups. Families should nevertheless avoid trying to absorb every label. A more engaging visit can be built around a few questions: How was a ship held together? Where did the crew sit? What would have been carried on board? Why was a valuable vessel buried? What can an archaeologist learn from a broken piece of wood?
Final family programmes, age recommendations and practical facilities will be published closer to opening.
PRACTICAL VISITOR GUIDE
Official English name: Museum of the Viking Age
Norwegian name: Vikingtidsmuseet
Visitor address: Huk Aveny 35, 0287 Oslo, Norway
Location: Bygdøy peninsula, west of central Oslo
Status as of 27 July 2026: Closed while construction, conservation and exhibition work continue
Planned opening: Late 2027. The museum has not yet announced a final opening date.
Opening hours: Not yet published
Admission prices: Not yet published
Official website: https://www.vikingtidsmuseet.no/english/
Recommended visit: At least two to three hours; longer for visitors who want to study the collection in depth
Important: The former Viking Ship Museum is not open during the construction period. Do not travel to Bygdøy expecting access to the ships before the new museum officially opens.
HOW TO GET THERE
By public bus
Bus 30 currently connects central Oslo with Bygdøy and stops at Vikingskipene, immediately beside the museum site. The route serves central stops including Jernbanetorget and Nationaltheatret, although individual departures and route patterns can change. Use the Ruter journey planner shortly before travelling: https://ruter.no/en
By ferry
Arriving by water can be a beautiful introduction to Bygdøy, but ferry arrangements are seasonal and have changed in recent years. The Ruter Bygdøy service is not operating in 2026, while private seasonal services may run from the City Hall/Aker Brygge area to Bygdøy. The arrangements for the museum’s 2027 opening season have not yet been confirmed. Check the museum’s official travel information and the relevant ferry operator before relying on this option.
By bicycle
Bygdøy is well suited to cycling, and the journey from central Oslo is roughly six to eight kilometres depending on the starting point and route. Allow around 25 to 40 minutes at a comfortable pace. Parts of the peninsula are popular with walkers and recreational cyclists, so ride considerately and use designated routes where available.
On foot
Walking from the City Hall or National Theatre area generally takes around 75 to 90 minutes. It is best regarded as part of a larger Bygdøy day rather than simply as transport to the museum.
By car
Road access is straightforward, but Bygdøy can become busy during summer weekends and major museum periods. Final parking arrangements for the new museum have not yet been published. Public transport will usually be the more predictable choice.
Accessibility
Detailed accessibility information for the completed museum, including entrances, lifts, wheelchairs, companion arrangements, sensory provisions and accessible parking, will be released closer to opening. Visitors with specific requirements should consult the official museum website before travelling.
MAKING A DAY OF BYGDØY
The museum stands in one of Oslo’s richest cultural landscapes. The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History is close by, with an extensive open-air collection and the medieval Gol Stave Church. The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies occupies Villa Grande farther south on the peninsula. At Bygdøynes, the Fram Museum, Kon-Tiki Museum and Norwegian Maritime Museum form another important cluster.
Trying to visit every museum in one day would leave little time for any of them. A more rewarding plan is to pair the Museum of the Viking Age with one complementary institution.
Choose the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History for a broader journey through Norwegian buildings, domestic life and cultural history. Choose the Fram Museum for another encounter with an original vessel, this time in the history of polar exploration. Choose the Norwegian Maritime Museum to place Viking Age seafaring within a much longer national maritime story. Choose the Kon-Tiki Museum for twentieth-century expedition history and the power – and controversy – of adventurous ideas.
On a fine day, leave room for the peninsula itself. Bygdøy’s lanes, mature trees, coastal paths and beaches create a striking contrast to the density of central Oslo. The setting matters: the ships are being preserved in a modern research museum, yet the sea is never far away.
Nearby official websites:
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History: https://norskfolkemuseum.no/en
Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies: https://www.hlsenteret.no/english/
Fram Museum: https://frammuseum.no
Kon-Tiki Museum: https://www.kon-tiki.no
Norwegian Maritime Museum: https://marmuseum.no/en/
WHY THIS MUSEUM WILL MATTER
The Viking Age is unusually vulnerable to simplification. It has been romanticised, commercialised and repeatedly recruited into modern arguments about identity. A museum built around authentic objects has the power to resist that flattening.
The Oseberg carvings are more extraordinary when understood as the work of highly skilled makers, not anonymous decoration. Gokstad is more impressive when its flexibility and seaworthiness are explained as engineering rather than myth. Tune is more valuable when its losses are made part of the story rather than concealed. The grave goods become more revealing when visitors ask who produced them, who possessed them, who was excluded from such wealth and why these objects were chosen for burial.
The new Museum of the Viking Age will succeed if it preserves wonder while making that wonder more exact. Its greatest promise is not that visitors will leave with a stronger Viking fantasy, but with a sharper sense of real people: ambitious and inventive, unequal and interconnected, capable of beauty, brutality, movement and profound acts of remembrance.
For Oslo, the museum will restore one of the city’s defining cultural experiences. For international visitors, it will offer something rarer than a collection of famous ships: a chance to stand close to the material remains of a world that helped reshape Europe and the North Atlantic, and to see how patiently, cautiously and imaginatively that world is still being discovered.
EDITORIAL ACCURACY NOTE
This article reflects verified information available on 27 July 2026. The museum is scheduled to open late in 2027, but its final opening date, opening hours, admission prices, booking arrangements, detailed accessibility information and 2027 transport services have not yet been announced. These practical details should be checked against the official museum website immediately before publication or travel.
Vikingtidsmuseet – Norway’s Ultimate Viking Experience
Welcome to the new museum in 2027
The old Viking Ship Museum is closed during the construction period.
The world's leading Viking museum
The Viking Ship Museum is closed and will reopen in 2027 as the Museum of the Viking Age.
At the Museum of the Viking Age, you can experience the world's best-preserved Viking ships and more than 5500 other objects from the Viking Era. As a research museum, we are responsible for the preservation of these national treasures, for both the present and for future generations.
The Vikingtidsmuseet (Museum of the Viking Age) is set to become one of the world’s premier Viking museums, offering a unique insight into Norway’s rich Viking heritage. Previously known as the Vikingship Museum, this attraction on Bygdøy in Oslo is undergoing a major transformation and is scheduled to reopen in 2027 as a modern, interactive Viking experience.
A World-Class Viking Collection
The museum will house some of the best-preserved Viking ships and artifacts in the world, offering visitors an unparalleled glimpse into the Viking Age (800–1050 AD).
Must-See Exhibits:
⛵ Oseberg Ship – A beautifully decorated Viking burial ship, showcasing intricate carvings and incredible craftsmanship.
⛵ Gokstad Ship – A large, seaworthy Viking ship, demonstrating advanced shipbuilding techniques.
⛵ Tune Ship – One of the earliest Viking ships ever discovered, with fascinating mysteries still surrounding it.
⚔ Viking Artifacts – Weapons, jewelry, sleds, textiles, and household objects from Viking burials.
These artifacts provide an authentic look at Viking life, from their seafaring adventures to their religious beliefs and daily routines.
What to Expect at the New Vikingtidsmuseet
1. Interactive and High-Tech Exhibitions
🎥 3D reconstructions of Viking cities, ships, and daily life.
🛡 Virtual Vikings who share their personal stories.
🔍 Hands-on digital experiences allowing visitors to explore Viking artifacts in detail.
2. A Journey into the Viking Age
🌍 Discover the Vikings' vast trade networks and legendary raids.
🏠 Learn about Viking homes, rituals, and mythology.
🚢 Experience what it was like to sail the open seas on a Viking ship.
3. Architectural Innovation Inspired by Viking Craftsmanship
The new Vikingtidsmuseet is designed with sustainability in mind, using materials and structures inspired by traditional Viking construction techniques. It will include:
🏛 Expanded exhibition spaces for both permanent and temporary exhibits.
📚 Dedicated research and education facilities.
🍽 A modern café and gift shop with Viking-inspired items.
Practical Information
📍 Location: Bygdøy, Oslo
🕒 Expected Opening: 2026 (currently closed for renovations)
🎟 Tickets: To be announced closer to opening.
🚆 How to Get There:
Bus 30 from central Oslo to Bygdøy.
Fjord ferry from Aker Brygge to Bygdøy (summer only).
Why Visit Vikingtidsmuseet?
✅ See the world’s best-preserved Viking ships up close.
✅ Engage with cutting-edge interactive exhibits.
✅ Explore Viking history through artifacts, storytelling, and digital experiences.
✅ Perfect for history enthusiasts, families, and tourists alike.
When the Vikingtidsmuseet reopens in 2026, it will be a must-visit destination for anyone interested in Viking history and Nordic heritage. Get ready for an epic journey back to the Viking Age! ⚔⛵✨
About the Museum of the Viking Age
The new museum
In the new museum, the Viking ships and the rest of the Viking Age collection will be displayed in a safer and more audience-friendly way than is possible today. The Museum of the Viking Age will ensure the population and future generations access to cultural-historical knowledge and understanding of the Viking Age.
The Museum of the Viking Age will exhibit the world's most extensive collection of objects from the Viking Age, including the best-preserved Viking ships in the world. Our scientists are constantly making new and groundbreaking discoveries that we share with the rest of the world. It is equally important that we will recreate the Viking Age and make one of the leading cultural heritage in the world alive for all our visitors in a modern and exciting way.
The new Museum of the Viking Age will be three times as large as the current Viking Ship Museum. In total, the new museum will be approx. 13,000 m2, of which approx. 9000 m2 is audience space, including 5500 m2 of exhibitions.
The interest in the Viking Ship Museum, the ships and objects has been enormous right from the start of the excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The conditions in our former building are not good enough for the Ships, and a new climate-regulated building with new support systems will be able to secure our unique objects for future generations. In the new museum, we will be able to present the Viking ships, and the rest of the collections from the Viking Age, in a safer way than what was possible in the Viking Ship Museum.
In addition to a tripling the exhibition area, the new museum facility will include a restaurant, lecture hall, museum shop, museum park, a separate area for visiting schoolchildren, a laboratory with access for the public, and a research center.
Archaeologists and a multitude of other staff work together to find good and innovative ways to create exhibitions, so that the museum reaches the goal of becoming the world's most important communicator of the Viking Age.
Statsbygg is now in the process of planning in detail the new building, which will be a continuation of today's building. The museum's professionals in conservation and collection management collaborate with Statsbygg in a security project to find solutions for safe handling of ships and objects during the construction process, and on safe methods for moving to the new building.
The existing building is linked to the new building by a glass extension. This is not only an elegant architectural solution, but also allows the exhibition design to reinforce the initial experience concept. Nothing is more “in the moment” than being able to stand under the sky in daylight before being cast into a different world, more specifically a late summer afternoon in Oseberg in the year 834.
About the building project
User: Museum of Cultural History
Contractor: Statsbygg
Client: Ministry of Education and Research
Owner and operational responsibility: University of Oslo
Architect: AART architects
Main Contractor: AF Gruppen
Technical advisors: Multiconsult, Brekke & Strand
Total area: approx. 13,000 m2 BTA
Exhibition area: approx. 5000 m2 BTA
Opening for the public: 2027
Timeline
2027: The museum opens
2023: Start of construction
2021: The Viking Ship Museum closes to the public
2018: Preliminary project complete
2016: AART architects wins the architectural competition among 111 entries
2015: The international architectural competition is announced
The Collection
The Museum of the Viking Age has the world's most important and most complete collection of Viking Age artifacts. The collection consists of more than 50,000 items, and we are continuously making new discoveries.The objects are the keys to the Viking world. A range of objects from the Oseberg ship, to the sword from Langeid to small pearls from Kaupang all testify to a bygone era. Together, they evoke an image of a society that underwent major changes.
The Oseberg ship
The Oseberg ship was built around the year 820 CE and is made of oak. The ship is richly decorated with carved animal ornaments that wind up along the bow and end up in a spiraling serpent’s head. Such an ornately decorated ship has been reserved for special members of the aristocracy. Each of the strakes overlaps the one below and they are fixed with iron rivets. The side of the ship consists of 12 strakes. Below the waterline, they are only 2‒ 3 cm thick, while the two upper strakes are a little thicker. The deck is made of loose pine planks. The mast is also pine and was between 10 and 13 meters high. The Oseberg ship could be both sailed and rowed. There are 15 oar holes on each side so the ship would need 30 oarsmen to be fully manned. The oars are made of pine, and some of them show traces of painted decorations.
The Gokstad ship
The Gokstad ship was built around the year 890 CE. It is a flexible and fast ship well suited for sailing on the high seas. The Gokstad ship could be both sailed and rowed, there are holes for 16 oars along each ship's side that provide space for 32 rowers. There are no sign of thwarts, presumably the rudders have been sitting on chests, which could also contain personal equipment. The Gokstad ship is made of oak and is 5.18 m wide and 23.22 m long. It is clinker built with 16 rows of strakes. The nine strakes below the waterline are only two to three centimeters thick, making the sides of the ship light and flexible. The keel is made of one straight piece of oak. The deck consists of planks of pine that can be lifted up so that the crew could easily bail out water if necessary.
The Tune ship
The Tune ship was built around 910 AD and is a clinker-built ship made of oak. The ship is estimated to have been 18.7 m. long, 4.2 m. wide and to have had 12 rows of strakes. In the ship’s present state we can only see the 10 lower strakes, but there are holes and marks for fastening the upper two rows. The two extra strakes would have given a sufficiently high freeboard to prevent fairly big waves from swamping the ship. The Tune ship has a strong mast support, which would have made it possible for the sail to be as large as 100 square meters. Combined with the shape of the hull, this made the ship a fast, sea-going vessel with excellent sailing properties.The ship was also well suited to moving people quickly, an important quality for a warship. Perhaps this was the Tune ship’s main function
Other important findings
The animal head posts
Five beautifully carved animal heads were found in the Oseberg grave, four were found inside the burial chamber itself, while one was found on the fore ship. The four found in the burial chamber were connected by a rope that went through the mouths of the heads like a log.
At the bottom of the neck there has been a shaft that was about half a meter long. With it, the heads could be carried, but they may also have been attached to walls, for example by a high seat. Even for an experienced wood carver, it has been challenging to make the animal heads. It seems that they are made of different wood carvers. None of the animal heads are alike, and two of them are also decorated with silver nails.
The unique Gold spur
This gold spur was found in 1887 at Rød farm in Rygge during plowing work, together with an accompanying gold fitting. Thirty years later, the second fitting was found in the same field. No trace of a grave was found, so the gold objects have ended up in the soil in a different way. Spurs attach to the boots and are used to control the horse during riding. They are worn in pairs, but the second spur was never found.
The gold spur is the only one of its kind from Viking-era Scandinavia. Covered in intricate patterns in gold, pearl thread, and soldered gold grains, it depicts animals and patterns in the Viking age Borre style. A Scandinavian jeweler probably made it in the second half of the 900's. One theory is that the spur was made in a Danish royal workshop.
Gjermundbu helmet
The Gjermundbu helmet was found during the excavation of a burial mound at Ringerike in 1943. The excavation showed that this was the last resting place of a powerful man who died sometime between 950 and 975.
He was buried with full equestrian equipment, one sword, two spears, two axes , chain mail, kitchen utensils, game pieces. The helmet from Gjermundbu is the inspiration of almost all reconstructions used in re-enactments, films, games and so on. The helmet is quite famous. Horns have never been attached to the helmet.
The Viking Age
The Viking Age lasted from the last half of the 8th century to the last half of the 11th century.
It is a period when people from Norway, Sweden and Denmark traveled to other parts of the world on a large scale. With the help of sails and excellent sea-going ships, they established themselves as a political factor in Europe. It is also in this period that Norway is developing into a kingdom, influenced by the meetings between Scandinavian people and other societies and cultures.
Travel
The Viking ships are the very symbol of the Viking Age and the Vikings' journey is a favourite motif both in the saga literature and in modern popular culture. People from Scandinavia travelled the world on a large scale. On the many journeys west, south and east, they met other cultures and societies and they brought home riches and new ideas, while at the same time bringing their own jewellery, weapons and customs out into the world. The Vikings' travels and encounters with other cultures formed in many ways the basis for the great societal changes that took place in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.
Treasure
In the summer of 1834, a farmhand worked at Nedre Hoen farm in Viken. He was hired to help the farmer drain a bog on the property. During the digging of a trench, he got the surprise of his life when he dug up Norway's largest gold treasure from the Viking Age- the Hoen treasure. The treasure consists of a unique collection of valuables; large gold rings, Franconian gold jewelry, Arabic coins, colorful pearls, Roman antiques and an English ring. The treasure reflects the Vikings' travels and network; from the Caliphate in the east to the British Isles in the west.
This circular pendant is made of gold and weighs 14.65 grams. The pendant are decorated with a technique called filigree, were fine treads of gold are soldered to the plate. The pattern consist of elements both from Scandinavian animal style and Frankish plant ornaments, and the pendant were probably produced locally after Frankish fashion.
The Violent Viking
The weapons and war equipment from the Viking Age testify to a society where power and status belonged to those who were not afraid to use violence. The weapon- culture and the principle of the right of the strongest made the Viking raids possible and many were tempted by opportunities for wealth, high status and power - if they survived. There was no central state in the Viking Age, and people depended on the clan for protection. However, society was not lawless. The people of Scandinavia were concerned with individual ethics and morals. There were laws and rules, and a case could be presented at the Things to be solved.
Faith
The Viking cosmology and religion was not a question of belief – the world simply was. This included knowledge of how the world came to be, how it functioned, and how it would end at ragnarok. The Vikings believed that the humans lived in the middle of the world, gods and giants had their territories, but there were also other creatures such as elves, disir, huldres and dwarves. They lived in the forests, the lakes, the sky and in the soil and mountains. Some were helpers, others feared, and although they were rarely seen, no one ever doubted their existence.
A Changing Society
Through their many journeys, the Vikings encountered many Christians. Eventually, some Scandinavians switched to Christianity, either out of personal conviction, or because this was important for alliances in trade and politics. At home in Scandinavia, politics and religion were closely linked, and kings and rulers used both coercion, violence and reward to introduce Christianity. Among most people, traditional religion and Christianity lived side by side for some time into the 11th century.
Burials
The Vikings buried their dead in many different ways. The grave itself could be anything from a large burial mound to no marking at all. The dead could be cremated along with burial gifts and ashes and remains laid in the grave, or the dead could be buried unburned. Often animals, especially horses, were laid in the grave along with the dead. In many graves, the dead put to rest in a boat or ship. This may have been intended as a vehicle for the deceased on the journey to the realm of the dead.
Dokumenter om utstillinger i Vikingtidsmuseet
I forbindelse med planlegging av utstillingene i Vikingtidsmuseet beskriver følgende dokumenter foreløpige planer for utstillingene. Disse er tilgjengelig for tilbydere, samarbeidspartnere og andre interesserte.
Masterplan for utstillinger (pdf): Beskriver museets intensjoner med utstillingene og annen formidling.
Utstillingsopplevelse (pdf): Rapport som beskriver det generelle konseptet for utstillingsopplevelse i de permanente utstillingene.
Tekniske retningslinjer (pdf): Beskrivelse av overordnede tekniske prinsipper for museet.